|| *Comments on the 1990 TranSouth 500:* View the most recent comment <#42> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Mike Lindeen posted: 12.19.2004 - 3:28 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Neil Bonnett's serious injury in this race essentially ended his career. 2. MASH_guy posted: 06.08.2005 - 3:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The infamous wreck was triggered by Ernie Irvan making contact with then-leader Ken Schrader. Irvan was 10 laps down at the time, making a lot of drivers very angry with him. 3. Jeff posted: 01.07.2006 - 6:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) It also doesn't help that your team owner tells you to race as hard as you can,when you're 10 laps down,even. 4. Matt posted: 03.10.2006 - 1:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQ: Mark Stahl (#82), Mike Potter (#74), Norm Benning (#48). 5. nascarman posted: 05.15.2006 - 8:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Good finish. A green flag with three laps to go set up a dash to the finish. 6. Doug posted: 07.28.2006 - 6:28 am Rate this comment: (2) (3) Bonnett wasn't the first guy who's career was basically ended by Irvan. To me, Irvan pretty much ended Earnhardt's career in 1996 at Talladega. Yes he won afterwards several times but it's undeniable that the edge Earnhardt had was gone after that crash. IMO, Irvan should never have been allowed to return to racing. He was a menace before his head injuries and that was magnified after he lost a considerable amount of his vision. To me, it's not just him, but anyone who suffers that severe of a head injury shouldn't be allowed in NASCAR. 7. Darrell posted: 09.30.2006 - 8:34 pm Rate this comment: (1) (3) If someone can recover from any sort of head injury, they should be allowed to race. Irvan was competitive before and after his crash, and would have been a champion eventually. 8. Anonymous posted: 11.05.2006 - 12:11 am Rate this comment: (5) (4) Irvan caused the end of Earnhardt's career? Come on. That accident at Talladega had absolutely nothing to do with Irvan's eyesight or his head injury. The sun was setting, the race was going to end soon, and Earnhardt, Marlin, Irvan, and Jeff Gordon were all fighting tooth and nail for the lead. Irvan barely moved up the track and just nudged Marlin's quarterpanel and that sent him into Earnhardt and Earnhardt into the fence and then up and over. It was simply a racing deal. Earnhardt claimed that Irvan shouldn't be "out on the track", just like he claimed they should suspend Ricky Rudd when they collided racing for the win at North Wilkesboro all those years ago. It was never a problem when it was Dale who was doing the beating and banging, but as soon as the shoe was on the other foot he couldn't handle it. Did he lose his edge after that? I have a sneaking suspicion that Earnhardt would've never continued had he felt that he had lost some of his ability, and I'll wager that the death of Neil Bonnett shook him more and made him fully realize the dangers of his profession. As far as Ernie Irvan? His comeback was nothing short of heroic. By the time he joined Yates, he had ironed out the kinks in his controversial driving style and was on the verge of the championship before his Michigan accident. I've always felt that he was unfairly put under a microscope after his return, and that the incidents were simply blown out of proportion. 9. Thomas posted: 12.13.2006 - 10:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (4) Anonymous, you're damn right. Dale Earnhardt ended Dale Earnhardt's career. Besides, if you're going to claim that Ernie couldn't come back from a head injury, you could also say that Earnhardt shouldn't come back from having his neck and shoulder all broken up. 10. Matthew Sullivan posted: 12.17.2006 - 8:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) You people can be so idiotic. RACING is what took Dale Earnhardt's life. 11. myself posted: 03.15.2007 - 4:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Poor ole' Neil Bonnett reminds me of "Punchout" boxer Glass Joe. 12. RowdyBusch51 posted: 08.08.2007 - 3:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hut Stricklen ran the EXXON Rowdy Burns car for footage for the movie Days of Thunder!!! Best Movie EVER!!! 13. RaceFanX posted: 11.29.2007 - 3:28 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) Greg Sacks had the 46 City "Cole Trickle" in this race too. In the movie that car wins this race but you can see why so little footage of the real car in the real race actually appears, Greg went out early with a crankshaft issue. 14. myself posted: 02.22.2008 - 11:53 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Nice job, Irvan! Way to end a good man's career! 15. Anonymous posted: 04.01.2008 - 12:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (4) I've seen Dale Sr almost end people's career's or lifes too! Talladega 93 ring a bell? 16. matt posted: 06.30.2008 - 6:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) it was at daytona 11 years later. 17. JCS posted: 08.28.2008 - 8:29 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) Earnhardt did not have much room to talk about rough racing. Irvan was heavily criticized for racing the leader and causing the career-ending wreck for Neil Bonnett. 18. Scott posted: 08.28.2008 - 11:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) Personally, this was one of the first races that started the new era in NASCAR. I have read about the considerable amount of skull fractures caused by this accident and more. At the time, if you are nearing the end of a race, slow up! You are not going to win a race from 10 laps down, especially with restrictor plates. Irvan and Earnhardt were generally in the same company. This was shown a couple of times in Earnhardt's career. I wouldn't be surprised if he had something to do with his spin in North Wilksboro, and worse, Earnhardt was the cause of Rusty's terrifying accident in Talladega in 1993. 19. JCS posted: 09.08.2008 - 9:23 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ernie Irvan didn't end Earnhardt's career. After all, the Intimidator finished second in the points in his final season. In the book, "NASCAR Confidential," it is said that Irvan is one of the only drivers Earnhardt could not intimidate. It said Earnhardt tried to run Irvan into the grass at Talladega when the '96 wreck happened. 20. DaleSrFanForever posted: 09.17.2008 - 5:34 pm Rate this comment: (6) (1) Ernie didn't "end Dale's career" or "make him less effective". The 96 Talladega crash is just the result of restrictor plate racing. When you run that close to one another, still at very high speeds (195 in the draft) bad things happen. It is nobody's fault except NASCAR for not coming up with a better alternative in the last 20 years. You have to ride so close to each other to take the air from them, one little slip can be deadly. Besides, what hurt Dale the most towards the end of his career was the downfall of RCR. Yes, that crash effected the rest of 1996 for Dale, but in 1997 they decided to add a second car, but they didn't do it right. According to Larry McReynolds book, they put the 31 team in a little shop behind the big shop and had different people doing the same jobs on each car. They weren't doing it the way Hendrick and Roush were doing it, and it hurt everything because Richard didn't have any other major businesses to bring in the financing like Hendrick and Roush did. That is why Gordon did so much better than Dale during the late 90's, because his organization was doing it much better. Unfortunately that has allowed Gordon fans to say "look how much better Jeff did as compared to Dale when they went head to head, from 1995-1999 Jeff won 47 races and Dale won only 11". Yeah, he was also on a 3 car team with a conglomerate owner doing the multi car deal correctly with a 2 time champion Terry Labonte as a teammate. Meanwhile Dale's team was stuck in the 80s, then when they tried to catch up, they did it all wrong. They had an inefficient system with a really bad Cup driver as his teammate (Mike Spinner). He also had Larry Mac as his crew chief, which he never got along with. That they had any success is a testament to Dale's unparalelled ability. Then, prior to 2000, Richard got an investor, hired business people to look at the best ways to run his team, and basically joined the new milennium. They still weren't on par with Hendrick and Roush: two teams, one of which still had Skinner driving, but they were much closer. They weren't leading a lot of laps, they still aren't to this day, but it allowed Dale to finish 2nd in points to a team that completed all but 7 laps all year. Wow, how did discussion on Ernie wrecking Neil lead to me telling why Dale owned Jeff? 21. Ryan posted: 01.26.2009 - 9:40 pm Rate this comment: (2) (2) Nascar was at fault for calling a caution for "mist" in the '93 Talladega race. They should have been at fault for bunching the field up, and the same goes for the second race at Daytona in '97. Looked like Rusty came down on Dale in that '93 Talladega race anyways. Just depends on if you ask Dale Haters, or Dale Lovers... Anyways, to get back to the this particular race. Irvin had no business racing the leader being 10 laps down 200 laps into the race. He didn't ever learn how to race Darlington anyways. He was an idiot and cost owners money for his wrecks he caused, cost lives (almost even himself), cost careers, and ultimately cost Davey Allison the title in 1992. There's a difference in bumping guys out of the way and wrecking guys. Dale could bump guys to gain positions and most of the time not knock guys out of the race and Irvin did it relentlessly. He didn't care to wreck people. He wanted to be Dale and beat Dale so bad he couldn't stand it. He couldn't stand getting passed by him or Davey Allison. He was very vindictive towards them. 22. myself posted: 07.29.2009 - 12:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (3) Some of you people write too much! 23. 18fan posted: 12.06.2009 - 10:12 pm Rate this comment: (1) (3) Some people compare Brad Keselowski's driving style to Dale's. Dale bumped people under control. Brad is out of control, luckily the bumpers line up on the CoTs, which sucks, I wish they went back to these type cars. 24. Ryan W posted: 07.24.2013 - 12:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) "but as soon as the shoe was on the other foot he couldn't handle it." I couldn't handle a guy trying to kill me that's for sure. 25. b4il3y posted: 03.28.2014 - 3:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Myself: Some of us know better. Ernie was a loose cannon when he started, but if not for in injury would've been one of the best ever. He knew no fear, just like your hero Dale. Too bad Ernie had the wreck that ended his career, as Dale should've ended his after the wrecks that Dega. 26. WardBurtonfan posted: 09.23.2014 - 8:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Why was Hut Stricklin's reason "flagged" in this race as out of the race 27. Ryan W posted: 09.09.2015 - 10:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Why should Dale retired after 'dega? He won 6 more races after it including the Daytona 500 and finished 2nd in the standings in 2000 and had a great shot at winning in 2001 in cars that Harvick won races with. 28. NadeauFan91 posted: 11.29.2015 - 2:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Really fun race. If not for those last two cautions, it would've been an excellent battle between Earnhardt, Shepherd, and Gant. 29. RaceFanX posted: 12.30.2015 - 9:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Greg Sacks was running in the top-5 in his Hendrick-prepared "Days of Thunder" car before mechanical problems took him out of the race. 30. Rainbow Warrior posted: 05.23.2016 - 12:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (3) #20 Making all the excuses in the world about Dale Earnhardt doesn't changed the fact Gordon handed him his ass on a silver platter. If Earnhardt is The Man and the God he is portrayed to be, none of the above would matter. Gordon and Earnhardt played by the same rules fair and square, and Gordon came out on top quite decisively. Sorry you can't grasp that. 31. Josh posted: 03.20.2017 - 4:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Entire race, sound only out of left microphone. Good video quality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoRGSnhIaO4&t=2430s 32. Josh posted: 03.21.2017 - 12:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not to nitpick, but should Trickle's status be "crash"? When he blew his engine to trigger the accident with the 7, he also crashed hard. 33. Anonermoust posted: 12.12.2018 - 10:22 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Davey Allison nearly went 2, maybe even 3 laps down getting his tires changed on pit road before Jimmy Spencer in the Heinz Ketchup No.57 spun on the backstretch. Allison charged back through the field after this. Jack Pennington spun late in the race and ultimately ended the battle between Shepherd and Earnhardt. That brought Geoff Bodine back into the picture. He just so happened to wreck RIGHT in front of them. Shepherd wasn't good on fresh rubber, but proved to be a good long run driver as he ran down Earnhardt time after time. However the late cautions didn't help him, and decimated what could've been a truly stellar day. Before it's decline, Bud Moore racing was a very underrated team. Irvan famously took out half the field along with himself as he battled back to the lead lap. He got loose under Schrader and triggered a massive crash in turn 4. This is one of a handful of wrecks where Neil Bonnet was seriously injured. Also, Bob Jenkins mentioned that the 'Days of Thunder' cars in this race weren't being used for the movie. Maybe they were? Sacks and Stricklin dropped out early, 34. Anonermoust posted: 12.20.2018 - 3:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Michael Waltrip, after being involved in 'the big one', remained competitive even with a badly beaten race car. There was a time when this man was talented! 35. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.28.2018 - 5:43 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) So stupid. Dale and Jeff Gordon are both hall of fame drivers that weren't in each others era. Gordon is 20 years younger. The very first time they were on the track together for a full cup season in 1993 when Gordon didn't win a race but won rookie of the year, Dale was winning his 6th championship at the age of 42, 94 Earnhardt wins his 7th at 43. These days fans start calling for drivers to hang up the helmet when they turn 40. 95-2000? lol Dale Earnhardt was still out there during those years winning races and being competitive at an age where Gordon will have been retired for years when Jeff reaches that age. Jeff's final year, the farewell year, he was so far removed from his 4th and final title, but he was 43, the same age Dale was when he won his 7th. One last point to hammer it home that they are both great but don't compare Jeff to Dale ever. Dale was 29 years old when he very first raced a full complete season in Cup, won a championship that year. Jeff Gordon when he was 29 had already won the 4th and final title he'd win and all his dominate seasons were done. Now compare them from after that age, because that is when Dale got a shot to finally start his career. 36. JSPorts posted: 12.28.2018 - 8:30 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) I don't really think using age to disqualify Gordon from the conversation works. The fact that he got his start earlier is not a knock on him, nor is the fact that he retired earlier. Despite having a "shorter" career, as you make it seem, Gordon started 129 more races than Earnhardt did. Earnhardt's full-time career ran for 22 years, from 1979-2000. Gordon's full-time career ran for 23 years, from 1993-2015. Also, Gordon scored the most points in the Cup Series 7 times, but wasn't the beneficiary of the Chase in those years. Earnhardt won his 7 titles at the following ages: 29, 35, 36, 39, 40, 42, 43 Gordon scored the most points 7 times at the following ages: 24, 26, 27, 30, 33, 36, 43 Earnhardt started racing full-time when he was 28 and died when he was 49. Gordon started racing full-time when he was 22 and retired when he was 44. He started 6 years earlier and ended 5 years earlier. I don't understand why you're using that to discredit him. Accomplishing that much at a young age is very impressive. 37. gary24fan posted: 12.28.2018 - 10:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @36, 35 and others, The Earnhardt fans are never going to let the fact Gordon kept him from winning title #8 in 1995 go. When in fact they should be pissed off at Rusty Wallace for not doing a good enough choke job in 1989. God knows he and the 27 team tried like hell to give it to him. 38. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.28.2018 - 9:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @37 I didn't even watch Nascar outside of knowing it existed because of sportscenter until 98 Richmond spring races (Busch and Cup). I don't know anything about the 95 season besides the general facts until I watch it and form my own opinions. Watching now is making me appreciate just how great Earnhardt was though. By the time I became a fan he was on the downside.......and I wasn't and never was an Earnhardt fan until going back and watching these races for the first time. You never know, I may end up being a big Jeff Gordon fan after I see for myself the beginning of his career. Could end up being a rainbow Warrior and start going to Jeff Gordon fan meetings and everything. @36 You can absolutely use age to judge drivers. Reaction time slows immensely at around 40 and rapidly declines from there on. In that day drivers didn't worry about fitness as much, that's another thing age hurts. As a child and growing up I always wondered (keep in mind I wasn't a fan of Nascar) why they always kept showing Richard Petty in highlights and why he kept racing because he was terrible and never came close to winning. JSPorts you totally missed my point because it was that Earnhardt had a "shorter" career not Gordon. Gordon was able to race in a big time high financed team from day 1 until the end. He raced through the prime of his hand eye coordination and physically fit years. Of course Gordon started more races than Earnhardt did. Earnhardts golden years the Winston Cup season was only 29 races long. For Gordons career it was 36 races long. 39. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.29.2018 - 12:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) Also, now that I'm done watching this particular race, before I move on. I brought up the whole age thing in the first place because of the argument in this thread between Earnhardt and Gordon fans in this thread talking about when they went head to head Gordon dominated Earnhardt from 95 to 00. One hall of fame driver was in his prime, the other nearing the end of his career. 40. JSPorts posted: 12.29.2018 - 8:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) What you fail to acknowledge is that it's just as hard to succeed at a young age as it is at an old age in NASCAR. Many talented drivers have tried and failed to do it. Gordon won 15 races before he turned 25. Earnhardt won 6 races after he turned 45. Both of those are pretty impressive. 41. GGDC posted: 06.07.2020 - 1:41 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) one week after winning at Phillip Island, Dick Johnson makes his 1990 season debut in NASCAR 42. Rich posted: 12.25.2020 - 6:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons were the commentators. Dr. Jerry Punch and Dr. Dick Berggren were the pit road reporters. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: