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953 nut

3-16-2003

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953 nut

                                      3-16-2003

Craven edges out Busch in closest NASCAR finish

On this day in 2003, race car driver Ricky Craven wins the Darlington 500, crossing the finish line .002 seconds ahead of Kurt Busch for the closest recorded finish in National Association for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) history. In May 2009, more than 5,000 racing fans voted Craven’s victory the most memorable moment in the history of South Carolina’s challenging Darlington Raceway, nicknamed “The Track Too Tough to Tame.”

The Darlington Raceway opened with the first-ever Southern 500, a 500-lap race, on Labor Day weekend 1950. At the time, NASCAR was in its infancy, having been officially incorporated in February 1948. The 1.366-mile, egg-shaped track at Darlington was the brainchild of South Carolinian Harold Brasington, who was inspired to build the raceway after attending the 1948 Indianapolis 500 race. Darlington was developed on land Brasington purchased from a farmer; one corner of the track is narrow and more steeply banked than other sections because at the time of the track’s construction the farmer didn’t want it to interfere with his fish pond. (Today, cars racing around this tight corner of the track often slam into the wall, resulting in a scrape called the “Darlington stripe.”) At the inaugural Southern 500, some 25,000 fans were on hand to see driver Johnny Mantz win the race with an average speed of 76 mph, out of a starting field of 75 cars. Some of the competitors reportedly ran out of tires and resorted to purchasing them from people in the infield in order to complete the race.

The Southern 500 went on to become one of NASCAR’s “crown jewel” events, along with the Daytona 500 at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway, the Winston 500 at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway and the Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina.

3-16-2003.jpg.232bd955548d6b814e0523a474

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RedRanger

Time flies.  Seems I just watched that?  

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JAinVA

I remember that race.That was before nascar morphed into another IROC series.Don't watch much anymore.JAinVA

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RedRanger
1 hour ago, JAinVA said:

I remember that race.That was before nascar morphed into another IROC series.Don't watch much anymore.JAinVA

Agreed.

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953 nut

I am still an armchair NASCAR fan, although I am not as hard core as I was in the '70s and '80s. I had gotten to know some of the crew members through street rod shows and spent vacation time in the Mooresville NC area and had a ball going through the shops. If the drivers were there they would sit and chat with you and it wasn't unusual to run into them at local restaurants. The corporate sponsor obligations have pretty much spoiled that for them, guess that is the trade off for a multi-million dollar payday.

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JAinVA

All of the current NASCAR teams that complain about the strict enforcement of the rules have this car built by Junior Johnson to thank for body templates.

 

JAinVA

yellow bananasmall1.jpg

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953 nut
1 hour ago, JAinVA said:

rules have this car built by Junior Johnson to thank for body templates

When Gary Nelson was appointed as NASCAR's first inspector in the early '90s it was because he knew more ways of creative engineering (cheating) and getting away with it than any other crew chief. He later set up their R&D center.

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AMC RULES

Cheating.     :angry-tappingfoot:

Don't you mean pushing the envelope?  

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953 nut
2 minutes ago, AMC RULES said:

pushing the envelope?

Creative engineering is how the rules were made; Gary never broke the rule, they were created because of his innovative thinking. Once the rule had been established others would push the envelope while Gary was coming up with his next "innovation".

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