Today in Nascar History May

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Before we start the month I feel it is necessary to give credit to the sources of info (which are all highly recommended) Nascar Chronicle by Greg Fielden, racing-reference.com, motorsport.com, yahoo sports, getty images, and google image search for the pictures.

Today in Nascar History May 1st:

Winners on this date: Buck Baker, Bob Welborn, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Darrell Waltrip, Richard Petty, Phil Parsons, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch.

May 1st, 1964: LeeRoy Yarbrough scores his 1st career win by taking the checkers at Savannah Speedway-only 12 cars start the 100 mile event.



May 1st, 1983: Richard Petty beats Benny Parsons and Lake Speed to the finish in a 3 wide affair at Talladega-Phil Parsons survives a horrific rollover crash on the 72nd lap.



May 1st, 1988: Phil Parsons takes the lead with 15 laps to go and takes his first and only career cup win by taking the checkers at Talladega.

Last Laps

May 1st, 1994: Dale Earnhardt survives not 1 but 2 big ones and pulls out a victory by holding off Ernie Irvan to the line at Talladega. (note-the whole race is on Youtube and its a pretty good one to watch)

Mark Martin-the big one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Gvq3rcc30

Big One #2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCY7_0w3sJk

May 1st, 1994: Racing Legend and F1 champion Ayrton Senna perishes after crashing during the F1 race at Imola-today marks the 20 year anniversary of his passing.

Senna Onboard Mastery-Jerez Pole Lap 1990-I know this is not Nascar but everyone should watch this video for his driving mastery and the complete screaming sound of that turbo! It is amazing.



May 1st, 2005: Jeff Gordon survives Talladega and a massive 25 car big one to take yet another win at the Alabama Track.

Big One

Finish




May 1st, 2006: Jimmie Johnson wins a rain delayed affair at Talladega.

Big One

Last 4 Laps



May 1st, 2010: Kyle Busch outduels Jeff Gordon on a late race restart to take the win at Richmond. It is Kyle's 2nd straight victory in the spring race at the 3/4 mile track and his first win since last August at Bristol.

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Today in Nascar History May 2nd:

Winners on this date: Red Byron, Herb Thomas, Junior Johnson (2 times), Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Buddy Baker (2 times), Ernie Irvan, Jeff Gordon (2 times), and Kyle Busch.

May 2nd, 1959: Junior Johnson flips his ford in practice, but drives the fixed beater to the win at Hickory, winning by over 2 laps (pretty cool-rolls and wins!) (and yes I think this picture is of his Chevy I am not sure though)



May 2nd, 1976: Buddy Baker blows away the field in the Talladega 500 averaging a blistering pace of over 169 mph average, he wins by over 35 seconds.



May 2nd, 1982: Darrell Waltrip passes Benny Parsons on the last lap and wins the Winston 500 at Talladega. Parsons won the pole for the event with an average time of over 200 mph, the first time it had ever been done in a qualifying session.

May 2nd, 1993: Ernie Irvan survives and wins a wild Talladega event that saw the big one and a spectacular flip by Rusty Wallace across the finish line.

Big One



Rusty’s wreck and finish



May 2nd, 2009: Kyle Busch completes a weekend sweep at Richmond by becoming only the 2nd driver to win on his birthday. Cale Yarborough is the other having accomplished that feat twice.

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May 1st, 1994: Racing Legend and F1 champion Ayrton Senna perishes after crashing during the F1 race at Imola-today marks the 20 year anniversary of his passing.

Thank you for including that, everyone on here is into other forms of racing and that was a huge event in all of motorsports!

[race crazy]

Thank you for including that, everyone on here is into other forms of racing and that was a huge event in all of motorsports!

absolutely-and he is one of my heroes.

[race crazy]

Today in Nascar History May 3rd:

Winners on this date: Buck Baker, Jack Smith, Lee Petty, Bobby Isaac, Bobby Allison, Davey Allison (2 times), Mark Martin, Joe Nemechek, and Clint Bowyer.

May 3rd, 1981: Bobby Allison takes the win at Talladega for his 2nd win of the season.



May 3rd, 1987: Bill Elliott wins the pole for the Winston 500 at 212.809 mph (actually happened May 1st I think), still the fastest lap ever turned in qualifying in the cup series. In the race, (held on this date May 3rd) rookie Davey Allison holds off the field to score his first career win at his home track in his 14th career start. His father, Bobby Allison survives a terrible crash when his car becomes airborne and takes out part of the catch fence-no fans were seriously injured-the race is stopped for 3 hours to repair the fence.



Bobby Allison's crash






Last 10 Laps











May 3rd, 1992: Davey Allison beats Bill Elliott to the finish line to win at Talladega and maintain his points lead-9 races into the season-a Ford had won all 9.

Finish

May 3rd, 2003: Joe Nemechek is out front in Rick Hendrick's #25 when the rains come, giving him the win at Richmond.

May 3rd, 2008: Clint Bowyer takes advantage of a late race get together between fan favorite Dale Jr. and Kyle Busch to take his 2nd career Cup Series win in Richmond-Jr. gets taken out and the fans are none too happy with Mr. Busch.

Big Mess on the backstretch during the race



Jr/KB/finish

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Today in Nascar History May 4th:

Winners on this date: Dick Rathmann, Fireball Roberts, Jimmy Pardue, Bobby Isaac, Buddy Baker (2 times), Bobby Allison, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart, and Denny Hamlin.

May 4th, 1962: Jimmy Pardue passes Rex White in the late going to win the event at Southside Speedway in Richmond, VA. It is his first career cup win-he makes only 550 dollars for his efforts. (sadly Jimmy Pardue died tragically in 1964 in a tire testing accident-he would have had a long and successful career)



May 4th, 1975: Buddy Baker ends a two year winless streak by taking 1st in the Winston 500 at Talladega.



May 4th, 1986: Bobby Allison holds off Dale Earnhardt to win at Talladega and end a two year winless skid.

Finish

May 4th, 2002: Tony Stewart wins a rain delayed Richmond event filled with wrecks.

Recap

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVqJuSuGWg0

May 4th, 2014: Denny Hamlin is out front of Greg Biffle at Talladega as the caution flag flies on the final lap for debris in a very competitive race giving Hamlin his first win at the Alabama track.

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Today in Nascar History May 5th:

Winners on this date: Speedy Thompson, Paul Goldsmith, Jack Smith, Jim Paschal, David Pearson (2 times), Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, and Tony Stewart.

May 5th, 1950: Nascar president Bill France and Curtis Turner enter a car in the Carrera Pan Americana-a 2,172 mile race through Mexico. France and Turner crash out early.

May 5th, 1985: Bill Elliott breaks an oil fitting early in the Winston 500 at Talladega, then without a caution flag-makes up 2 whole laps-over five miles on the field-retakes the lead and wins the race-and at Talladega. (this car was a rocketship)

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Today in Nascar History May 6th:

Winners on this date: Curtis Turner, Speedy Thompson, Fred Lorenzen, Joe Weatherly, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2 times), Jimmie Johnson, and Brad Keselowski.

May 6th, 1956: Speedy Thompson takes the win in the 100 mile event in Concord, NC. It is the fourth straight event in which the 2 Kiekhaefer Motorsports cars have finished 1-2.



May 6th, 1961: Fred Lorenzen passes Curtis Turner with 1 lap to go and out hustles him on the last lap to win the Rebel 300 at Darlington.



May 6th, 1973: David Pearson avoids a 21 car melee and takes an easy victory at Talladega-only 17 of the 60 cars that started the race finish the event.





May 6th, 1984: Cale Yarborough passes Harry Gant on the final lap to win at Talladega. The race is the most competitive in Nascar history with 13 drivers swapping the lead 75 times throughout the event and remains so until the record is broken in the 2010 Talladega race.



May 6th, 1990: Dale Earnhardt holds off Greg Sacks to claim another Talladega win.

Recap



May 6th, 1991: Harry Gant coasts on fumes across the line to win at Talladega. Kyle Petty breaks his leg in the big one on the backstretch and is knocked out of competition for 3 months.

The Big One (with some racing before it)

Finish

May 6th, 2006: Dale Earnhardt Jr. takes the win in the Crown Royal 400 at Richmond on the same date as his first Richmond win in 2000.



May 6th, 2007: Jimmie Johnson holds off Kyle Busch to win the rain delayed event at Richmond.

May 6th, 2012: Brad Keselowski uses a push from Kyle Busch on the last restart of the day to overtake the dominant car of Matt Kenseth and holds off Busch on the final lap to score his 2nd career Talladega victory.

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Today in Nascar History May 7th:

Winners on this date: Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, David Pearson, Benny Parsons, Darrell Waltrip, Davey Allison, Dale Earnhardt, Greg Biffle, and Regan Smith.

May 7th, 1955: Nascar Hall of Famer Junior Johnson takes his first career Nascar victory by winning at Hickory Motor Speedway in North Carolina.



May 7th, 1989: Davey Allison outruns Terry Labonte and Mark Martin to lead a 1-2-3 Ford finish in the Winston 500 at Talladega.



May 7th, 1995: Dale Earnhardt passes Mark Martin to win at Sears Point. It is his first win on a road course in 36 tries.



May 7th, 2005: Greg Biffle wins at Darlington.

May 7th, 2011: Talented underdog driver Regan Smith scores a huge and unlikely upset win in the Southern 500 at Darlington. Smith, driving for the single car Furniture Row Racing team out of Denver, CO, stays out on a late caution and holds off a hard charging Carl Edwards on new tires on the green white checkered restart to score his first career Cup Series victory. Smith's win is somewhat overshadowed by the "have at it boys" antics of Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, who clash post-race after the two tangled in the event.

Race Recap with antics included

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Today in Nascar History May 8th:

Winners on this date: Tim Flock, Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, and Denny Hamlin.

May 8th, 1989: Hoosier Tire Company announces that they will withdraw from Nascar competition following the 1989 season.

May 8th, 2010: Denny Hamlin holds off the field and completes his first career weekend sweep by winning the Southern 500 at Darlington after having won the Nationwide race the night before.