Saturday, March 21, 2020

July 1993 race at TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY


I WAS JUST LOOKING at the internet and found a page out of memory. I was at the Talladega Superspeedway race on July 25, 1993 and saw Dale Earnhardt start 11th and finish first.

The race is poignant in that Cup star Davey Allison died a few days before the race. Allison, from Hueytown, Ala., was landing a helicopter at Talladega, his "home" track. The copter crashed, and Allison died the next day in a hospital.

The race also featured the return of Neil Bonnett, the good friend of both Earnhardt and Allison. There was also a horrific accident that ended Stanley Smith's racing career and saw Jimmy Horton's car fly over the wall. Horton, remarkably, was unscathed.

Ernie Irvan finished second in the DieHard 500, with Mark Martin third and Kyle Petty fourth. Dale Jarrett, Greg Sacks, Morgan Shepherd, Harry Gant, Brett Bodine and Wally Dallenbach Jr. filled out the top 10.

Robby Gordon finished last in a 42-car field.

Earnhardt led the most laps, 59, in the race. Irvan was second with 56 and Petty third with 39. They were the only drivers in double figures in laps led.

Earnhardt also won the Talladega Busch race, the Fram Filters 500-Kilometer race, the day before. Busch Series regular Randy LaJoie, a two-time Busch champion, was second.

You can find more about the Cup race at DriverAverages.com, and you can watch it here on YouTube.

There's a wire story about the Busch race here at the Los Angeles Times site.

Related story: A Look Back: The 1993 DieHard 500


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