1987 – Waltrip Wins by a Bumper in World Crown 500

 

Darrell Waltrip

Jefferson, Ga. (August 30, 1987) – It was that close. Dave Mader III and Darrell Waltrip were locked in a last-lap dual Sunday. At the end of Georgia International Speedway’s $101,000 World Crown 500, Waltrip stuck the nose of his Camaro barely in front of Mader’s racer to win by the width of a bumper.

NASCAR vice president Les Richter was watching from the scorer’s box. He thought it might have been even closer. “Maybe just the width of a bumper sticker,” Richter said. “But it was a great race, a ‘Daytona finish’ in the red hills of Georgia.”

Waltrip, 40, is NASCAR’s and all of racing’s all-time leader in career money won with $7.6 million. Yet Sunday, with a winning purse of only $3,500 in the 200-lap All-American Challenge Series race, Waltrip was as proud of his victory as if it had been the Southern 500 at Darlington.

“Dave Mader is a gentleman,” Waltrip said. “He deserves all the credit in the world. Most racer would have tried to stick you in the wall in a race down to the last lap like that. But he gave me room.”

Waltrip had worked his way around Mitch Fowler of Smyrna, Ga., just four laps before Billy McGinnis of Suwanee ran out of tires on the rubber-eating half-mile and spun on lap 182, and the yellow flag locked up the field only 18 laps from the finish. Only 12 laps remained when the green flag waved to restart the race.

“I waited until that white flag lap, Waltrip explained. “I had tried to go by Dave down low before, and that didn’t work. Dave’s Camaro was as quick as mine. But this time, on the last lap, I went high on the outside. I was either going to go into the wall or win it.”


Results –

1. Darrell Waltrip
2. Dave Mader
3. Don Jenkins
4. Stanley Smith
5. Mitch Fowler
6. Donnie Bishop
7. Marty Ward
8. Mark Martin
9. Clary Brown
10.Randy Porter
11.Rick Martin
12.Sonny Chaplin
13.Billy McGinnis
14.Larry Lancaster
15.Robby Johnson
16.Jerry Charlton
17.Nick Smith
18.Ronnie Sanders
19.Tim Nooner
20.David Green
21.Jeff Neal
22.Al Kuhn
23.Jimmy Cope
24.Gene Morgan
25.Bruce Battle
26.Junior Franks
27.Tiger Parsley
28.Mark Day
29.A. Arnold
30.Richie Till
31.Keith Waid
32.Bruce Stone