Catchfence

With the passing of the first decade of this millenium has come the expected retrospectives on the ten seasons past and listings of mosts and leasts. One such list involves the most emotional finishes of the decade and it warrants a dissent. The list is woefully dry on surprises – it includes DEI wins at Daytona and Rockingham in 2001, Kevin Harvick’s win in 2001, and several Hendrick Motorsports wins, notably Jimmie Johnson’s Martinsville win in 2004 – and woefully dry on true emotional punch. That some of these races ran parallel with tragedies in the sport is true enough, but it is worth noting the controversial nature of some of the personalities involves, a nature that detracts from some of the sympathy needed to engage emotion.

The following is a list of the true most emotional finishes in the sport in the 2000-9 period.

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2001 SOUTHEASTERN 500 – Bristol races are usually among the least competitive in the sport, and this one didn’t produce much combat up front. It was noteworthy, however, for producing one of the comparatively rare surprises in the decade. The Wood Brothers Ford, driven by Elliott Sadler, emerged with the lead late in the going, and was pursued by John Andretti, in Richard Petty’s Dodge. Given the historic excellence of both teams involved, the finish, while not particularly contested, was compelling. Andretti slapped the wall a few times trying to chase down Sadler but had to settle for second. The 1-2 by the Woods and Petty was a return for the sport to its competitive history, a return the sport needed far more than histrionics by its newest rock star driver.

2001 ALABAMA 500 – He first emerged as a comer in the sport in the 1980s working with Leo and Richard Jackson, who had an unofficial alliance with the race team of Hal Needham and Travis Carter. By 2001 Andy Petree was now owner of the former Skoal #33, and to that team he added the #55 in 1999. In 2001 Bobby Hamilton took over the car, and at Talladega Hamilton drafted in the pack. The race itself had been subject of a vicious rumor campaign alleging a mass-parkout by drivers, but nothing happened – quite literally; the yellow never flew once and despite 36 lead changes among a record-tying 26 drivers the racing was stunningly restrained. The finish, though, was classic – Hamilton drafted from mid-pack and surged to the lead at the white flag, taking the win for the first time since 1998 and giving Petree his first win as a car owner. It also extended a surge of new and comeback winning drivers and teams that was the theme of the 2001-2 period.

2002 NATIONAL 500 – A 13-car crash brought out the surpeme hypocrite in Richard Childress deploring the driving of Todd Bodine – and conveniently forgetting the history of the driver whose number Childress refused to release for someone else’s use. Once the nonsense was settled a rookie making his second career start had Chip Ganassi’s Dodge in the lead, and Jamie McMurray easily beat Bobby Labonte to the win. The win was one of the fastest paths to a first win in NASCAR history and some felt it was the emergence of a new superstar – except it was nothing of the kind, but would nonetheless be remembered five years later.

2004 WINSTON 500 – There were 53 lead changes, but the real emotion of this thriller was that the sport – from the drivers to the sanctioning body – got what they deserved from an enraged fanbase. NASCAR refused to restart the race after a late caution and fans bombarded the track with debris, showering Jeff Gordon. Gordon’s unpopularity as a champion was on graphic display and it shamed NASCAR into implementing green-white-checker finishes.

2004 KANSAS 400 – He became Front Row Joe when he parlayed a talent for qualifying into several poles. It took over six years before he won a Winston Cup race but win he finally did, and by 2004 he’d done so three times in total. Joe Nemecheck’s last win came in the first of NASCAR’s misbegotten Chases, and it turned the sport away from points for once as Nemechek whipped Reed Morton and Nelson Bowers’ Chevrolet to the stripe at Kansas Speedway. Thus the sport got what it needed – a dark horse taking down the establishment.

2005 DIE HARD 500 – His crew chief from the 1990s returned, and with Todd Parrott back Dale Jarrett, winless since February 2003 stayed in contention in another ferocious Talladega thriller. After 49 lead changes, a two-lap shootout transpired and Tony Stewart went for the lead, but Jarrett ripped up three abreast up high to steal it. NASCAR’s new rule banning racing to the stripe marred the finish, but the win was yet another dark horse and comeback win the sport needed.

2006 DIE HARD 500 – Talladega was repaved, and the new pavement made a great race even better. There were 63 lead changes among 23 drivers, the first time 60 lead changes had been breeched since 1984. In the final ten laps Dale Junior and Jimmie Johnson led the pack, and on the final lap Johnson tried Junior low – but he got hooked by teammate Brian Vickers and the top two cars spun into the infield. Kasey Kahne passed Vickers but NASCAR ruled him the leader. It was the first win for Vickers and also a rare win for Rick Hendrick’s neglected stepchild of a raceteam – the #25, long ignored on Hendrick and Chevrolet’s depth chart since Tim Richmond died.

2007 DAYTONA 500 – The wildest finish of all. The first 150 laps were a dismal ennui monopolized by Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch; both crashed out, and a genuine fight ensued for 40 laps. A two-lap sprint led by Mark Martin ensued, but Kevin Harvick emerged from seventh and sidedrafted to the front as Kyle Busch tried for the lead; with the field up to five-abreast behind him Harvick blasted forth and squeezed ahead of an out-of-shape Martin while Busch lost it and the field plowed into the blockage while Harvick beat Martin to the stripe and cars punched the concrete in the trioval while Harvick’s teammate Clint Bowyer slid on his roof to the trioval grass. Seeing so many cars wiped out was chaotic, but also poetic given the percentage of Hendrick and Roush equipment wasted, while the finish was Daytona’s closest since 1959.

2007 FIRECRACKER 400 – Jamie McMurray failed to win after 2002 and in 2007 was with Roush Racing, with the cars Kurt Busch had won a title with. He had failed with this team as well, but in the Firecracker he stormed to the lead with some seven to go and Kyle Busch challenged him. It turned into a stunning sidedrafting war involving over a dozen cars, the lead seesawing by inches back and forth. Busch appeared to have a run in the final stretch, but McMurray’s superior sidedrafting got him to the stripe first, and only the second win of his career.

2008 DIE HARD 500 – The best race of the decade. There were 64 lead changes and a new record for leaders at 28. The emotion lay in the winner who was taken away from the win by a NASCAR rule. Regan Smith edged Tony Stewart at the stripe but was disqualified from the win by NASCAR’s vague yellow-line rule, a rule whose vagueness emerged in comments from Ramsey Poston, which only aggravated controversy over the sanctioning body’s competence and the integrity of its rules-writing. It remains the highlight of Regan Smith’s career.

FINISH OF THE DECADE – 2004 FIRECRACKER 250 – The race itself had some spirited dicing but it was the final ten laps that made it waht it was. Junior emerged with the lead following Robby Gordon’s cut tire, but with three to go Michael Waltrip and Jason Leffler stormed from 25th to the lead; Leffler went for the lead and on the final lap blasted Waltrip into the inside wall on the backstretch; Junior stormed up by Leffler sideslammed him into the fourth turn wall while Mike Wallace, in Fred Biagi’s Ford, ripped past them all and stole the win.

Prolific drafting and passing; a first-time winning team; a comeback winning driver; the deflation of the Earnhardt myth (that his race ended in Turn Four was the ultimate and most delicious irony) – all added up to the finish of the decade.

With the sport, there will hopefully be more such surprises.