|| *Comments on the 1989 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500:* View the most recent comment <#26> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Steve posted: 06.13.2006 - 10:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rookie Hut Stricklin got his first career Top 10 (8th). Jimmy Horton earned his best career finish (13th). How about Eddie Bierschwale sitting 15th in points after 3 races? Darrell Waltrip starts the 1989 season with two wins sandwiching a 29th-place finish at the Rock. 2. Anonymous posted: 11.11.2006 - 5:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dick Trickle's first of five third-place finishes in his career. 3. RaceFanX posted: 12.04.2007 - 8:30 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Richard Petty's then record 513 and final start in a row, the record would stand until 1996 4. WillG46 posted: 12.05.2007 - 8:04 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) First race for the Kyle Petty/Felix Sabates duo. 5. SK posted: 03.19.2008 - 3:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jarrett breaks into the top-10 in points for the first time in his career. 6. Bobby posted: 07.12.2011 - 10:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) There was a terrible fire in Richard Petty's pits during this race. I believe the car backfired during a pit stop and ignited some spilled fuel on the ground. I seem to remember reading that this fire led to the practice of the pit reporters wearing firesuits. 7. Hickory posted: 07.16.2012 - 10:50 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 14 (!) cars out with engine issues??? 8. BlackChevy14 posted: 09.24.2013 - 5:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) DW's third and final Atlanta triumph and the first of (through 2013) 11 Atlanta wins for Rick Hendrick. Unsurprisingly Jeff Gordon leads the way with five Atlanta triumphs. Jimmie Johnson has three (including a season-sweep in 2007). Ken Schrader and Jerry Nadeau (only win) had one each, both of them in the 25 car, separated by nearly ten years and just one other victory for car No. 25, which Schrader got at Dover in '91 a few months after his Atlanta win. Since this race, only Joe Gibbs Racing has as many AMS wins (six for Bobby Labonte, two each for Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart, and one for Denny Hamlin). Jack Roush and Richard Childress are next closest with six apiece. 9. nascarfreak88 posted: 05.27.2014 - 4:38 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Bobby, you are indeed correct. Dr. Jerry Punch was standing about 10 feet away from the car behind the pit wall when the gas caught fire. When he realized the whole car could be set ablaze, Petty's gasman threw the gas can over the pit wall right where Dr. Punch was standing. Punch and Petty's crew worked to extinguish the fire, then Punch attended to Petty's gasman until paramedics arrived. Punch had to give a report afterward as well. He had singed hair on his mustache, and the hair on the back of his hand was completely burned off. The blazer he was wearing had partially melted on the sleeve, and the windscreen on his microphone had been partially melted and was dripping down. Afterward, the associate producer of ABC contacted the truck, asked why pit reporters weren't wearing fire retardant clothing, then demanded all pit reporters wear firesuits from that moment on. 10. anonymous posted: 03.18.2017 - 1:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steve, Kyle Petty drove the car in the Daytona 500 for Bierschwale, which is part of the reason he was 15th in points. 11. RaceFanX posted: 04.26.2017 - 7:37 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Pretty much every channel broadcasting NASCAR followed ABC/ESPN protocol of putting pit reporters in fireproof gear suits after this. 12. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 06.12.2017 - 2:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: #41 spun turn 2 Caution 2: #16 stalled on track Caution 3: #2 spun turn 2 Caution 4: #7,15,66,68,83 accident turn 4 Caution 5: #26 engine Caution 6: #5 accident turn 4 13. cjs3872 posted: 06.13.2017 - 8:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also involved in that big crash exiting turn four at the halfway mark (lap 164) were car #31-Jim Sauter and #42-Kyle Petty, who spun out behind the big wreck to miss it. 14. RaceFanX posted: 01.06.2018 - 11:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dick Trickle's third-place run, coming in just his second race after taking over from Mike Alexander in the Stavola Brothers' #84 Miller High Life Buick, was the first of his 15 top-5 finishes in Cup competition. 15. dennyfan11 posted: 07.31.2018 - 1:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Man that's a LOT of engine failures. 16. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.16.2018 - 6:36 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) That was pretty normal to have that many engine failures in this time period. Look at the Charlotte 600 that Kyle Petty won a couple years before this. His win was helped out by nearly the entire field blowing engines. The back marker cars blew their engines nearly every week, and you could count on Ricky Rudd and Harry Gant one or both to blow their engine. 17. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.16.2018 - 8:55 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This race was decided by the final 3 cars left on the lead lap in a 9 lap sprint after Geoff Bodine just flat out lost his car in the turn and put himself out of the race. The race was really decided by 1 foot off pit road. That's how much DW beat Earnhardt off pit road after both pitted for 4 fresh tires. DW started 2nd and Dale 3rd on the restart and in one of the more stupid decisions of all time, Dick Trickle's crew decides to not pit and stay out to be in the lead. That decision basically guaranteed Trickle for sure was going to finish 3rd and he did because in the 1st lap after green DW and Dale blew past him like he was a lap car with their fresh tires. It's a shame, because Trickle never ended up getting a Winston Cup win in his career and he had a chance here. He was in 3rd when the caution came out. If you see the 2 in front of you, the only other cars besides you on the lead lap pit, you have to pit too. 18. BOBO83329521 posted: 04.25.2020 - 11:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kenny Schrader was leading the race around halfway through when he got a blend line penalty that sent him to the rear on the next restart, which unfortunately put him in a bad spot when Brett Bodine spun out in Turn 4 while attempting to pass the lapped car of Greg Sacks. Wouldn't have been that much of a problem though had Kulwicki and the 68 not spun each other out as Kulwicki attempted to swerve out of Bodine's way. 19. BOBO83329521 posted: 04.25.2020 - 2:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Add #55 Phil Parsons to the list involved in the fifth caution. He spun out in Rudd's oil and damaged his car off the inside wall in Turn 3 20. BOBO83329521 posted: 04.25.2020 - 3:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also add #4 Rick Wilson to the sixth caution. Got some minor cosmetic damage on the front end from hitting the 5 as he was spinning 21. BOBO83329521 posted: 04.25.2020 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) @14 Incorrect. Dick Trickle scored a 5th place finish in the 1973 Charlotte race. 22. ScottBonin posted: 09.09.2020 - 12:51 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) DW's 50th win in a Chevy 23. Rich posted: 09.09.2020 - 4:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Paul Page, Sam Posey and Bobby Unser were the commentators. Dr. Jerry Punch and Jack Arute were the pit road reporters. 24. Wayne posted: 12.28.2020 - 7:28 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) #11 It's true that ABC/ESPN had their pit reporters wear firesuits on pit road after what happened in this race. But CBS/TNN/TBS never had their pit reporters wear them (though TBS did adopt the use of them during either the 1997 or 1998 season). Those TV crews utilized a more casual look. 25. RaceFanX posted: 12.28.2020 - 10:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @24 You're right, although I was thinking more into the 2000s when I made that comment. In that era both NBC/TNT and ABC/ESPN both used them regularly. TNT's uniform proved memorable as it had a red-and-black design that was popular enough that racer Kevin Harvick famously wore one for a joke segment during a practice coverage IIRC after jokingly comparing the look to a "Power Rangers" uniform. 26. ThomasNester posted: 01.01.2021 - 8:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dick Trickle and Morgan Shepherd are both shown as qualifying 18th, with no one 19th. From You Tube footage at the start of the race Trickle is shown on the outside of row 9 with Shepherd on the inside of row 10. So Morgan started 19th ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: