re: 2024 NASCAR Season Thread - 2024-25 Offseason

Didn’t even make the list of top sports headlines today on ESPN

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I still hate plates as it only leads to wrecks.

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I do like Chase

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That's ESPN for ya.

Here’s some history for those newer fans. Has an Atlanta tie in and involves Bill Elliott too. Pit road rules today are because of these incidents.

Near the end of the 1987 NASCAR Cup Series season on the road course at Riverside, Bill Elliott’s crew was in the middle of a pit stop when Michael Waltrip and Jim Robinson made contact on pit road. Waltrip’s car slid into Elliott’s car, knocking it off the jack and injuring three pit crew members.

Chuck Hill suffered massive injuries after the car came down on him. He would spend weeks recovering in a California hospital. With Hill out of commission, the team held a tryout at the shop to find a new right rear tire changer for the 1988 season.

Out of numerous candidates, a cowboy boots-wearing Mike Rich won the job.

During the 1988 season, Mike Rich was the right rear tire changer for a Bill Elliott team that won six times and, more impressively, captured the season series championship. In 1989, Elliott endured injuries early in the season but still managed to finish sixth in the points.

In 1990, the team had 12 top-five finishes, but victory remained elusive as it won its first and only race of the year at Dover in September. Several weeks later at the Cup Series season finale in Atlanta, Bill Elliott appeared to have the best car of the day, leading 94 of the 328 laps of the Atlanta Journal 500.

With just over 30 laps remaining, the caution flag came out. In the front of the pack, Bill Elliott darted down pit road, the television cameras trained on him as he pitted. What happened next, the cameras captured, and the national television audience at home watched in horror.

Mike Rich and the rest of Elliott’s pit crew went to work on the lead car. The second-place car of Ricky Rudd approached from behind headed toward its stall, located directly in front of Elliott’s. As Rudd attempted to brake, the rear wheels of his Chevrolet locked up, sending his car spinning out of control straight toward Elliott’s car.

Tommy Cole, Bill Elliott’s jack man, was hit and sent flying. He suffered a broken arm and spent the night in the hospital. Mike Rich, however, never had a chance. He was pinned between the two cars and suffered head and chest injuries. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital and underwent surgery but died hours later.

Rich’s death was a wake-up call to NASCAR, which had experienced a similar pit road fatality at Atlanta 11 years earlier. The racing organization implemented significant changes the following year. One of the most important was the introduction of a pit road speed limit. Interestingly, all the other motorsports, including F1 and IndyCar, followed suit.

Mike Rich got his job because of an accident on pit road. He lost his life several years later in another accident at age 32.

Some may remember Bill became a big proponent of safety and butted heads with Nascar over it.

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I watched it happen live. It was a sad day for Nascar...

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No one was killed in that incident. It was the one a few years later. I watched both of them.

Paul Menard won the season opener TransAm Series race at Sebring today.

I like the info that he is giving out. He still needs to work on his pacing/cadence some and that'll come w/experience, but so far so good IMO

That was my first ever race weekend at AMS and it was quite an experience, to say the least.

I was in section 149 row 17, just to the right of the start/finish line, and I thought for sure Blaney had held on. When 99 flashed at the top of the leaderboard though, pretty much everyone started cheering. It was such a cool moment, and just a fantastic weekend overall.

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Nobody here remembers Daytona 1959?

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It appears that the official list of closest finishes only lists those that could be verified by electronic timing and scoring.