I did not know the history behind the picture. Maybe they were great guys every moment for the rest of their lives but they were big babies with no control over their own emotions in that moment. Hardly an apt picture to accompany the statement, "When men were men."
It's cool they worked on their own cars and that the teams were spread out.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The picture was from the 1979 Daytona 500 and that was the race that catapulted NASCAR to more than just a regional and small town racetrack sport. The entire east coast was snowed in and there were only three tv stations to watch in most households. Plus, this was the first race that was televised from start to finish. That had never happened before, not even with the Indy 500. So, you could say that Nascar had a captive audience since most were snowed in. The final lap was a two car race between Donnie Allison and Cale Yarbrough who were racing and bumping one another to the finish line when they took one another out. That allowed Richard Petty to win the race. As Petty crosses the finish line the cameras shoot over to the fight in the infield between Yarbrough and both Bobby and Donnie Allison. Nascar got their most famous name in victory lane and had the nation talking about the last lap fight.
Understand that I was never a big Nascar race fan but I enjoyed the personalities in the garages, the pit crews, the drivers, and in the stands. The people were some of the greatest people I have ever met and known. Many of them (especially the drivers) were risk takers, entrepreneurs, crafty, and intelligent. These were people who came from rough and poor backgrounds and they wanted nothing to do with the lives they came from other than to remember how hard it was. That was still a time that if you wrecked a car, you didn't race again till it was fixed and you had to pay for the parts and the repairs out of your own pocket. Sponsors didn't pay for repairs then and you did not have the corporate money influencing the sport either. It was very much a small town and small business and mom & pop shop feel to the sport and the atmosphere around it.
I remember being a 6 year old sitting there telling my dad they were fighting on tv. He pulls the Sunday paper down and says, "Good thing Bobby is there because Donnie doesn't like when they hit back." Never will forget that.
As far as Nascar dying, I have no qualms about it even though I know some great people who are still in the marketing side of the business from a sponsorship standpoint. But, I also know of some small tracks that you can go to where there is still that small business and family like feel to the atmosphere that I think will survive no matter what happens to Nascar as we know it today. As far as the Confederate flag in concerned, never paid attention to it and never had one. While I was always intrigued by the history of the country, including that timeframe, I did serve in the Navy and saluted the American flag.