Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip dominated the Wrangler Jeans Indigo 400 at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway in September 1987. Between them they led 306 laps with Waltrip leading 86 and Earnhardt 220, including the final 156 of the 400-lap race. Waltrip finished second. The two drivers traded paint and scuff marks for much of the race. It was Earnhardt's third straight victory and the eleventh and final win driving the Wrangler Jeans-sponsored Chevrolet. Richard Childress Racing would roll out the G M Goodwrench black paint scheme for Earnhardt in 1988. Though this was Earnhardt's last win in this championship year that would see him take the title by 489 points over Bill Elliott he still finished strong, placing second in four of the last seven races that completed the 1987 Winston Cup schedule.
In death, just as in life, Joe Weatherly lives up to his nickname the "Clown Prince of Racing." His gravestone at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk, Virginia is a sculpture of Califorina's Riverside International Raceway, with a checkered flag marking the spot of his fatal crash in 1964. On the checkered flag is the number 8, which was the number on the Bud Moore Mercury he was driving that day. The stone stands out in the cemetery just like the outrageous behavior and practical jokes he was known for in life. In addition to the two NASCAR Cup (then called Grand National) championships in 1962 and 1963 he had twice won the NASCAR National Modified Championship. He also won three American Motorcycle Association championships before he began racing cars. He is in the NASCAR Hall of Fame and the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. My grandfather, a noted early aviation still and motion picture photographer, is also buried in that cemetery.
This could be any father and son. Father with his arm around his son's neck giving advice, son with blank stare seems to have hand over the ear father is speaking to. In this case the father is Lee Petty who had set all the NASCAR records during his time behind the wheel, with 54 wins and three NASCAR Cup championships. The son is Richard Petty who then came along and broke Lee's records. At the time of this photo, he had won 180 of the 200 races he would eventually win and six of the seven NASCAR Cup championships he would achieve in his driving career. It appears at this moment that the phrase "Father Knows Best" might have a different meaning to each of them. This photo appeared in the book, "Richard Petty: Images of the King," by Ben Blake and Dick Conway.
