Waid’s World: Rousing Phoenix Performance, Unusual Circumstances Gave Dale Earnhardt 1990 Title

The battle for the 1990 NASCAR Cup Series championship resulted in one of the closest finishes in NASCAR’s history and one in which the outcome was not effectively decided until the season’s next-to-last race.

However, had a series of unusual circumstances not taken place, the championship outcome could have been even closer – and with a different winner.

Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin were locked in a season-long duel that saw neither driver take a sizable advantage over the other. 

Ultimately, it was Earnhardt’s dominating victory in the Checker 500 on Nov. 4 at Phoenix Raceway that made the difference. Had he not won that race, Martin’s chances to win a career-first championship would have improved considerably.

In addition to Earnhardt’s victory at Phoenix, Martin was earlier victimized by the aforementioned unusual circumstances.

They happened at the second race of the season, the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond Raceway.

Competing in his third season for team owner Jack Roush, Martin shot out of the pits first and held the lead for the final 16 laps to beat Earnhardt to the checkered flag.

But during a lengthy post-race inspection conducted on Martin’s No. 6 Ford, it became clear something was amiss.

Afterward, Cup Director Dick Beaty announced that the Roush team would be fined a whopping $40,000 and be stripped of 46 points.

Beaty explained that the carburetor on Martin’s Ford was mounted on the engine’s intake manifold with an aluminum block spacer that was a half-inch thicker than the two inches allowed.

Many media members – and fans – wondered how a half-inch difference in an aluminum block spacer could be the type of infraction that commanded such a high penalty.

The Roush team had the same response.

 “It’s a dumb rule,” said Roush Team Manager Steve Hmiel. “NASCAR lowered the ground clearance and we had to raise the carburetor by the same length to maintain proper air flow.

“We got slammed for something that’s in the gray area, if that.”

The removal of 46 points was the difference between first and 10th place, the position of the last car on the lead lap.

Remember those lost points.      

Despite the Richmond debacle, Martin was the points leader going into the final four races of the year, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Rockingham Speedway, Phoenix and Atlanta Motor Speedway.

At Charlotte in the Mello Yello 500, both Earnhardt and Martin experienced unusual circumstances. Both were beset by problems. Martin completed the race on seven cylinders and finished 14th, three laps behind winner Davey Allison. 

Earnhardt suffered a spin, a collision in the pits and a faulty pit stop to finish 24th, 14 laps in arrears – decidedly unusual for him.

It was the same one week later in Rockingham’s AC Delco 500. Neither driver led a lap. Earnhardt finished 10th and Martin 11th. Earnhardt trailed by 45 points, a gain of only four points on leader Martin.

“Hey, that beats losing four points,” Earnhardt said.

Hmiel had the best take on the duo’s mediocre performances.

“It was like two batters in a home run contest going up to the plate and bunting,” he said. “Now, who would have ever thought that would happen?”

Then came Phoenix, where everything changed. It was as if one player, Earnhardt, decided to swing for the fences and solidly connected.

In his No. 3 Chevrolet, Earnhardt took the lead away from polesitter Rusty Wallace on the 51st lap and led the remaining 261 laps to win with remarkable ease.

The records show it was the most lopsided superspeedway victory since David Pearson led all but one lap in the 1973 Carolina 500 at Rockingham. It was another unusual circumstance.

Martin wound up in 10th place, on the lead lap, but lost 51 points to Earnhardt and was now six points down.

Martin was running sixth with 16 laps remaining and had he been able to finish there, he would have taken a 10-point lead into Atlanta. But he pitted for fresh tires during a caution on lap 296 and could never make up the distance.

“I really thought Mark would have a top-five finish here today and that would be it for us,” Earnhardt said. “We were just hoping to trim a few points off his lead. 

“But yeah, circumstances made the difference.”

As long as we’re on the subject of circumstances, this may be a bit hard to believe, but Martin drove a Robert Yates Racing Ford at Atlanta – a car usually driven by Allison.

The switch made it abundantly clear Roush was not convinced his team could prepare a car he felt was the equal of a Yates product, most likely in horsepower, and superior to Earnhardt’s Chevrolet.

“Yeah, that was unusual,” Earnhardt said. “But I reckon the Ford teams were doing everything they could to beat us.”

Incidentally, Chevrolet won the Manufacturer’s Championship.

Earnhardt won the championship by a mere 20 points. Almost immediately it was pointed out that had not Martin been slapped with a 46-point penalty, he would have won the championship.

Martin took it in stride.

“A championship is not won or lost in one race,” he said. “We put that Richmond deal behind us a long time ago.”

Earnhardt was considerably blunter.

“Hey, they cheated and they got caught,” he said.  “That was a long time ago. No need to bring up those circumstances again.”

Ah, but they will be. Any time the subject of Martin and the championship he never won is brought up, well, you can be assured of that.