How Dale Earnhardt Helped Brett Bodine Capture His Only NASCAR Cup Victory
Bodine s 1990 victory at North Wilkesboro not without a little controversy.
By Al Pearce RacingOneGetty Images
Brett Bodine’s only NASCAR Cup Series victory came in large part thanks to help from Dale Earnhardt during the April 1990 First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Granted, it’s possible the middle of the racing Bodine brothers might have won, anyway, but Earnhardt’s unwitting help shouldn’t be dismissed. It happened like this:
Earnhardt passed Bodine for the lead with about 150 laps remaining in the 400-lapper. From that position, Bodine watched as Earnhardt took an unorthodox line into Turn 1 at the 5/8th-mile track. (The long-closed facility went dramatically downhill into Turns 1-2, then uphill into Turns 3-4). Bodine was better than Earnhardt in 3-4, but significantly worse in 1-2. Overall, their cars were close to even; Earnhardt’s undeniable talent was the
Why an NHRA Drag Strip is 1,000 Feet
Top Fuel and Funny Car, the two nitromethane-fueled classes, scaled back to 1,000 feet in mid-2008, following a tragic death.
By Susan Wade NHRA/National Dragster
Traditionally, a drag strip is 1,320 feet, which equals a quarter-mile. (One mile equals 5,280 feet.) Many classes in NHRA drag racing actually, all but the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes still compete on a quarter-mile course.
Top Fuel and Funny Car, the two nitromethane-fueled classes in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, scaled back to 1,000 feet in mid-2008, following Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta’s death in a crash during qualifying. The accident happened June 21, 2008, the fourth and final session of qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals. Eleven days later, the NHRA announced it would shorten the course for the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories to 1,000 feet (which had been the final electronic time and speed clocking increment in the scoring sys
Last week’s “Name a random racer” column drew an avalanche of emails that will be fodder for a feature column, but, as promised, this week I’m talking about my random guy: Top Fuel driver Yuichi Oyama.
Unless you lived in Japan, where he competed in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Fuel, you’d probably never heard of him until his debut at the 2002 Winternationals, but by year’s end, everyone from Don Garlits to Kenny Bernstein had felt the sting of his brief eight-race appearance on the tour that season.
Oyama, who hailed from the Shinagawa ward in Tokyo Japan, purchased turnkey the ex-Don Prudhomme dragster owned by Southern Californian Robert Reehl and hired Reehl and his crew to run it for him.