Waid’s World: Neil Bonnett Changed His Luck in 1988 with 2 Straight Wins
Bonnett recovered from an injury that prematurely ended his 1987 season to win two of the first three Cup points races in 1988.
Steve Waid has been in journalism since 1972, when he began his newspaper career at the Martinsville (Va.) Bulletin. He has spent over 40 years in motorsports journalism, first with the Roanoke Times-World News and later as publisher and vice president for NASCAR Scene and NASCAR Illustrated.
Steve has won numerous state sports writing awards and several more from the National Motorsports Press Association for his motorsports coverage, feature and column writing. For several years, Steve was a regular on “NASCAR This Morning” on FOX Sports Net and he is the co-author, with Tom Higgins, of the biography “Junior Johnson: Brave In Life.”
In January 2014, Steve was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame. And in 2019 he was presented the Squier-Hall Award by the NASCAR Hall of Fame for lifetime excellence in motorsports journalism. In addition to writing for Frontstretch, Steve is also the co-host of The Scene Vault Podcast.
Bonnett recovered from an injury that prematurely ended his 1987 season to win two of the first three Cup points races in 1988.
Steve Waid recounts how in the middle of the 1988 season, Richmond because a completely different track.
Atlanta Motor Speedway in July was a different animal nearly 50 years ago.
The 1984 Firecracker 400 at Daytona has been recorded as perhaps one of the most iconic in the sanctioning body’s history.
Twenty-five years after Lee Petty said it didn’t matter which of his two drivers finished first and second, Junior Johnson said the same thing.
In this age of multi-car teams, the time of the independent driver has long since come to an end. But for one man, and for NASCAR, it was a memorable time.
While the racetrack has changed, tradition is still alive at Darlington Raceway.
Although Charland loved pranking people, he was also a tremendous driver as he won four straight championships in the now Xfinity Series.
In 1977, the loudest complaint about a 500-lap race at Martinsville came from Cale Yarborough.
He defied the odds. He beat others with more resources. He remained stalwart. In other words, as has been said of him often: He did it his way.