|| *Comments on the 1987 Valleydale Meats 500:* View the most recent comment <#29> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Steve posted: 05.05.2006 - 6:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jarrett scores his first Top 10, finishing 10th. 2. mcmurrayfan posted: 06.20.2006 - 4:24 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) Dale Earnhardt scores his 100th top 5 by winning the race. 3. Matt posted: 07.29.2006 - 5:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Brett Bodine drove the #44 car in this race, taking over the duties on the pace laps for an injured Terry Labonte who was recovering from a broken shoulder blade suffered at Darlington. 4. Bufford posted: 09.18.2006 - 12:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Race was delayed for over an hour at lap 251 due to rain. 5. most posted: 11.30.2006 - 7:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think Matt meant to call Terry's car #11 6. chris posted: 12.05.2006 - 4:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (3) earnhardt wins after a contraversal crash with sterling marlin 7. HomeDepotKid posted: 02.26.2008 - 6:24 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) If I remember reading correctly, Coo Coo Marlin was hopping mad after his son (who was leading) was punted by Earnhardt. 8. SK posted: 03.13.2008 - 1:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Petty's last second-place finish. 9. Zeppelin posted: 01.21.2009 - 5:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How did Terry Labonte get credit for starting the race if Brett Bodine took over his car during the pace laps? 10. Andrew posted: 02.08.2009 - 11:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) At this time in Nascar history a driver only had to leave pit road to get credit for the start. Brett replaced Terry on the pace laps, meaning he had to start from the back, and rallied to finish 9th. He did the same thing the previous week, finishing 8th. In today's Nascar a driver actually has to take the green flag to get credit for the start, meaning Brett would get the points. 11. Bryan Blanton posted: 11.11.2009 - 1:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) When did they change the rule saying a driver had to take the green flag to get the points? I know by july of 1990 it had changed cause darrell waltrip at pocono had to take the green flag to pickup points that's when he realized it would be better for him to sit out. I don't think sterling was too happy about the contact with earnhardt either in his interview with punch after the wreck you can see that when he sees the replay. I think from what i have seen of this race after the rain delay i don't think they show the entire race live i think they show it live or taped but in segments at 1 point during the delay espn is on and jenkins and larry nuber are talking and it was still raining and the chances of a restart did not look good. Didn't bristol have lights couldn't that race had it continued raining have continued on into the night. 12. b4il3y posted: 12.21.2010 - 1:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) I have this race...classic #3 at the time. #5 had the best car. 13. Walleyewacker posted: 06.08.2011 - 7:33 pm Rate this comment: (3) (5) Earnhardt started getting a rep as a dirty driver after this cheap win. 14. David posted: 02.13.2013 - 12:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Harry Gant's best finish during his disastrous 1987 season. 15. Anonymous posted: 05.09.2015 - 12:53 am Rate this comment: (2) (9) f**k Sterling and Coo Coo Marlin. Two of the biggest embarrassments ever. 16. RaceFanX posted: 05.18.2015 - 12:17 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Harry Gant tallies his only pole of 1987. 17. tr69 posted: 07.25.2015 - 2:28 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) I don't think Earnhardt really punted Marlin. He was in a tough spot with the lapped car underneath him and Marlin pinching down on him slightly. 18. Maverick11 posted: 04.28.2016 - 11:00 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The final time that Richard Petty finished 2nd. 19. RaceFanX posted: 08.21.2016 - 2:05 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Ronnie Thomas and his team brought a Talladega car to enter this race and had massive issues setting it up for short track racing. They never did get it right and the #41 Chevy ended up on the sidelines very early. 20. RaceFanX posted: 08.21.2016 - 2:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Fittingly given this race's long rain delay, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio ran a replay of its broadcast in August 2016 during a rain delay of that weekend's Cup race at Bristol (it aired Sunday afternoon after the race had already been delayed a day). 21. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 02.05.2017 - 6:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: #64 broken suspension Caution 2: debris backstretch Caution 3: #5,22 accident turn 3 Caution 4: debris Caution 5: #52 accident turn 2 Caution 6: #17,35,44,71 accident turn 1 Caution 7: #55 accident frontstretch Caution 8: #30 accident backstretch Caution 9: #67 accident turn 2 Caution 10: #5,44,90 accident turn 1 Caution 11: #5 accident turn 4 Caution 12: #5,90 accident turn 4 Caution 13: #21,26 accident turn 1 22. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 02.06.2017 - 5:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #64's broken suspension caused a blown tire 23. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 07.28.2018 - 9:19 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Gant won the pole but immediately lost the lead to Rusty Wallace on the high side at the drop of the green flag and was never a factor for the lead or win. Rusty had a good car (it was the same one he got his first career win with the previous year) but mechanical gremlins eventually dropped him from contention. Earnhardt-per usual at this point in the season-had probably the best car overall but constant tire problems early in the race sent him to pit road under green and he had to make up lost ground, hence why he "only" led 134 laps-probably would've led a *LOT* more if not for that. The first caution of the day came out when Jerry Cranmer in Elmo Langley's low budget #64 blew a tire out after a suspension failure. Dave Marcis stayed out under the caution-as he so often did late in his career-and led the race until a debris caution, but raced all the way around after taking the caution and wound up getting flagged to the back of the field. Apparently Dave thought he was a lap down and had made it up on Earnhardt. (Alan Kulwicki later got penalized for the same thing.) Earnhardt had his first tire problem shortly after the restart and had to pit under green. Bobby Allison had lost a lap in the pits under caution but was trying to make it up, but Geoff Bodine, who inherited the lead when Dale pitted, tried to put him back down the lap. They bumped going into turn 3, Bodine went around without hitting anything while Bobby spun up and backed it into the outside wall, also slapping it hard with the left front. Allison had to take the Miller American #22 to the garage and spent over 100 laps there for repairs, ultimately retiring when he could gain no more positions. Bill Elliott inherited the lead and led through another debris caution. Just after putting another lap on Jimmy Means, the #52 Turtle Wax Pontiac blew a tire in between turns 1 and 2, slamming the outside wall hard and grinding along it all the way towards the end of the backstretch. The caution wound up being over 20 laps long because Jimmy hit the wall so hard he knocked loose pieces of concrete from the outside wall that needed to be picked up. Dave Marcis had done a fine job recovering from his early race penalty and made his way back to the top 10, but while running 8th he ran over a piece of debris that blew out a right rear tire. Benny Parsons, running 9th right behind him, also ran over the same debris and blew out a right rear. Both cars went around with Marcis ripping the back end off and BP pancaking the wall hard on the left side with the Folgers Chevy, both cars done for the day. The sounds of their tires exploding was so loud it stunned the commentators, Bob Jenkins saying it sounded like an atomic bomb exploding. Sterling Marlin also spun out, and Marcis clipped DW as he came back down off the wall. DW spun but had only minor damage and continued on. Right after the restart things didn't get better for the Parsons clan as Phil spun down the frontstretch and nosed it hard into the inside wall. Phil would return to the race after 80 laps in the garage. On that restart Bobby Hillin blew his engine in flames and Michael Waltrip spun in front of him down the backstretch. Another caution came out shortly after that when Eddie Bierschwale spun in Buddy Arrington's #67 and smacked the turn 2 wall, ending his day. Through pit strategy Sterling Marlin had inherited the lead, but Dale Earnhardt continually hounded him during the next green flag run. With rain in the forecast and on its' way it looked like the race might not go far past the halfway point. Just past the halfway point the controversial moment came as Dale got under Sterling entering turn 1 and the two bumped. Sterling spun up and backed it into the wall, also hitting Dale as he came off and taking the nose off. The #3 got through, but Geoff Bodine and Ken Schrader both spun out trying to avoid the #44, which was done for the day. Kyle Petty stayed out when the rains came during the Marlin caution and would've won the race had they called it there (with how hard it did rain, it looked like a very good possibility for a while). The race was under the red flag for nearly 2 hours as a result of the rains. Petty would lose the lead on older tires once they did go back racing. They went green nearly 100 laps afterwards with first Elliott and eventually Morgan Shepherd making their way to the front. Dale was charging back through the field, and took the lead again on laps 379, only briefly giving it up under caution. Geoff Bodine spun for a third time in turn 4 as he was running second and catching Dale, but got lucky and just tapped the wall. A few laps later while battling his way back through the field, he wouldn't be so lucky as he and Ken Schrader made contact in turn 4 when Geoff backed off trying to pass the King on the high side, with Bodine spinning up into the outside wall and backing into Schrader's car, finally ending his up-and-down day. Schrader had fought his way back to the lead lap after also suffering tire problems, but suffered suspension damage from the impact with the #5 that also took him out of the hunt. Only one more caution flew in the race, coming right after the restart when Kyle Petty spun after a bump from Shepherd, the #26 lightly tapping the outside wall. Earnhardt led the rest of the way, but the King made his way up to second and appeared to be closing on the #3. The fans were cheering loudly as this looked to perhaps be Richard's best chance for #201 but ultimately he came up less than a second short to Dale, Earnhardt earning his 5th win in the first 7 races of 1987, and his 5th Bristol triumph. 24. Jimnsimforever posted: 11.29.2018 - 4:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The rule not only changed where you had to take a green flag lap before changing drivers to get points for the race, but also changed to where you had to be able to get out of the car by yourself with no help. In this race Terry Labonte got a little help getting out of the car but the previous weeks race at North Wilkesboro the shoulder was still so bad they reached in and pulled him out of the car after the pace lap. Not sure exactly when the rule changes took place. 25. dennyfan11 posted: 10.28.2019 - 10:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How was coverage of the race handled? On the video on YouTube it said during the rain delay they were leaving for coverage of the Brazilian Grand Prix, and giving updates throughout the afternoon, but the video shows that pretty much most of the rest of the race was covered (though some laps are missing). Also TV listings show an "MISL Soccer" match going on at 4:00 PM, which was when they said they were leaving for Brazil. 26. Matthew posted: 12.16.2019 - 1:53 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This race would be the closest Richard Petty would come to Cup win #201, finishing 2nd by just 3/4 of a second. His other 2nd place finish since win #200, at Atlanta in 1986, was also won by Earnhardt, but by a full lap. 27. Tigerman posted: 05.20.2020 - 12:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Tony Spanos drove the #48 Chevrolet for James Hylton. 28. Rich posted: 09.25.2020 - 11:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber were the commentators. Dr. Jerry Punch was the sole pit road reporter. 29. rateus posted: 02.05.2021 - 8:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver changes - starting line-up shows Bobby Baker qualified 28th, DK Ulrich took over for the race. Also confirmed that Brett Bodine again handled qualifying duties for Terry Labonte. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: