While the 2001 NASCAR season was a kick to the genitals for NASCAR and it’s fans with the loss of Dale Earnhardt Sr in the last lap of the season opening Daytona 500, there hasn’t been a season that really kicked us as hard as the 1993 season. Not only did we have one driver with two vicious flipping accidents at the Super Speedways, we also lost two active drivers in aircraft incidents both of who were fan favorites with the first to fall being the reigning NASCAR Cup Champion. It’s a season that still leaves a bad taste in the mouths of fans even tho the bitterness was cut by the sixth championship of Dale Earnhardt Sr,
The opening Daytona 500 was best known for two things. It was a feeling of excitement for Dale Jarrett and his father Ned. Dale Jarrett was driving the race of his career. He was up front for the final laps of the Daytona 500 leading Dale Earnhardt. On the final lap CBS asked over the headsets for broadcasters Neil Bonnett and Ken Squier to allow Ned Jarrett, father of Dale Jarrett to “call his son home”, and the two other commentators remained quiet while Ned Jarrett called the finish of the race.
“Come on, Dale! Go, baby, go! All right, come on! I know he’s got it to the floorboard; he can’t do anymore! Come on! Take ‘er to the inside! Don’t let ’em get on the inside of you comin’ around this turn! Here he comes, Earnhardt; it’s the “Dale and Dale Show” as we come off Turn 4! You know who I’m pulling for, it’s Dale Jarrett. Bring her to the inside, Dale! Don’t let him get down there! He’s gonna make it! Dale Jarrett’s gonna win the Daytona 500!!!”
The following week at Rockinham North Carolina, Ned Jarrett apologized to Dale Earnhardt for the obvious showing of bias, which he knew was inappropriate. However, to his credit and personality Dale Earnhardt Sr was understanding and told the elder Jarrett, “I’m a daddy too.”. While the ending of that race will do down in history, another moment happened with 31 laps to go in th race. On lap 169 a slight touch of the race cars of Derrick Cope and Rusty Wallace ended up with Wallace flipping violently down the backstretch grass area, which has had the grass removed since the incident. While it might not be that big of a deal as cars flip violently when the air hits the rear spoiler at speed when the car is traveling backwards while spinning, it was only the first of two incidents with Wallace that year.
This was the scene after the finish of the Winston 500 at Talladega Alabama. The race saw Ernie Irvan win the exciting race, but contact between the #3 of Dale Earnhardt and the #2 of Rusty Wallace saw Wallace’s car get airborne and get destroyed at the ensuing flips. As they were coming to the checkered flag Bob Jenkins, who was joined by Ned Jarrett and David Parsons in the announcers booth was calling the action.
“Here they come off the 4th corner. Ernie Irvan leads then down, now is he going to win the Winston 500? Jimmy Spencer is 2nd. They come through the tri-oval checkered is waving. Ernie Irvan wins, and Rusty spins and gets airborne, and flips wildly at the start/finish line… very reminiscent to his accident…. at Daytona.”
Those two flips lead NASCAR to go and see what was causing the cars to get air so easily, and they went to the wind tunnels to see that when air gets going backwards over the rear of the car at speed, the spoiler which is normally used to keep the rear end of the race car planted ground would instead act like a wing and generate some lift. NASCAR then started looking at ways to try to keep the cars on the ground, and then came the creation of the still in use Roof Flaps. The Roof Flaps pop up when they sense negative pressure, like the air going the wrong way on the car and ask as a spoiler or air brake for the car helping the car not flip as much in incidents like this.
While good things like the roof laps came out of this season, the two following areas are the reason as to why people are saddened by the 1993 season. Just prior to the the April running of the Food City 500 in Bristol Tennessee a plane carrying defending Cup Series Champion Alan Kulwicki crashed on approach to the Tri-Cities Regional Airport which resulted in his death and the death of three others that included two executives of the team sponsors Hooters restaurant chain and the pilot, but sadly there were no survivors. The crash was after Kuwlicki had attended a promotional event at Hooters on Kingston Pike in Knoxville Tennessee that afternoon, just three days prior to the April 4th running of the race. In one of the saddest moments in NASCAR history, the man who just shy of four months earlier won his first ever NASCAR Cup Championship had perished, but the sight that really put a pit in the stomach of NASCAR fans was the sight of the race car hauling semi taking a solemn last lap around the speedway before departing to head back to the team shop in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, that wouldn’t be the final time fans would grieve during this season.
Just a little of three months after Kulwicki’s aircraft crash, NASCAR suffered another aircraft related fatality. On July 12, 1993 a helicopter piloted by driver Davey Allison was flying into the Talladega Super Speedway to watch family friends Neil and David Bonnett practice for upcoming races. Neil, who was 46 years old and was making a comeback to the season after a life threatening 1990 crash at Darlington Speedway in South Carolina, and his son David, who was was testing a car for his Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) debut. Allison was also giving another family friend Red Farmer a lift to the track as well, and was attempting to land inside of a fenced in area on the infield of the track. However as fate would have it, the helicopter impacted the fence which lead to the Hughes 369HS aircraft losing control before impacting the ground. Seeing the accident, Neil Bonnet hurried over to the scene and was able to removed a semi-conscious Farmer from the aircraft saving his life, but Allison was unable to be freed from the aircraft until paramedics arrived. Farmer survived with a broken collarbone and fractured ribs, but Allison was never able to regain consciousness from the crash, and was pronounced dead at 7 am the following day as a result of the critical head injuries.
Even tho it was a bad year for a lot of race fans, Dale Earnhardt Sr won his 6th of seven cup championships that year, and helped some fans have a slightly less bitter pill to swallow for this season, which until 2000 where two young up and coming drivers passed away from practice crashes and 2001 where the sports lost its largest star, and was the final time an active driver passed away from an on track accident, was the most bitter season. We had two violent flips from one man that lead to a race car invention that still helps cars get airborne to this day, but we also lost two legends who were gone way too early.
The Randomness of Random 