NASCAR’s debut at Sonoma remembered for a great finish
By Steve Waid
Thursday, June 19, 2008
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TURN ONE COMMENTARY
NASCAR has sanctioned races in California throughout its history, but in the 1970s there were only two venues in that state on the Winston Cup circuit, at Ontario and Riverside.
Riverside International Raceway, a 2.631-mile road course, became a regular part of the NASCAR schedule in 1958. Ontario Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile facility, came on board in 1971.
Ontario lasted only nine years before it fell victim to financial difficulties and was leveled in 1981.
Riverside lasted just a few more years. The land it was built on was simply too valuable and the track gave way to developers.
Its last race was held on June 12, 1988. It was won by Rusty Wallace.
While it seemed to some that California would no longer play host to a Winston Cup race, NASCAR quickly dispelled that notion when it announced a new race would be part of the 1989 schedule.
And it would be held in California, at a place called Sears Point International Raceway – another road course.
Many among the legion of NASCAR fans who lived in the Southeast had never heard of the track.
They asked where it was located and were told Sonoma. They had never heard of Sonoma. Where was it?
They were told it was nestled in the Wine Country. They hadn’t heard of that, either.
Nevertheless, the inaugural Banquet Frozen Foods 300 Winston Cup race, on June 11, 1989, once again gave NASCAR a presence in the country’s most populous state.
Wallace was the heavy prerace favorite. He had already proven his skill on road courses with victories at Riverside and Watkins Glen, which made its return to NASCAR in 1986.
The Sears Point event was the 12th of the 1989 season. By that time, Wallace, driving for Raymond Beadle’s Blue Max team, had already won three races and was in contention for the championship.
But there was a slight problem. Rumors leaked that Wallace was unhappy with Beadle and wanted to move on, despite the fact Wallace was under contract through the 1990 season.
Wallace hotly denied the rumors. At a press conference at Charlotte in May, he said the media was spreading rumors and trying to disrupt his team. (It turns out those rumors were true. In July, Wallace filed suit against Beadle. The suit was eventually dropped when Wallace agreed to drive for Beadle in 1990. After that, he would leave.)
If his team was disrupted, it did a great job of hiding it. Wallace was running consistently well and came to Sears Point full of optimism.
Perhaps he didn’t count on Ricky Rudd.
Rudd, in his second and final year with owner Kenny Bernstein, was considered by many to be Wallace’s equal on the road courses. He, too, had already won at Riverside and Watkins Glen.
Most observers reckoned that the inaugural Winston Cup event at Sears Point would come down to a shootout between Rudd and Wallace.
They were right.
The race featured 74 laps around what was then an 11-turn, 2.52-mile course. During the second half of the event, Wallace and Rudd were dominant. It was obvious one of them would win.
They put on a show for nearly 80,000 fans. They bumped, gouged, blocked and, more than once, nearly spun each other out.
With three laps to go, they entered the tight No. 7 turn with Rudd’s Buick in the lead – barely.
Wallace, driving a Pontiac, faked a move to the inside and then shot to the high side of the narrow track in an attempt to pass Rudd.
Rudd caught Wallace’s move in his rearview mirror. He quickly moved up the track. Rudd crowded Wallace, who had nowhere else to go but off the course – which he did, briefly.
As his car kicked up dust, Wallace managed to keep control of it and drove back onto the track. But it was too late.
Rudd was well in front and went on to win by more than a second.
No one could have blamed Wallace if he had been upset over the outcome. Instead, he said he had no problem with Rudd’s move, calling it “good, hard racing.”
Wallace would go on to win three more races in 1989 – including Watkins Glen – and earn the Winston Cup championship by just 12 points over Dale Earnhardt.
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