Radio chatter doesn’t reflect clean race

Steve Guireman

Monday, March 2, 1998 | 6:05 a.m.

It was one of the most memorable moments in NASCAR history.

Dale Earnhardt, the monkey of winning the Daytona 500 finally off his back, exchanging handshakes and high-fives with drivers and crew members from opposing teams en route to the winners' circle.

Obviously, these good ol' boys are good friends, right?

Well, as anybody who has ever brought a radio scanner to a race can tell you, that's not always the case.

Tempers, not to mention a few four-letter words, can flare more than a little when you're racing side-by-side at almost 170 miles per hour.

Take Sunday's Las Vegas 400 for instance.

When race leader Jeff Burton and Ricky Craven were jockeying for position early in the race, it seemed like a harmless little incident to the 111,000 in attendance.

But those with scanners tuned to Burton's crew found out that things were starting to get very heated.

"Take care of yourself, Jeff," said crew chief Frank Stoddard. "Don't race that stupid ass."

Stoddard wanted Burton to forget about his battle with Kenny Irwin, who was in 33rd place and down a lap at the time, and instead focus on the man hot on his heels in second place, Rusty Wallace.

"I don't want to race him, but I've got to pass him," Burton said.

A few minutes later, he did just that.

"See, I can be calm," Burton joked with his crew. "I didn't call him a curly-haired so-and-so. But I'm sure he was listening for it, though."

Midway through the race, Wallace and Geoff Bodine went at it, circling the track side-by-side several times and nearly colliding on a couple of occasions.

"Outside, outside," said Robin Pemberton, Wallace's crew chief. "That seven (Bodine) is one lap down."

A few laps later Wallace got past Bodine.

"Real nice work there, Waldo," said Pemberton. "You know (Bodine) is trying your patience. But you've got a lot more of that than he does."

Those listening in on Earnhardt got more than their share of salty language.

During the 49th lap, Earnhardt complained to his crew about his car's tire pressure.

"Don't mess with it too much," he warned. "I ain't that bleeping loose and I ain't that bleeping tight, either."

Near the end of the race, Earnhardt told his crew, "If I could just get past this (bleeping) 94 car (Bill Elliott), I'd be all right."

As the race wound down, most of the action on the scanners centered around eventual winner Mark Martin.

"Ten laps to go and you're still 2.7 seconds ahead of Jeff (Burton) with two cars in between," said crew chief Jimmy Fenning.

A few minutes later, Martin checked in with his crew again.

"How far to go, buddy?" Martin asked.

"Two laps to go," came the reply. "You get the white flag on the next lap."