Neil Bonnett
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Neil Bonnett
Lawrence Neil Bonnett (July 30, 1946 – February 11, 1994) was an American NASCAR driver who compiled 18 victories and 20 poles over his 18-year career. Bonnett was a member of the Alabama Gang, and started his career with the help of Bobby and Donnie Allison. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s with his performances in cars owned by Jim Stacy and Wood Brothers Racing, becoming one of the top competitors in the 1980s. The Alabama native currently ranks 47th in all-time NASCAR Cup victories. He appeared in the 1983 film ''Stroker Ace'' and the 1990 film ''Days of Thunder''. Bonnett hosted the TV show ''Winners'' for TNN from 1991 to 1994. He was a color commentator for CBS, TBS, and TNN in the years until his death. Bonnett's driving career was interrupted by a severe brain injury from a crash in 1990. He was killed while practicing for the 1994 Daytona 500 for a much-anticipated comeback. NASCAR career Bonnett was born in the Birmingham suburb of Hueytown, Alabama on Jul ...
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Hueytown, Alabama
Hueytown is a city near Bessemer in western Jefferson County, Alabama, United States. It is part of the Birmingham metropolitan area, and was part of the heavy industry development in this area in the 20th century. At the 2020 census, the population was 16,776. It was the home of the famous NASCAR Alabama Gang. It made international headlines in 1992 with the unexplained "Hueytown Hum", a mysterious noise believed to be related to large ventilation fans used for an underground coal mine in the area. Its nearby residential and business communities were damaged by an F5 tornado on April 8, 1998 and by an EF4 tornado on April 27, 2011. Geography This city is located at (33.437709, -86.997579). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.17%) is water. It is accessible from I-20/59 exits 112 and 115. Demographics 2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 15,364 people, 6,155 households, and 4,517 families residin ...
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Nashville Speedway USA
Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is a motorsport racetrack located at the Nashville Fairgrounds near downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The track is the second-oldest continually operating track in the United States. The track held NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup (now NASCAR Cup Series) races from 1958 to 1984. Track configuration The speedway is currently an 18 degree banked paved oval. The track is long. Inside the larger oval is a paved oval. The track was converted to a paved oval in 1957, when it began to be a NASCAR series track. The speedway was lengthened between the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The corners were cut down from 35 degrees to their present 18 degrees in 1972. The track was repaved between the 1995 and 1996 seasons. Track history The track first featured "horseless carriages" and motorcycles on June 11, 1904, on a dirt oval. Races were canceled after a motorcycle ran into the back of a car that was lining up. Harness horse racing events were also held at th ...
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Alabama Gang
The Alabama Gang was the nickname for a group of NASCAR drivers (and subsequently their offspring) who set up shop and operated out of Hueytown, Alabama (near Birmingham, Alabama). In the late 1950s, young auto racer Bobby Allison left Miami, Florida, looking for an area that had more opportunities to race. He discovered central Alabama in his travels. The region was dotted with small dirt tracks, and Allison won big his first few times out. He returned to Florida to pick up his brother Donnie Allison, and friend Red Farmer. The trio set up shop in Hueytown, Alabama, and were dominant throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973, Jimmy Means joined the gang. Beginning in 1979, their sons and contemporaries began racing, and became known as members of the Alabama Gang themselves. Bobby's son Davey Allison, and fellow Hueytown residents Neil Bonnett, and David Bonnett. Donnie's daughter Pam married Hut Stricklin, who joined this generation. Other drivers (notably Dale Earnhardt) ...
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Pole Position
In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the race. The number-one qualifying driver is also referred to as the pole-sitter. The pole position, pole sitter, starts the race "at the front of the starting grid. This provides the driver in the pole position the privilege of starting ahead of all the other drivers" Grid position is typically determined by a qualifying session before the race, where race participants compete to ascend to the number 1 grid slot, the driver, pilot, or rider having recorded fastest qualification time awarded the advantage of the number 1 grid slot (i.e., the pole-position) ahead of all other vehicles for the start of the race. Historically, the fastest qualifier was not necessarily the designated ''pole-sitter''. Different sanctioning bodies in motor sport emp ...
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NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and his son, Jim France, has been the CEO since August 2018. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Europe. History Early stock car racing In the 1920s and 1930s, Daytona Beach supplanted France and Belgium as the preferred location for world land speed records. After a historic race between Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton in 1903, 15 records were set on what became the Daytona Beach Road Course between 1905 and 1935. Daytona Beach had become synonymous with fast cars in 1936. Drivers raced on a course, consisting of a stretch of beach as one straightaway, and a narrow blacktop beachfront highway, Florid ...
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Atlanta Motor Speedway
Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly known Atlanta International Raceway from 1960 to 1990) is a 1.54-mile entertainment facility in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960. The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of where before it was . The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit. In July 2021 NASCAR announced that the track would be reprofiled for the 2022 season to have 28 degrees (previously 24 degrees) of banking and would be narrowed from 55 to 40 feet which make ...
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Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500
The Ambetter Health 400 is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. William Byron is the defending race winner. This race was originally Atlanta's second race of the season and was run as a late-season event for much of its history. From 1987 until 2001, the race was scheduled in November as the final race of the NASCAR season. From 2002 until 2008, the race was moved to October in favor of awarding the final race weekend to Homestead-Miami Speedway and became part of what is now the NASCAR Chase for the Championship in 2004. In 2009, Atlanta swapped fall race dates with Auto Club Speedway and the race was moved to Labor Day weekend. From 2011 onward, this has been Atlanta's only Cup Series race date as its spring race was moved to Kentucky Speedway and run later in the year. In 2015, the race lost its place as the Labor Day weekend race for the Cup Series and became the second race of the season (after the season-opening Dayt ...
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1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 45th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 22nd modern-era Cup season. The season began on February 7 and ended on November 14. Dale Earnhardt of Richard Childress Racing won the title, the sixth of his career. 1993 was marked by the deaths of two Winston Cup drivers, though neither were on-track in any form. 1992 Champion Alan Kulwicki was killed on April 1 in a plane crash near Blountville, Tennessee. He was travelling to Bristol International Raceway in a corporate jet belonging to his sponsor, Hooters. Davey Allison died on July 13, a day after a helicopter crash at Talladega Superspeedway left him with a severe head trauma. The accidents robbed the sport two of its brightest young stars and denied Kulwicki the chance to defend his 1992 title. The Generation 4 car was introduced this season, when body panels were removed, teams spent hours in a wind tunnel to gain aerodynamics, side skirts were added ...
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North Carolina Speedway
Rockingham Speedway, formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway and later North Carolina Speedway is a racetrack located near Rockingham, North Carolina. It is also known as The Rock and previously hosted NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, ARCA Menards Series, CARS Tour, and UARA-Stars races. The track opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed "North Carolina Speedway". Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Until 2013, it was home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School, The track was used often for television and movie filming. Currently, The Rock is undergoing renovations and updates by the current ownership in order to house larg ...
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Goodwrench 500
The Subway 400 was the second race of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series season until 2004, held a week after the Daytona 500. This 400-mile (644 km) annual race was sponsored by Subway and was held at North Carolina Speedway (''The Rock'') since 1966. From 1966 to 1995, the race distance was 500 miles (805-km) which was shortened to 400 miles starting from the 1996 season. Until the 2004 Nextel Cup season, two annual races were held at Rockingham. After the 2003 season, the fall race (the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400) — which was held in November — was moved to California Speedway, to be held on the lucrative Labor Day weekend. This displaced the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, which moved to November 2004 before being removed from the schedule completely (replaced by a second date at Texas Motor Speedway). The changes were part of the trend of less races being held in the southeast and a broader distribution across the United States. Thou ...
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1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 40th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 17th modern-era Cup series. The season began on February 7 at Daytona International Speedway and ended on November 20 at the Atlanta International Speedway. Bill Elliott of Melling Racing won the championship. The 1988 season was notable for hosting the first of two tire wars between Goodyear and Hoosier. 1988 was the first season without NASCAR legend Tim Richmond since 1980. 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series drivers Schedule Races Busch Clash The Busch Clash, an invitational event for all Busch Pole winners the previous season, was held February 7 at Daytona International Speedway. Geoff Bodine drew for the pole. Top ten results # 3 - Dale Earnhardt # 28 - Davey Allison # 12 - Bobby Allison # 5 - Geoff Bodine # 9 - Bill Elliott # 27 - Rusty Wallace # 25 - Ken Schrader # 97 - Morgan Shepherd # 11 - Terry Labonte # 33 - Harry Gant *Tim Richmond was el ...
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