|| *Comments on the 1998 Touchstone Energy 300:* View the most recent comment <#24> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. MOST posted: 05.06.2006 - 5:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dave Blaney flipped, Tracy Leslie started a big crash and got yelled at by Jimmy Spencer, Tracy was pretty much done after that. Where did Matt Hutter ever go? 2. Jeff posted: 07.17.2006 - 7:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race was truly bizarre. Four multi-car accidents,each one being bigger than the previous one. 3. John P posted: 05.03.2007 - 8:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Watching this race on tape, and i was shocked by the wreck fest this race was. Lap 5-17 (6 Cars) #89 Stanton Barrett #92 David Green #88 Kevin Schwantz #32 Jason Jarrett #47 Andy Santerre #66 Elliott Sadler Lap 23-32 (7 Cars) #3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. #29 Hermie Sadler #93 Dave Blaney (Became Airborne) #4 Jeff Purvis #77 Ed Berrier #37 Mark Green #96 Brad Loney Lap 61-68 (10 Cars) #74 Randy LaJoie #44 Tony Stewart #17 Matt Kenseth #70 Dale Fischlein #60 Mark Martin #33 Tim Fedawa #20 Blase Alexander #78 Loy Allen Jr. #8 Bobby Hillin Jr. #12 Jimmy Spencer Lap 78-85 (8 Cars) #64 Dick Trickle #63 Tracy Leslie #56 Mark Krogh #6 Joe Bessey #12 Jimmy Spencer #30 Mike Cope #2 Larry Pearson #57 Jason Keller Those were the major pile-ups in the race. They mentioned that 30 of 43 cars were involved in a wreck someway during the race. After the last caution, on the restart, so many cars were out the line up looked like an IROC start. LOL 4. Jon posted: 08.14.2008 - 9:32 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) MOST: Matt Hutter eventually became a crew member for James Finch Racing. Not sure what he's up to these days. 5. Jon posted: 08.14.2008 - 9:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Joe Nemechek was penalized a few days after this win for an illegal part or something. Can't recall exactly. They fined him and maybe docked some points, but he kept the win. Phil Parsons had a great run and passed Nemechek very late in the race, but Joe got back around him. There's a great shot on the TV coverage during the race of Parsons getting a phenomenal draft in the low lane, and passing a bunch of cars in a turn with no help. A great illustration of momentum. 6. JoeyTheHDK posted: 09.08.2008 - 11:09 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) According to a LexisNexis search I just performed on the topic, Nemechek and crew chief Brian Pattie were fined $5,000. I didn't see anything about a points deduction. Apparently, the team used "shock absorbers with stop nuts". NASCAR didn't think the stop nuts gave any competitive advantage, so no points deduction occured. 7. RaceFanX posted: 10.26.2009 - 3:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Loy Allen Jr's only Busch series top-10, a 7th here, proves to be his best-ever NASCAR finish. Loy's best Cup finish, a 10th, was also at Talladega. 8. Nathan de Rover posted: 12.02.2010 - 1:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I've always been fascinated by this broadcast. The first caution clearly happened during a commercial, but ABC didn't cop to that. Upon returning from commercial, the announcers reacted to a replay as though it were live. They then showed blimp shot of some trees while the director switched to live broadcasting and when they started interviewing the drivers involved less than a minute after the crash supposedly happened, it became obvious that ABC were pulling a fast one on us. 9. The Real Thomas posted: 06.13.2011 - 11:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah, the ABC coverage was confusing. It was tape-delayed and edited down to 2 hours and they edited it very weirdly as was apparent during the first wreck. 10. gary24fan posted: 10.15.2011 - 12:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Car #'s for the DNQ's: Patty Moise - 14 Doug Reid - 7 Robert Pressley - 59 Mark Day - 16 Rick Wilson - 50 11. Destroyahirismix#666 posted: 01.05.2012 - 11:32 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Just now re-found out about this race. I knew about ti earlier dealing with the first caution ABC scandal thing and the flip by Dave Blaney, but now, I can't help but wonder and ask... How? HOW!? ARCA usually can't squeeze four big ones in a race. *They came close in 2009 at Daytona though, with three Big Ones in the first half and then an injurious crash late in the event* Yet these Busch guys knew how to do it. I think that Talladega racing for these Nationwide/Busch drivers must not be very good. Granted, it's only one race in their season, but that doesn't give them an excuse to try and kill everyone on the track. I mean, this could very easily be the worst race *crash wise* that ever occurred at this track in this series. The dual flips in Dual big ones from 1995 doesn't compare. The 2002 event wasn't as bad despite it having the largest crash in NASCAR history. The 2005 event comes close, but as they only had two big ones, a blow-over, and a small multi-car crash, it doesn't match it. Even the 2010 event had three big ones with a guy going into the fence, but again, it *thankfully* lacked a fourth big one. Even last years *2011* event was chaotic by all means, but most of the cautions were spins and small mutli-car crashes that acted like Blood Thinner to the field. SO honestly, four big ones in a race? What's next? '2012 Aaron's 312, Five big ones with three cars going over! Trevor Bayne in critical condition after being involved in a high flying late race pileup as Danica Patrick proves she can only win with only herself and two other cars on the track!' I mean, seriously! 12. Ed posted: 06.14.2012 - 5:55 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) #11: Thankfully, none of that happened. Although Eric McClure did suffer a concussion after POUNDING the inside SAFER barrier. 13. 23andJoe posted: 02.27.2014 - 7:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Order of DNQs: 44. #59 Pressley 45. #7 Reid III 46. #50 Wilson 47. #14 Moise 48. #16 Day 14. 23andJoe posted: 02.27.2014 - 7:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #7 make: Chevrolet (Ed Whitaker) #16 sponsor: 31-W Insulation Pontiac (Wayne Day) #50 sponsor: Dr. Pepper Ford (Joe Washington) #59 sponsor: Kingsford/Matchlight Chevrolet (Tad Geschickter) 15. stricklinfan82 posted: 05.15.2016 - 11:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The 2nd caution flag should be listed as #40 (Lepage) stalled on the backstretch. His car had a mechanical problem on the first restart and coasted to a stop. This (along with the 6th caution flag for debris) was edited out of the tape-delayed 2-hour ABC TV broadcast. The TV crew produced the race "as live" and missed both the first and last crashes during commercial breaks. Since it was a tape-delayed broadcast they tried to cover up both mishaps by replaying the crashes with the announcers calling them as if they were happening live. As noted by earlier commenters, they did a much poorer job disguising this on the first crash than they did on the last one. 16. Luke posted: 06.30.2017 - 5:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Damn, Jeff Purvis just couldn't catch a break. After missing the race at Hickory due to an injury the previous week at Fort Worth, he was involved in not one, not two, but THREE of the "Big Ones" in this race. 17. RaceFanX posted: 04.09.2019 - 2:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Somedays you're the dog and somedays you're the hydrant... Robert Presley won the pole for the Busch Series' previous race at Hickory but he then failed to qualify here. It was his third DNQ in four races with that pole as the exception. 18. acerogers58 posted: 12.29.2019 - 7:34 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Many drivers blamed the accidents on different shocks NASCAR were using, many saying it was at the time the roughest race they've run. Dave Blaney was undoubtedly saved by the Earnhardt Bar, many people say his impact with the wall was a near mirror image of Rodney Orr's accident. 19. Paul88 posted: 12.29.2019 - 6:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Out of all the Fords that started the race, only Elton Sawyer drove a Taurus. The rest of them (Martin, Berrier, Barrett, and Jarrett) ran the older Thunderbirds. 20. Jericohol14 posted: 01.02.2020 - 10:02 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) This ABC style of "as-live" coverage, was it the same one used for the also infamously brutal 1996 ARCA race at Atlanta? I remember some weird editing being done for the Ron Burchette crash. 21. Jimnsimforever posted: 03.29.2020 - 6:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In the first big wreck of the day, the windshield off of Stanton Barrett's car flew extremely high in the air and came straight down into about the 30th row of the crowd. It'd be a miracle if no fans were hurt by that and it could've killed someone coming down edge first from that high in the air. 22. MSportRev posted: 03.29.2020 - 7:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQs: 44. Robert Pressley in a Chevrolet 45. Doug Reid III in a Chevrolet 46. Rick Wilson in a Ford 47. Patty Moise 48. Mark Day in a Pontiac Source: Ultimate Racing History 23. SweetRich21/43 posted: 07.26.2020 - 10:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators were Dr. Jerry Punch, Benny Parsons and Kyle Petty. The pit road reporters were Jack Arute and Bill Weber. 24. BadBooking posted: 04.04.2021 - 2:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The fourth caution should include the 60 of Mark Martin, whose car moreorless got evaporated by the big one around him. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: