|| *Comments on the 1991 Pepsi 400:* View the most recent comment <#47> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. HomeDepotKid posted: 01.11.2005 - 12:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Darrell Waltrip took a hellacious ride with Joe Ruttman during the race. On the backstretch, Waltrip apparrently dug into the grass and flipped end-over-end endlessly on the backstretch. He was OK, but the car was trashed. 2. Tim Seay posted: 01.17.2005 - 7:35 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Bill Elliott runs down the leaders all by himself. When he finally gets the lead, he snakes down the back stretch trying to break the draft. 3. jay posted: 06.24.2005 - 9:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) After qualifying last, and running in last unable to keep up with the pack, Terry Labonte quit the race after 8 laps and told his crew that he had an engine problem. But the crew never found anything wrong with the engine. It was later revealed that they didn't run the right car. The crew was rather disapointed in Terry for quitting the race. 4. myself posted: 02.13.2007 - 6:58 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) Awesome Bill's only win in the blue Melling car. It was also his last win for Harry Melling. 5. SK posted: 12.07.2007 - 3:07 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Sterling Marlin finally records his first career pole. 6. RaceFanX posted: 12.09.2007 - 4:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last race for Mickey Gibbs 7. most posted: 03.19.2008 - 9:26 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I hated the blue Coors car! Not sure why, maybe because it was the end of the team being anything to contecd with, but I thought that the 1991 #9 was by far the ugliest ever! 8. DaytonaFactMan posted: 06.11.2008 - 4:41 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Elliott's cool suit equipment failed. The cooling system actually heated the water, scalding Elliott's back during the race. "I was burning up" Elliott said. 9. DieselDan posted: 08.05.2008 - 8:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bill Elliott's only win in a car that wasn't red. All of his wins were with a Ford. His crew chief when he won driving a Dodge was Mike Ford. 10. JCS posted: 08.27.2008 - 8:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bill Elliott's last win in the Melling Ford. What ever happened to Mickey Gibbs, by the way? 11. myself posted: 08.26.2009 - 1:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) When Davey took the lead on 142, I told everyone sitting around me, "Its over!" Oops! 12. Mark O. posted: 10.09.2009 - 6:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I recall reading an account that Billy Hagan asked two other drivers to get in the car after Terry quit--Brett Bodine and Lake Speed. Since they both drove for competing sponsors, they had to decline and the car was left parked. 13. 00andJoe posted: 10.21.2010 - 1:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I remember that - it was in a book about Terry's season, as I recall, wasn't it? He quit because the car was slow all year, and claimed a vibration in the engine. As I recall reading, another reason the other drivers refused to drive it was (a) if there was a vibration, they didn't want to bother, and (b) if there wasn't, they didn't want to show up Terry as lying about it. 14. 00andJoe posted: 10.21.2010 - 1:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Er...I meant of course because the car was slow all *weekend*, not all *year*. D'oh. 15. Anonymous posted: 08.12.2011 - 9:27 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) "14. 00andJoe posted: 10.21.10 - 1:45 am Er...I meant of course because the car was slow all *weekend*, not all *year*. D'oh." Either one is correct. ;) 16. cjs3872 posted: 10.30.2011 - 11:37 am Rate this comment: (1) (5) DieselDan, Elliott's last four wins were in Ray Evernham's DODGES, but you are right that all of his wins, except this one, came in red cars. 34 came in Melling's cars, all but this one coming in red cars, six came in Junior Johnson's red Budweiser cars, and the the oter four cam in Evernham's dodges, including his 2002 Brickyard 400 win, a win that brought back memories of how great Elliott was in the big events. 17. RaceFanX posted: 11.06.2011 - 1:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) J.D. McDuffie's final DNQ, he made the field for the next two races he attempted. 18. RedChevy14 posted: 01.08.2012 - 9:48 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) cjs3872, you missed the joke. He said all the wins were WITH a Ford, because Mike Ford was his crew chief for the Dodge wins. 19. We need more Onion posted: 09.01.2013 - 1:18 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The Labonte story misses the part that he actually got out of the car, got into his own car and set off to go home by the time his mechanics arrived to the trailer. 20. Anonymous posted: 07.24.2014 - 3:35 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Lmfao, I love Labonte. Shades of Cole Trickle pulling over and getting out of the car when Harry was giving him shit over the radio. If they really did bring the wrong car, then the blame lies on them, not Terry. How does that even happen? I wouldn't drive it either. Hagan's team really sucked the second go-around with Labonte. 21. Jay posted: 07.24.2014 - 10:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think there was some rule change with the cars for the restricter plate races and they didn't get the memo, IIRC. Horrible year for Terry. Glad that '92 was a much better year. 22. zuel660 posted: 12.27.2014 - 4:10 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) 10 Fords, 10 Olds, 9 Chevys, 8 Pontiacs, & 4 Buicks in the field - I really miss that kind of mix of manufacturers on the track!! 23. nascarman posted: 05.26.2015 - 1:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Qualifying Results: Pos. Driver Speed 1. Sterling Marlin 190.331 2. Davey Allison 189.909 3. Harry Gant 189.865 4. Geoffrey Bodine 189.004 5. Bobby Hamilton 188.842 6. Lake Speed 188.762 7. Michael Waltrip 188.454 8. Chad Little 188.422 9. Rick Mast 188.348 10. Bill Elliott 188.332 11. Ernie Irvan 188.308 12. Dale Earnhardt 188.304 13. Ricky Rudd 188.300 14. Rick Wilson 187.852 15. Hut Stricklin 187.813 16. Joe Ruttman 187.668 17. Alan Kulwicki 187.641 18. Morgan Shepherd 187.285 19. Buddy Baker 187.017 20. Darrell Waltrip 187.001 21. Richard Petty 186.834 22. Ken Schrader 186.768 23. Brett Bodine 186.645 24. Ted Musgrave 186.532 25. Bobby Hillin, Jr. 186.471 26. Mark Martin 186.389 27. Stanley Smith 186.343 28. Rusty Wallace 186.131 29. Jeff Purvis 186.035 30. Mike Chase 185.801 31. Dale Jarrett 185.782 32. Jimmy Spencer 185.361 33. Greg Sacks 185.212 34. Larry Pearson 184.991 35. Mickey Gibbs 184.980 36. Derrike Cope 184.872 37. Phil Barkdoll 184.847 38. Jimmy Means 184.816 39. Dave Marcis 184.525 40. Wally Dallenbach, Jr. 183.438 41. Terry Labonte 183.124 24. RaceFanX posted: 06.30.2016 - 7:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the 400th race to feature the Busch Pole Award, fittingly going to Marlin after his long hunt for one. 25. RaceFanX posted: 07.05.2016 - 8:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bill Elliott got dinged with a pit road speeding penalty in this race but still recovered to come back and win it. Elliott ran this race with a heavy heart after his mother and grandmother both passed away in the three weeks leading up to this race. He dedicated the win to them in victory lane. 26. Senninha posted: 01.07.2017 - 6:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was also the first race with Benny Parsons back in the booth. His wife had passed away a few weeks prior and it devastated his family. He made a heart-felt thank you to the NASCAR family early in the race. 27. Robert posted: 03.08.2017 - 7:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Does anybody know the name of the aforementioned book about Labonte's 91 season? Read it myself years ago and can't seem to remember. 28. Jay posted: 06.15.2017 - 2:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @27 It's called Behind The Wall. Written by Richard Huff 29. Josh posted: 11.15.2017 - 5:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Terry Labonte thing is interesting. It was fine when he did it then, but I bet if one of the championship caliber drivers did it today they'd be shamed for it. I love the double standard. For the second consecutive season, Darrell Waltrip had a forgettable experience at this race weekend. In 1990, he suffered several broken bones in his leg in a practice crash. This season, he took a tumble down the backstretch when the cars were tightly packed with about 40 laps to go. Sterling Marlin bumped Alan Kulwicki in the outside lane, loosening him up. As Alan gathered it back up, he meandered into the low line, swiping the front bumper of DW's car hard enough to send it to the left and catching Joe Ruttman's car also. The two cars otherwise would have slid harmlessly in the grass, but hit the paved road course and both cars launched into the air. Ruttman's car launched more from the front, so it stayed upright, but still sustained damage from DW's nearby flipping car, as it had struck the road on its side, causing it to dig into the grass and flip over 5 or 6 times. Somewhat miraculously, DW escaped serious injury. 30. James posted: 11.10.2019 - 11:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) NASCAR came a long way in a few years. 1991 season had trouble fielding 30 regular sponsors for cars. Mickey Gibbs drove an unsponsored car all season until this race and I literally have no memory of him from watching the races as a kid. He only finished on the lead lap once all season at Sears Point. Bobby Hillin Jr couldn't land a sponsor for the 20 car. Ted Musgrave drove unsponsored most of the first half of the season. It took Alan Kulwicki several races to get a sponsor. And Chad Little's sponsor changed week to week. 31. Corey posted: 11.10.2019 - 1:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @30 "And Chad Little's sponsor changed week to week." Fast forward 20+ year and this happens on nearly every car. 32. BadBooking posted: 04.14.2020 - 9:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Lake Speed had a flat tire that was changed during the pace laps, hence why he started in the back. 33. Anthony2 posted: 06.25.2020 - 8:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Terry Labonte quit because he had a bad vibration, the car just couldn't go, & he didn't wanted to ride around in last place. 34. JSPorts43 posted: 06.25.2020 - 9:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I wonder what caused the vibration? I think it's interesting that Labonte quit for a reason and it's listed as "quit" rather than "vibration," but lots of the start-and-park cars from the past decade + are listed as having some kind of mechanical issue, when in fact they just quit. 35. GoRC10 posted: 06.26.2020 - 12:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @34 Reading other comments on here (something more people should do before turning on the faucet), the vibration was repaired. Thus, not the reason for not finishing. 36. Anthony2 posted: 06.26.2020 - 11:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @34 I found out while listening to the scene vault podcast. 37. JSPorts43 posted: 06.26.2020 - 11:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) So if it was fixed, why did Labonte quit? Was it really just because the car was slow? Seems like Daytona would be the place where you could take advantage of the draft and get a great result despite having a slow car. 38. JJ posted: 06.26.2020 - 12:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @36 Is there a link? I would love to hear it. 39. GoRC10 posted: 06.26.2020 - 1:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Something cool TNN used to do was post the AP race recap with the results. Scroll to the bottom for the story on Labonte. http://web.archive.org/web/20010211102057/http://www.country.com/gen/motor/race-event/naswinston-1991-15.html 40. nascarman posted: 06.26.2020 - 2:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In the book Behind the Wall by Richard Huff they talk about what happened. The biggest thing was they brought the wrong style car. Terry wasn't happy with the superspeedway car they ran in the Daytona 500 and their other superspeedway car was destroyed at Talladega. So instead of running the poor handling superspeedway car from the Daytona 500 in this race, then crew-chief Steve Loyd decided to bring an intermediate car like what would be used at Charlotte. To keep the cars from flying like Mark Martin did at Talladega, NASCAR made some new rule changes before this Pepsi 400. And NASCAR had a free test day for all teams at Daytona the day before practice started for this race. Somehow, Terry's team never heard about this test session. They were the only team that didn't know about it. So if they knew about the test, they would have realized the intermediate car was too slow and used the bad superspeedway car. In qualifying Terry was easily the slowest car in the field, said it felt like a parachute was on the back, and apparently told people privately he would rather park the car instead of being the slowest car on track. On lap 7, Terry realized every car was pulling away from him so he got on the radio and said "Steve it feels like something's vibrating," adding that it wasn't a tire and saying "it feels like something's locking up." Instead of stopping in the pit box, Terry went straight to the garage and left. The team found nothing wrong with the car, no vibration like Terry said, they just messed up and brought an uncompetitive car. Terry was incredibly mad at the crew's mismanagement of the whole situation. Steve Loyd was fired as crew chief a few days later and replaced with Dewey Livengood, the head engine builder. 41. JSPorts43 posted: 06.26.2020 - 3:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow, that's a terrible job by the team & crew chief. How do you not know about a test everyone else is going to? I don't blame Terry for being angry at all. 42. Mile501 posted: 06.26.2020 - 3:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Terry Labonte started more Cup races than anyone else in NASCAR history other than Richard Petty and Ricky Rudd, but this was the only time that he started last and finished last in a race. But had he run just 4 or 5 more laps, that wouldn't have been the case. 43. Anthony2 posted: 06.26.2020 - 3:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @38 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-scene-vault-podcast/id1407001199?i=1000479441336 If you have an apple device. 44. possum posted: 06.26.2020 - 6:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @37 - the key requirement there is being able to keep up in the draft, which Labonte couldn't do. Better to quit than trying to get out of the way every 10 or 12 laps when the pack comes by. In that era cars for the plate tracks were substantially different, both in body and chassis, from "normal" oval track cars. I'm really surprised someone thought an intermediate car would be remotely competitive. With today's "one size fits all" chassis it's a different story. 45. JJ posted: 06.26.2020 - 6:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @39 @43 Thank ya'll! 46. Rich posted: 08.05.2020 - 11:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators were Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons. The pit road reporters were Dr. Jerry Punch and John Kernan. 47. Jimmie4life posted: 10.16.2020 - 9:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 1. Sterling Marlin - 47.286 seconds 2. Davey Allison - 47.391 Seconds 3. Harry Gant - 47.402 Seconds 4. Geoffrey Bodine - 47.618 Seconds 5. Bobby Hamilton - 47.659 Seconds 6. Lake Speed - 47.679 Seconds 7. Michael Waltrip - 47.757 Seconds 8. Chad Little - 47.765 Seconds 9. Rick Mast - 47.784 Seconds 10. Bill Elliott - 47.788 Seconds 11. Ernie Irvan - 47.794 Seconds 12. Dale Earnhardt - 47.795 Seconds 13. Ricky Rudd - 47.796 Seconds 14. Rick Wilson - 47.910 Seconds 15. Hut Stricklin - 47.920 Seconds 16. Joe Ruttman - 47.957 Seconds 17. Alan Kulwicki - 47.964 Seconds 18. Morgan Shepherd - 48.055 Seconds 19. Buddy Baker - 48.124 Seconds 20. Darrell Waltrip - 48.128 Seconds 21. Richard Petty - 48.171 Seconds 22. Ken Schrader - 48.188 Seconds 23. Brett Bodine - 48.220 Seconds 24. Ted Musgrave - 48.249 Seconds 25. Bobby Hillin, Jr. - 48.265 Seconds 26. Mark Martin - 48.286 Seconds 27. Stanley Smith - 48.298 Seconds 28. Rusty Wallace - 48.353 Seconds 29. Jeff Purvis - 48.378 Seconds 30. Mike Chase - 48.439 Seconds 31. Dale Jarrett - 48.444 Seconds 32. Jimmy Spencer - 48.554 Seconds 33. Greg Sacks - 48.593 Seconds 34. Larry Pearson - 48.651 Seconds 35. Mickey Gibbs - 48.654 Seconds 36. Derrike Cope - 48.682 Seconds 37. Phil Barkdoll - 48.689 Seconds 38. Jimmy Means - 48.697 Seconds 39. Dave Marcis - 48.774 Seconds 40. Wally Dallenbach, Jr. - 49.063 Seconds 41. Terry Labonte - 49.147 Seconds ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: