1998 Daytona 500

And, now let's go to the 1998 Daytona 500.


9:00 PM
I remember this race very well. My wife and I sat on our couch in a place we now call The Hole watching this race. She was pregnant with our first son at the time.

This was Nascar's 50th season and the 40th running of the 500.


9:08 PM
Labonte brothers on the front row. Earnhardt starts 4th. Yes, Mike Joy, we know that Earnhardt hasn't won this race. Thanks for the reminder.


9:12 PM
There are those who think that the fix was in for this race so that Earnhardt would finally win the 500 to kickoff Nascar's 50th season. One of the pieces of "evidence" is a pit road report by Dick Berggren early in the race. In his first pit road report, on lap 3, Berggren says something about Earnhardt winning today, but unless you wear tin foil hats on a regular basis, I don't think you can take it as anything other than a misspeak. But, it's interesting that that pit road report isn't on this broadcast. I received a set of Earnhardt races, along with the "Dale" movie a couple of years ago, and Berggren's pit road report isn't on that one either. The only way you'll see it is if you have a tape of the original broadcast.


9:18 PM
This is the one thing I don't like about watching this particular race, being reminded that Larry McReynolds was the crew chief for Earnhardt. Maybe the reason that they didn't do very well together is that Earnhardt couldn't understand MacEnglish.


9:24 PM 2/14/2009
4 cars have broken away and are running single file, which also answers a question about this. Was it a great race all the way through? No, it wasn't. Did you also know that Dale Earnhardt has led every lap number at one point or another except for laps 96-98 and 200? Especially 200, right, Mike?

If you've seen the great Nascar races thread, you know that Tomvols was making fun of me for being a homer because I put this race ahead of the 92 season finale. Here's the thing. Where else should it go? I put the 92 season finale at #4, which means the '98 Daytona 500 is at #3. Coincidence?


9:39 PM 2/14/2009
This race started 40 minutes ago. Do you guys realize what I haven't done yet? In fact, it's my bread and butter in these recaps and I haven't done it yet. I didn't do it for the 1979 race either, which is make fun of the announcers for saying something stupid. I'm not a big fan of Buddy Baker as an announcer, but he hasn't said anything dumb in this one yet. And I don't ever remember Ned Jarrett saying anything stupid.

Of course, what I now realize that I chose to ignore in 1998 was that whenever Mike Joy mentions Dale Earnhardt, he reminds us that Earnhardt's never won this race. Mike Joy simply didn't like Dale Earnhardt and had no trouble rubbing salt into not winning the 500 wound. Why do I think Mike didn't like Earnhardt?

In 1995, TNN was broadcasting races and Mike covered the race for them. During the 1st segment, Earnhardt's desperate to stay up with Jeff Gordon and overdrives the car, wrecking off of turn 4 and taking Darrell Waltrip with him. It's a bad wreck for DW as he breaks some ribs and, as it turns out, ruins what was a pretty good season for him. Immediately after the wreck, we hear Mike say, "I hate him." I think it's no coincidence that Mike Joy didn't call races for TNN in 1996. After the bad events of the 2001 Daytona 500, I saw Mike on a race show and he looked like he'd been crying about what happened, but I think they were crocodile tears. You would not be wrong to say I'm no fan of Mike Joy.

9:45 PM
Good grief. There's a website out there for women doubling as gold diggers and the desperate guys looking for a trophy date. Trophy date, btw, not necessarily trophy wife, as the guy in the commercial actually says, "I found the perfect date." I'm not posting the website because I don't want them to have any more pub than they've already gotten.

9:50 PM
Mike takes the opportunity to say, once again, that Earnhardt hasn't won this race. He also mentions that Rusty Wallace was in his 16th Daytona 500 without a win. It's probably a good thing that Rusty didn't win it, as it's likely that we'd never hear the end of it from him. The only time Rusty had a decent chance to win the Daytona 500 was in 1999 when he led over 100 laps. He was leading on lap 189, but Jeff Gordon went under him, down on the apron, going into turn 1 and instead of keeping him down there, Rusty gave Jeff room to get back on the track and that was it for Rusty's chance to win.


9:59 PM
I went to thatsracin.com to look up what time the race was on tomorrow and I found this article. When asked about Reed Sorenson's qualifying run in the RPM car, Kyle Petty had this to say.

It's sad that there's no Petty in the field, but it was bound to happen eventually. Everything changed for the Pettys when Adam was killed.


10:02 PM
Jeff Gordon hit something and messed up his car. This highlighted one of the problems with the cars of the late 90s up until last year. They were so fragile that just a little bump messed them up. I'm not saying that the COT could have taken the kind of hit that Jeff's car and been fine, but those cars were terribly fragile. And, I wonder if the COT has gone too far in the other direction, re: Kyle Busch slamming the wall 3 times at Darlington in '08 and still winning.


10:05 PM
Ken Schrader gives a thumbs up to the flak jacket he's wearing in this race.


10:15 PM
Aflac trivia question (Cue the duck) was who started the most 500s before winning the race? Buddy Baker started 18 races before winning in his 19th try. Again, Mike Joy reminds us that Earnhardt hasn't won this race.


10:20 PM
I hope we don't see this Nascar commercial 14 times tomorrow. I'm not even sure why they're running it. The only people who are watching this rebroadcast are Nascar fans and we're going to watch the 500 tomorrow anyway.


10:31 PM
I can't begin to tell you how tense I was in the closing laps of this race back in '98.


10:37 PM
Good grief. Did you guys know that Dale Earnhardt hasn't won this race? Did you know that he's won every other race there is to win at Daytona? Did you guys know that every single time Mike Joy has mentioned Dale Earnhardt, he's mentioned that Earnhardt hasn't won the 500?


10:43 PM
The block of the race with 7 to go. When Earnhardt blocked Mayfield, that's when I started thinking that maybe, just maybe he could win it.


10:45 PM
Buddy Baker informs us that everybody's standing and that he just got up out of his chair. Thanks, Buddy! :thumbsup:

Psst.. Buddy... we don't care.


10:47 PM
The best caution in the history of Nascar right there on lap 198.

Still gives me goosebumps seeing him cross the finish line.

Is it dusty in here? Sorry, I can't see to type, it's gotten a little dusty in here.


10:58 PM
DE: We won it, we won it, we won it.

:thumbs: