|| *Comments on the 1989 AC Delco 500:* View the most recent comment <#39> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. MegaRacer posted: 10.19.2004 - 7:59 am Rate this comment: (4) (0) FINALLY!! Mark Martin wins his first Cup race after coming so close so many times. 2. Steve posted: 07.31.2006 - 9:10 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Mark had 6 second place finishes before winning this event! Also Derrike Cope starts a string of 3 consecutive Top 15s (he had a terrible 1989 season) which was followed by a win in the 1990 Daytona 500. 3. DaleJrFan15 posted: 10.19.2006 - 8:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (3) I Listened to tis on XM radio...I COUNTED JACK PENNINGTON SPINNING AT LEAST 10 TIMES!LOL! Yay Martin 4. Douche Bagolow posted: 07.23.2007 - 2:30 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Not only was this Mark Martin's first win, it was also Jack Roush's first win as a car owner. 5. SK posted: 08.20.2007 - 3:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was Pennington's Winston Cup debut. 6. stricklinfan82 posted: 04.20.2008 - 11:33 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) Everyone tends to remember North Wilkesboro or Charlotte as the race that cost Earnhardt the '89 championship but surprisingly this race is almost always overlooked. Late in the race eventual champion Rusty Wallace spun out Dale Earnhardt, and Dale suffered heavy rear-end damage after being hit by Sterling Marlin in the aftermath. 7. Ryan posted: 01.02.2009 - 12:33 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Yeah, Rusty tries to act like a saint all the time, too. He acted like he did nothing wrong here and then when Dale has got into him at Bristol and Gordon too, he feels like the world has come to an end... Dale had some bad luck over the last few races and he almost came back after dominating the last race at Atlanta... 8. 18fan posted: 01.27.2009 - 2:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) To add to what Ryan said, when Rusty intentionally(it was very obvious he drove in over his head, not that his car pushed)wrecked Darrell Waltrip in the Winston this year. Then, when he was sideswiped, not wrecked, by Ricky Rudd in 2001 at Dover while Rudd was putting Rusty a lap down and Rusty said, "He pissed me off so I ran his ass over". I was so thankful when he retired and also when he was replaced in the booth for ESPN/ABC by Dale Jarrett. 9. 18fan posted: 03.09.2009 - 4:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) All three of the races stricklinfan82 mentioned showed that Earnhardt had bad luck in the end of the season when he had a substantial point lead. A lot of times late in seasons, Earnhardt benefited from other competitors struggles. In 1989, it was the other way around. 10. myself posted: 07.28.2009 - 11:23 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I had no clue XM radio even existed in '89. 11. jessie posted: 03.24.2010 - 3:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) frst race after san franciso earthquake 12. RaceFanX posted: 07.04.2010 - 1:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) XM didn't, they just rebroadcast the race years later. This was Martin's first win and also his only win with Stroh's Light beer as the sponsor on his #6. The Michigan beer company, the first Cup sponsor the Roush Cup team had, left the sport after the 1989 season and fell from grace for a variety of reasons. 13. DaleSrFanForever posted: 05.06.2011 - 7:15 pm Rate this comment: (2) (1) "Everyone tends to remember North Wilkesboro or Charlotte as the race that cost Earnhardt the '89 championship but surprisingly this race is almost always overlooked." I'm glad I'm not the only one that remembers this. Everyone talks about the good championship luck Dale had in 1990 with Mark getting the penalty of 46 points in the season's 2nd race, then winning by just 26 points. But let's not forget the horrible luck he had that cost him the championship this year. Their crankshaft broke just 13 laps into Charlotte, they had a late caution at Wilkesboro after Dale dominated allowing Rudd to divebomb Dale and take them both out, then Rusty ran him over here. He still damn near won the thing. "Then, when he was sideswiped, not wrecked, by Ricky Rudd in 2001 at Dover while Rudd was putting Rusty a lap down and Rusty said, "He pissed me off so I ran his ass over"." I know, that situation was so stupid. First of all, if it weren't for Ricky, Rusty would have zero championships. And secondly, he better be glad Ricky only grabbed him in the garage afterwards and didn't go any further. Ricky could have beaten the shit out of Rusty. If it weren't the first race after 9/11 he might have. Also, Kevin Harvick needs to thank hi lucky stars Rudd never got his hands on him when he jumped on Ricky's car at Richmond. He REALLY would have pulverized Kevin's skinny ass. 14. autryvilleracefan posted: 05.23.2011 - 4:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anybody know what is Jack Pennington's sponsor, "Dooley" ? 15. b4il3y posted: 06.29.2011 - 4:29 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) and...good job mark. and....if any of your can do better than Jack, then buy a car and go to the rock. seriously. you all talk shit like you can race a car or something.... this is hard.... 16. Anonymous posted: 11.05.2011 - 4:23 pm Rate this comment: (5) (3) All the Rusty haters eat shit.Sr damn near killed Wallace at Dega in 93,crashed him in the 94 winston and again at bristol in 95.So what if Rusty dumped iron head once.Get over it Earnhardt worshippers. 17. DJ posted: 11.05.2011 - 5:18 pm Rate this comment: (3) (3) I guess everything evens out in life because Dale cost Rusty a title in 93 when he dumped him at Talladega. 18. Anonymous posted: 12.30.2011 - 12:43 pm Rate this comment: (3) (3) So Rusty dumped ironhead once,get over it.How many times did Sr crash Wallace? 19. Schroeder51 posted: 09.25.2013 - 4:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution flags: 1. #53 Jerry O'Neil spin, backstretch (Laps 27-32) 2. #57 Hut Stricklin spin, turn 2 (Laps 38-42) 3. #25 Ken Schrader, #53 Jerry O'Neil accident, turn 2 (Laps 98-103) 4. Debris (Laps 114-117) 5. #75 Morgan Shepherd accident, turn 2 (Laps 208-216) 6. #9 Bill Elliott, #30 Michael Waltrip accident, turn 3 (Laps 218-220) 7. #44 Jim Sauter spin, turns 1/2 (Laps 226-228) 8. #7 Alan Kulwicki, #17 Darrell Waltrip, #26 Ricky Rudd, #28 Davey Allison, #88 Jimmy Spencer accident, turns 1/2 (Laps 231-238) 9. #43 Richard Petty, #47 Jack Pennington accident, turn 2 (Laps 248-249) 10. Not shown (Laps 268-271) 11. #94 Sterling Marlin spin, backstretch (Laps 313-316) 12. #33 Harry Gant accident, turn 1 (Laps 405-410) 13. #3 Dale Earnhardt, #27 Rusty Wallace, #94 Sterling Marlin accident, turn 4 (Laps 429-434) 14. #48 Greg Sacks spin, turn 2 (Laps 469-471) There were also several incidents that didn't bring out caution flags, including a spin by Lake Speed on the backstretch close to lap 300 and a spin in turn 1 by Davey Allison with less than 40 to go. 20. Walleyewhacker posted: 03.01.2014 - 10:39 am Rate this comment: (1) (7) Earnhardt was a dirty and dangerous driver, not to mention an onery cuss in many interviews. Dumping a competitor at a high speed track like Talledega shows just the lack of character and judgement that he had. 21. b4il3y posted: 07.05.2014 - 4:09 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) Walleyewhacker has only watched NASCAR on youtube :) 22. RaceFanX posted: 11.29.2014 - 1:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first win for a Ford Thunderbird in Winston Cup competition in almost three months. The Blue Oval Boys won five races in a row during the middle part of the season but Martin's triumph ended a losing streak dating back to Terry Labonte's win at Talladega in July. Rusty Wallace passed Martin to unlap himself with 42 laps to go and came back to finish runner-up. Shortly thereafter Davey Allison had his spin which didn't bring out the yellow, no doubt frustrating Rusty. Greg Sacks' late spin at least gave him a shot and he passed DW on the restart although he never came close to catching Martin afterward. Waltrip's car had crash damage that left it ill-handing and lost third gear late in the race, playing into Rusty's quick pass on the restart. This was the fourth and final Cup race that the late Jim Sauter ever led (and the only one in 1989). Sauter's eight laps led in this race, coming during the first caution and immediately after its restart, were a career-high in a single Cup race for him. Bob Tullius' Group 44 team put their Pontiac to the point by not pitting during the first round of pit stops. Dale Earnhardt ran down Sauter and second-place Darrell Waltrip after the restart and took the lead with an outside pass while Waltrip passed Sauter to the inside making it three wide. Tony Lambert, then a member of Phil Parsons' pit crew, was injured during the first round of pit stops under the opening yellow. Members of Jimmy Spencer's Crisco pit crew helped out Parsons' team afterward, keeping any traffic on pit road away from the fallen crew member. Lambert, later a successful Busch series crew chief for this race's winner Mark Martin, got up under his own power and walked to a nearby ambulance to be taken to the care center. (ESPN didn't show how it happened, apparently he was hit by a tire) 23. RaceFanX posted: 11.29.2014 - 1:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Robin Pemberton picks up the first of his 23 victories as a NASCAR crew chief. 24. Ryan W posted: 09.12.2015 - 2:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anyone remember Dover in '93 when Rusty hit another car to take Dale out? I sure do. Rusty was no saint and should not have won the championship this year. He was really fortunate Dale got divebombed by Rudd at N Wilkesboro and then took him out here. 25. Ryan W posted: 01.17.2016 - 9:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (3) "I guess everything evens out in life because Dale cost Rusty a title in 93 when he dumped him at Talladega." I'm not sure how that cost Rusty the title. He finished 6th in the race and lost the championship by 80 points. Do some math. Besides, Earnhardt went low on Rusty in the tri-oval at 'dega and Rusty went down to block him. So many people don't see that and if they would just go watch the replay. Dale had a run on Rusty and he didn't give Dale any room and the result was about 10 flips. 26. StenhouseFan17 posted: 06.20.2016 - 10:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The first win in a now-Hall of Fame career! 27. ARosser14 posted: 06.06.2017 - 8:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) "Anyone remember Dover in '93 when Rusty hit another car to take Dale out? I sure do." Nope. I do remember Hut Stricklin missing a shift, though, I'd assume most people watching the race that day do. If you don't, the entire race (along with at least a couple videos of the wreck alone) is available on YouTube. Check them out sometime when you're not busy praying to the Ghost of Ralph Dale Christ. Anyone with a working set of eyes can see the smoke from Hut's tailpipes and a sudden loss of pace before Rusty makes contact, and if you can't, you get the benefit of the late great Neil Bonnett pointing it out on the replays and explaining what was happening with Hut's car on that restart. For real, it's all there, go give it a check. There's a whole world beyond this blind (or rose-colored) Earnhardt allegiance just waiting to welcome you in with open arms. 28. JG24ChasElliottFan posted: 07.02.2017 - 3:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is definitely a type of race you would not see in today's NASCAR: A 492 lap, 500 mile race with 14 cautions and just three cars on the lead lap. 29. 48johnsonfan posted: 11.26.2017 - 8:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Tenth caution was for debris. 30. Darrell posted: 12.22.2017 - 5:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last time Darrell Waltrip finished on the lead lap at The Rock. 31. Anthony posted: 01.03.2018 - 11:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) How did Mark Martin earn 185 points even though he didn't lead the most laps? 32. Josh posted: 06.05.2018 - 11:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Watching the Rusty-Earnhardt thing, it looked to me like Earnhardt would have been fine but he drove the car back into Rusty, maybe trying to get payback in the middle of the incident, which then turned him around and caused the damage with the other car. If he had just kept it straight it looked like he would have been fine. 33. Roger posted: 08.29.2018 - 7:56 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) According to some experts on here that like to frequent other drivers boards, Dale Earnhardt "choked" his season away in 1989. Just sayin' if the shoe fits by their standards it should apply to all in the same situation, but somehow I think they will agree when it is applied to their driver. It is interesting that in 1985 Elliott had a hell of a run going and then lost the championship. Then in 1987 Elliott had a championship run but Earnhardt was just that much better than anyone else that year. Any other year Elliott probably wins the championship. Same thing happened to Rusty in 1988 when Elliott finally won the championship. Earnhardt had a hell of a run in 1989 after the Coke 600 and built up a nice lead, but once again the hot hand early on failed to win the championship. All about the consistency. That my friends is the aspect that is missing from today's point system, I am fine giving winners bonus points for winning, but they need to find a way to implement rewards for consistency as well. 34. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.25.2018 - 7:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Concerning Earnhardt and Rudd from the race before at North Wilkesboro, the best view of that one is the front view that I didn't see until I watched the beginning of the coverage of the Rockingham race the week after. I don't know if ESPN didn't show it until then or what. @32 The Earnhardt Wallace incident from this race, they didn't catch the wreck until Rusty was up high near the wall and Dale was sideways in the middle of the track unless there is footage of the start of it that I haven't seen. The Dale trying to "get payback in the middle of the wreck" statement is not at all what happened. Dale's car was about ready to slam into the wall and crush the back end. You can see by the tire smoke and movement of the wheels and car, Earnhardt gunned it to try and save the back end from hitting the wall. Worked like a charm but ironically along came Marlin, who tore the entire back end off of the car anyway. 35. Jimnsimforever posted: 12.26.2018 - 12:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mark Martin should only have 180 points for this race. 36. Greg9Fan posted: 05.24.2019 - 4:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dang, reading back through these the Sr fans were still bitter haha. The man wrecked more cars than anyone else in history and you are mad at his competition? Get over it. Rusty EARNED this title in 1989. And would have had more in 93 and 94 if he could keep engines under him. 37. Seb posted: 08.27.2019 - 8:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 2 Monte Carlo in that race : #47 Pennington #71 Marcis 38. Joshua posted: 03.19.2020 - 2:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It wasn't the 6th place finish at Talladega that "cost" Rusty a better shot at the title in 1993, it was the fact that his wrist was broken in the flipping that Rusty said caused him to mis-shift at Sonoma and tear out the transmission a couple weeks later. 39. BOBO83329521 posted: 05.27.2020 - 11:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mark Martin finally wins, mainly because all of the other contenders got taken out in some way or another. There was a 3 car battle for the win shaping up with around 100 laps to go, but Rusty Wallace opted to pit early hoping for a long green run, then cars like Alan Kulwicki who had already pitted had enormously fast closing rates on people who did not pit yet, causing Harry Gant to underestimate the 7's closing rate and get taken out. Rusty of course proceeded to take out Earnhardt and left the door wide open for Mark to win. The 47 and 53 cars were just bad. Worse than Natalie Wrecker mainly because the 53 affected a winning contender. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: