Elliott Sweeps to His Second Daytona Win : Bodine, Out of Gas, Falters With Only Five Miles to Go

The race chart will show that Bill Elliott won the 1987 Daytona 500 when Geoff Bodine ran out of gas while leading with only five miles to go.

Don’t you believe it.

Elliott, in the new slope-nosed Ford Thunderbird created in the family garage in Dawsonville, Ga., had the 42-car NASCAR field covered from the moment he streaked away from the starting line Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

Elliott led 105 of the 200 laps in an accident-free race run at a near-record pace before 130,000 racing fans. Elliott also won in 1985.

Bodine, gambling that he could coax his Chevrolet to run two laps more than Elliott’s Ford from a 22-gallon gasoline tank, had a 23-second lead when he and crew chief Gary Nelson elected not to stop for fuel. It would have taken about a single gallon more for him to make it.

“When Ernie (Elliott’s brother and crew chief) said over the radio that Geoff had ran out, it perked me right up,” Elliott said. “If we’d been getting 42 laps on a tank, we might have gambled, too, but we had no choice but to stop.”

Bodine had logged 42 laps between stops, but was asking his Chevy to give him 45 at the end. He got only 43.

In losing his gamble, Bodine found that what goes around in racing, comes around.

One year ago, in the 1986 Daytona 500, Bodine was the winner when Dale Earnhardt coasted to a stop, out of fuel, with victory in sight.

Bodine, who finished 14th, was philosophical about his misfortune.

“The guy who ran out of gas in the Daytona 500 last year won the Winston Cup championship,” he said. “That sounds like a good omen to me.

“If I didn’t think we could (finish without stopping for gas) we wouldn’t have tried it at the end. It was a calculated risk. I think every team in racing has tried it. We’ll live with it.”

Bodine also had the nearest thing to an accident when he went too high coming off the fourth turn late in the race and left a streak of yellow paint on the wall.

“I made a mistake with the wall, and that should have put me out of the race. My car slid up into the wall, but it didn’t cause any damage.”

Bodine was running third, in close quarters with Earnhardt and Buddy Baker, when he scraped the concrete wall. Baker, right behind him, made a quick evasive move to prevent what could have been a multi-car accident.

Despite the pre-race apprehension over driving cars 200 pounds lighter than last year, there was not a single accident in the 2-hour 50-minute 12-second race. The only caution flags were for cars stalled on the entrance to pit row, and for debris on the course.

Elliott’s average speed of 176.263 m.p.h. was the second-fastest ever. Since the track was opened in 1959, only three 500s have been accident free--the others were in 1963 when Tiny Lund won and in 1980 when Baker ran a record 177.602 m.p.h.

Trailing Elliott across the finish line were a parade of veterans, in a variety of car makes: Benny Parsons, 45, in a Chevrolet; Richard Petty, 49, Pontiac; and Baker, 46, Oldsmobile.

There were 28 lead changes among 10 drivers, but the important statistic is that Elliott led 105 laps--more than half the race.

Elliott collected a record $204,150, but his earnings in Speed Weeks total $283,200. In the last two weeks, he also won the GTO class--with Tom Gloy and Lyn St. James--in the Daytona 24 Hours, won the Busch Clash, won the pole with a record 210.364 m.p.h. lap, and finished second by four inches in a 125-mile qualifying heat.

Elliott set the tempo for the race when he led the first 35 laps, setting records at each 10-mile interval after streaking 202.5 m.p.h. in the opening trip around the 2 1/2-mile tri-oval.

“The place to be was out in front,” he said, stating what sounded like the obvious. Then he explained: “The way the aerodynamics are, the car handles better when it’s running by itself. When you ran behind a car, it upsets the air and the turbulence affects the handling.”

Elliott’s crew also was a major factor in the win.

On lap 186, with Elliott running third, nose-to-tail behind Earnhardt and Baker, he ducked into the pits and took on enough fuel to finish the race. He was in and out in 6.3 seconds.

Earnhardt and Baker followed suit on lap 190. Earnhardt took 9.9 seconds, Baker 6.5. Bodine stayed out and took over the lead.

“After Earnhardt and Baker pitted, I thought we would win the race,” Ernie Elliott said. “Obviously, we had to be concerned with Bodine, but we felt on a scale of 10, his chances of running out (of fuel) were about 9.9.

“If I had been in their position, though, I don’t think I would have done it any different. In their situation, if they didn’t stop and they finished, they would win. If they did stop, there was no way they were going to win. They did it the only way they could.”

Most of the drivers were exhausted after driving nearly three hours at such a pace.

Petty, a five-time winner of the 500, called it the “most physical 500-mile race I ever ran.

“It was not that hot or anything, but we were so busy driving the car all afternoon, we could never rest. Not even down the straightaway.

“If you were by yourself, you could take a breath, but if you were with a bunch of cars, it was suck it up. I saw a bunch of good driving out there today--some of the best I’ve seen in a long time.”

Three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, who failed for the 14th time to win the 500, had similar thoughts.

“It was a very hard, physical race. The wind buffeting off the other cars was like standing on an airplane wing and trying to fly.

“All the cars are so good aerodynamically, you’re running in a wake all the time. It’s like trying to land a plane right behind a jet, with all the turbulence.”

If there were hard luck awards given out for Daytona, they should go to the Allisons, father Bobby and son Davey, the 25-year-old rookie who started on the front row alongside Elliott.

Although on different teams and Bobby in a Buick and Davey in a Ford, they suffered the same fate--faulty jacks.

Davey’s situation was worse. When the crew’s jack wouldn’t pick up the rear wheels on his first pit stop, team manager Robert Yates decided to switch jacks. When the car dropped, Davey thought it was the signal to go.

But the lug nuts were off the rear wheel, so the wheel fell off. Later, after the wheel was changed and a new hub installed, the rookie was 14 laps behind. However, he returned to the race to gain superspeedway experience.

“I’m sure we had the fastest car out there,” Davey said. “When the pack was right behind me, Elliott and Earnhardt and those guys couldn’t gain on me. We were turning 44.90 second laps (200.445 m.p.h.) late in the day. Earnhardt knew that, for one, when we passed him on the outside.”

Bobby, who was running with the lead pack before the first pit stop, had two jacks break.

“It’s the first time (in 22 years) I’ve ever had two jacks break in the same race. Every time I’d get in there and have a shot at the lead, we’d pit and the jack would break. I never could make up all the time we lost.”

For comic relief, A. J. Foyt played the roll of clown.

On lap 8, Foyt, who had started last in a rented car after his was wrecked last week, came streaking down pit row. He locked up his brakes and slid a hundred yards past his pit.

You can’t back up at Daytona, so he had to go around again. This time he came in slower, but not slow enough. He overshot the pit again.

Once more, to the huzzahs of the stock car crowd, he putted around the 2 1/2 miles very slowly and stopped where he should. That was enough for the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, who also won here in 1972.

Foyt pulled into the garage, the first car out of the race.