|| *Comments on the 1990 Checker 500:* View the most recent comment <#24> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Matthew Sullivan posted: 02.24.2006 - 12:10 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dominance. This race swung the points lead in Earnhardt's favor. Martin struggled with his car most of the day and had to make a late pit stop which cost him several positions. Martin was also caught up in a wreck coming to the checkered flag. 2. Kevin posted: 08.12.2006 - 10:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A very sad race for any Mark Martin fan! Mark still had a top 10, 10th 3. Matt posted: 12.22.2006 - 5:10 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQ: Hershel McGriff, Ted Kennedy, Butch Gilliland, Rick Scribner, Jack Sellers, and St. James Davis (yes, the guy who got attacked by the chimp). 4. Anonymous posted: 10.29.2007 - 8:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Who is St. James Davis? Never heard of him. 5. Billy Kingsley posted: 11.25.2007 - 3:16 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Mostly a Winston West driver, he actually won at least one West race. He never made a Cup start, although he did attempt one (obviously). He made news recently (about 4-5 years ago now) because he was attacked, mauled and nearly killed by a chimp that had once been his pet, but had been taken away and put into protective custody. Last I heard, he was still bed-ridden due to the attack. (Possibly in a medically induced coma). He wife was either also severly injured, possibly killed (I can't remember anymore) 6. Anonymous posted: 01.09.2008 - 4:08 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) She didnt die, I did a little research http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1044680 what a bizarre little story. Remind me never to own a chimp 7. The Great Dave posted: 03.10.2009 - 2:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bill Schmitt's sponsor was not Ross Corp,but Bank of California 8. RaceFanX posted: 12.17.2009 - 1:09 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Turkey Night Grand Prix winner Brent Kaeding's lone Cup start 9. 18fan posted: 04.01.2010 - 2:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think this is the last Cup race with only one lead change. I know the 2000 Dura Lube 300 with Jeff Burton leading every single lap had no lead changes, but I think this is the last race that had a lead change but only had one. 10. Walleyewhacker posted: 05.26.2011 - 9:38 am Rate this comment: (3) (15) This result was certainly a head scratcher considering that Earnhardt was never won at Phoenix before or after this race. He did have four other top 5's at Phoenix, but it still has me wondering if the NASCAR inspection crew gave Childress the wink (considering how NASCAR jobbed Mark Martin at Richmond). 11. Ryan posted: 08.13.2011 - 5:32 am Rate this comment: (10) (4) Get over it Wally, Earnhardt won 9 races that year and should have won 11 if he didn't have his problems at Daytona and Bristol. The 3 team was awesome that year. If you want to say a head scratcher talk about Mark Martin running so well in '90. He had hardly ever ran that well. And don't blame Earnhardt for how Martin screwed up, remember that happened in the 2nd race of the season! He had all season to make up those points where they cheated. I doubt Nascar would be "out to get" anyone after the 2nd race of the season. Get serious. He messed up by pitting late in this race. Something he regrets to this day. 12. Sebastien posted: 12.17.2011 - 7:15 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) #2 Musgrave car was a Chevrolet Lumina, not a Pontiac. Jerry Punch mentions in the broadcast that the (associate ?) sponsor of #72 Reed is "Sun Valley Oil". #93 Beebe had "Thompson" as an associate sponsor on the hood. Terry Labonte blew on the last lap, as a result Mark Martin spun in turn 1 after the checkered flag. 13. Walleyewhacker posted: 04.05.2014 - 10:45 am Rate this comment: (1) (7) Childress and the France family were always way too friendly in the off season, as Bill France Junior would often go hunting with Childress. There were rumors that France promissed Childress that Earnhardt would get some favorable calls in 1990 after losing to Elliott and Wallace in 1988 and very narrowly to Rusty in 1989. Earnhardt had a lucky win at the June race in 1990 and was hardly awesome. Bill Elliott dominated the race and had a half lap lead over Earnhardt before Elliott's slow oil leak caused an engine failure with a 15 or so laps to go. Earnhardt was lucky that Larry McRenolds didn't hook up with the #28 in 1990 instead of 1991. Larry Mac would have curred the handling problems and crew chief shuffles the #28 had 1990 like he did the following year. Rusty's #27 team and car was also going downhill in 1990 as was the Bill Elliott team, DW was injured, so it's not like Earnhardt had a lot of top notch competion in 1990 other than Mark Martin and ocassionaly Geoff Bodine. 14. Stretch posted: 01.27.2015 - 4:27 pm Rate this comment: (4) (2) Wally your an idiot! It's not Earnhardt's fault that Wallace's and Elliott's team were downhill! To me it looked like Earnhardt's team got better in 1990 compared to how they ran in '88 and'89. We get it! You didn't like Earnhardt! But I have seen so many stupid comments on so many of these comment section that it is beyond ridiculous! Like Bill Jr. said, hey let's dock Martin 46 points, That way he won't win the championship. That happened after race 2. You make it sound like Bill Jr. already knew that the outcome for the championship would come down between Earnhardt and Martin. This isn't wrestling, where cheating is legal and the outcome is already known. It's racing. So get over it and quit your damn crying. Mark Martin was a great driver who had all season to build a big enough points lead and couldn't do it. 15. Ryan W posted: 09.10.2015 - 12:08 am Rate this comment: (2) (3) Get him Stretch! Paul Andrews and Robby Reiser have more championships that Larry Mac. Let that sink in. Larry Mac was a choker, and as much as I like Martin, he was a choker, too. This is a very underated win for Dale Earnhardt. This was a CLUTCH Performance by a big time athlete/racer in a big time situation where the pressure was immense. The 6 team was so overwhelmed by Earnhardt that they made a horrible decision at the end of the race to pit. Game. Race. Set. Match. Championship. No way Dale was getting beat at Atlanta after this (and then to trick the 6 team with their practice lap time by using different tire setup at Atlanta). 16. Aldo posted: 01.25.2016 - 2:56 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) Gerald Smith entered a Ferrari sponsored Chevy for Brent Kaeding (#69). That same car was entered next year at Daytona (#96) with Phil Parsons at the wheel but didn't make the show. I think the #96 was on the sides of the car but the #69 still on the roof. 17. Josh posted: 08.10.2017 - 6:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jerry Punch did the play-by-play for ESPN for this race, alongside Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett. Bob Jenkins was going through some sort of health issue at the time. Bobby Hillin and Michael Waltrip were two victims in the first accident of the day, and both were transported away from the track for further observation. The two collided hard in Turn 3. This race didn't cost Mark Martin the title. He restarted fourth on the third-to-last caution and was one of the cars that did not pit on that caution, so presumably he was as high in the running order as he could get. Just before the penultimate caution, Martin pitted from 6th position as he had dropped two spots. If we assume Mark finishes 4th instead of 10th, he would have picked up 26 more points. However, that is the margin he lost the title by, and Earnhardt had the tiebreaker based on number of best finishes (9 wins to Mark's 3). 18. Anthony posted: 03.10.2018 - 3:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Once Earnhardt took the lead: GAME OVER. 19. Jimnsimforever posted: 01.06.2019 - 4:31 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Running bias ply tires in this race instead of radials i'd say worked in Earnhardt's advantage. He could drive extremely aggressively without having to worry as much about losing it like you did on the radial tires (only have to worry more about blistering). His crew, instead of worrying about chassis adjustments as much to make the car better, could depend more on tire stagger to adjust the car which they were probably better than any other crew at doing. Final thing, I noticed one of the first things the #3 team did in this race is went to scuffed tires instead of putting stickers on. That's another thing the radials really took out of play at that time. Wonder why they decided to run bias ply for this race? Hey Martin conspiracy guys, was it because they winked in Earnhardt's direction and said "go get that 4th title from Martin and that new Jack Roush guy, we love that he came to Nascar with his money but can't let him win a title already, 3rd year in". 20. Jimnsimforever posted: 01.06.2019 - 6:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think pitting may have been the right call for Martin had he himself not caused a huge wreck on the restart by plowing through Greg Sacks and causing a big wreck that took away half of the laps remaining. The strategy was four fresh tires and they thought they could make it all the way to the front. That went out the window after the wreck took away most of the rest of the laps he had to work with. 21. Jimnsimforever posted: 01.06.2019 - 6:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually, another car made slight contact with Sacks and got him a little sideways before Mark came through and sent him the rest of the way around now that I see the replay. Wasn't Mark's fault, lol. But the pitting strategy still may have worked had that not happened and took away half the laps remaining. 22. SweetRich posted: 02.21.2020 - 10:21 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) The Commentators For The Race Were Jerry Punch, Ned Jarrett And Benny Parsons. The Pit Road Reporters Were John Kernan And Rick Debruhl. 23. Ed posted: 05.19.2020 - 8:42 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) @9: technically Burton leading every lap was a 1 lead change race as well, since he started 2nd that day 24. rm posted: 10.10.2020 - 10:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 69 crew chief - David Ifft ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: