The 1987 was the fastest in NASCAR’s history, with record breaking speeds at Daytona and Talladega. This was all fun and games until Bobby Allison’s terrible crash in the 1987 Winston 500 at Talladega. Allison’s car was thrown into the catch fence but was luckily uninjured. Today we’re taking a deeper dive into how and why this crash happened, and then the fallout and safety changes that were put into place afterwards.
The Crash That Changed NASCAR Forever
Turn notifications on and SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss a video! Also leave a comment letting me know your favorite part or how I can improve! Thanks for watching!
For Business Inquiries: gbarcus77@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Nascarfan4888JJ
I do not own any of the footage in this video, all credit goes to the respective owners: NASCAR, NASCAR Media Group, Fox, NBC, NBC Sports, ESPN.
source
WAS THAT THE BITE OF 87?!
Hmm, interesting that they used to drive faster. I was a fan as a kid around the mid 80s. Guess I unknowingly was witnessing the Wild West of nascar.
They should let the cars go as fast as they can go. That’s racing. All they do know is follow the leader crash him and become the new leader until they crash you.
Daytona aint got shit on Talladega,,,ive been to Daytona race once & been to 13 Talladega races (& camped at all 13 too) Daytona is more narrow' but sure doesnt have the 33.3% bankin Talladega does.. Plus ive been racin every NASCAR trk everyday for 6yrs on pspro (( NASCAR 3-5)) ,,,so last thing id want 2do in real life is go into the turns at Talladega 3/4 wide wth me being stuck rite in the middle on 33% bankin..
I believe the driveshaft from the 22 car sheared off & hit DW's 17 Tide car in the windshield. Maybe thru it???
Nothing compared to Russell Phillips
I was there. My group was sitting just past the start finish line high up enough to see the whole track. It wasn't my first time at Talladega. Back then you could go down to the fence and watch as the cars came at you all the way from the fourth turn. You could see the suspension working as the aero effects pushed the front end down and the cars set up for the first turn. It was spectacular.
Bill Idiot thinks he was the reason for the record speed while it was the car!
It would be a simple thing to make spectators safe. Allow the cars to go as fast as the drivers will tolerate. The narrator here sounds as if he works for OSHA. I’ll bet good money he’s never been to a track, much less a race.
My issue with Nascar today is that NASCAR itself isn't listing to the fans or the drivers. Most drivers want faster races but also better race conditions. While fans on the other hand want to see competing racing but not racing where cars are going 175 mph and are glued to the track and cant pass each other for shit and NASCAR is basically giving them the middle finger and throwing them into rain storms at daytona and Talladega while at the same time bringing the cars from 197 which was the race speed back in 2020 to 180 which is really fucking slow. There also throwing the middle finger to the sfaty concerns of the gen 7 car just look at Kurt Bush for example he was thrown out of the season due to a nasty kinetic energy crash at Pocono and NASCAR has brushed it off as a no brainer and basically ignored it which is concerning because we were seeing this stuff back in the 2000s season of nascar. During that season, multiple drivers were severely injured or were killed it had to take us losing Dale in order for NASCAR to implement new safety measures. Now it looks like history is starting to repeat itself this is basically the 2022 version of dale saying "if they don't do something to these care it going end up killing somebody" imagine the outcry if we lose chase Elliott or Jimmy Johnson or Kevin Harvick this is what the fans and the drivers are trying to warn NASCAR about and they just aren't giving 2 caps about it. Personally for me and I'm afraid to say this, but someone I don't know who, but I'm afraid someone is going to be killed sometime this decade in Nascar
Why nobody watches it no more.
I'm not a huge fan of live racing so I've never been to a live car race but I could only imagine how loud it would be with all that horse power on the track I'll stick with watching the races on t.v my favourite cars are of course the good old old school ones 1977 Firebird Trans am old Ferraris Holden monaro s austin healey s I don't know if any of these cars raced but I mean you have to love how unique they are and strong they just dont make them like that anymore all cars look the same theirs no characteristic to them anymore and they dint way to easy scratch way to easy that's why if I ever do get a licence I would probably pick a old car lol
i was proud of nascar because while all the other sports were going woke and forgetting about their fans nascar didnt. before each race they said a prayer, had a fly over, honored our service men and women, bent over backward for the fans, and stayed away from woke crap but now they have joined every other sport and lost their way and screwed over long time fans and everything they once stood for and for that i have not watched in years. once they banned the confederate flag i stopped watching because i knew that it was the start of them going woke
all the changes they have made to racing are not right. from the way points are done to this dumbass race phase bullshit. say what you will but the plates may have slowed things down but they also brought the cars in to one giant pack that when a crash happens it takes out most of the cars, the points are now the most complicated scoring system on earth, they took something so simple and turned it into this crazy thing. and why this phase racing, just go out and race. take the green flag, do the laps needed and take the checked flag, simple and what racing is meant to be. i seen the crash where a car hit the outside wall, then hit the inside wall, then outside wall, inside wall, then flew over the outside wall and the driver walked away with nothing but a cut on his hand and then a seen crashes that were bad but cars have become safer
Thats when i quit watching nastycar, Now i hear they take tea breaks in the middle of the races.
Same thing is going on in drag racing and probably in a couple of years NFL and college football will be flag football too
Compared to LeMans, hell compared to go carts, NASCAR is a snoozers race. Put Daytona back on the beach, make it real "stock cars" and it becomes interesting again.
So that 30ish mph is the difference between life and death? Seems like if high speeds were the problem they’d knock them down to about 55mph.
1987 Ford Thunderbird had a wheelbase of 104" the Monte Carlo was 108". The Thunderbird was allowed to move the front axle ahead 3" and the rear axle back 3" to achieve the 110" required wheelbase. The Monte Carlo co could only move the rear axle back 2" to achieve the 110" required wheelbase. Seems unfair enough to me.
It's amazing that Americans like their driving in circles soo much. I prefer Bathurst any day
NASCAR is dead…
Davy Alison was killed in a helicopter and that was the last time I looked at life as a free ride metaphorically
Road bikes at the Isle of Man do over 200 mph on regular country roads, no safer barriers, no guard rails, no Hahns device, no restrictions plates and (naturally) no roll cages.
Who rides em? Cry baby millionaires driving billionaires toys?
No.
They’re what America now lacks a majority of…..real men, and a lot of em are sponsored by themselves or family for no pay.
Welcome to restrictor plate racing
NASCAR has only went down hill since then. I don need no no fun plate, or that Hans crap, just a gas pedal, a wheel and the almighty father watching over me. Its high time they make real racing great again.
He cut down the right rear
They need to go back the way it used to be. The cars they ran wre stock cars. In other words 500 cars had to produced that the public could buy. That's why it was could stock cars
They ran in packs at the super speedway because they were running restrictor plates
This was a well put together video. Thank YOu.
And the restrictor plate was just a Band-Aid that they had to use and it’s still not fixed. There’s still using the Band-Aid.
No one talking about Russel Philips accident? That’s the most gruesome death in NASCAR’s history ever..
That's when nascar was real. Now it's a slow race so Toyota can try and compete. Get rid of restricted and the rest of the bs garbage. That's way nascar is failing
Still don't understand y they don't just run 3-400 hp engines instead of restricting more powerful engines down to around that….. Could be a solution.
Its funny that both in nascar and f1 the late 80s cars has the most powerful engines
Dang.
Anyone who has played games like wreckfest know where pack racing leads and its massive accidents. One person does the wrong thing and it starts a chain reaction.
And that's why it fuc_ing sucks today!
I was there. Took a couple hours to fix the fence.
I was there. Horrible wreck.
How significant is the 20 MPH difference? 200 seemed like the right number to hit while racing.
The day Dale died everything changed. God rest his soul
NASCAR is done. At least for me and I know the end is in the near future. Censored speech for drivers, Crew, clone cars, and lack of respect for the loyal fan base has got the "Sport"on life support. Gone are the good ole days of RUN WHAT YOU BRUNG!
The day I stoped watching NASCAR.