Petty & Earnhardt: Daytona Headliners 1990
1990 Pepsi 400, Daytona - Images by Brian Cleary
The drama started fast and ended early on this day in Daytona in July of 1990. Up & comer Greg Sacks had won the pole and Richard ‘The King” Petty had qualified well. At the drop of the green flag everyone began racing as if it was the last lap.
Sacks, Petty, and Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope had made it through wide at the stripe on the second la[ when evryone ran out of racing room. The ensuing crash turned the front straightaway into a giant race-car junk yard.
When the race restarted, most of the top cars were mangled in the garage and parked for the day. This left Dale “The Intmidator” Earnhardt to duel with Bobby Hillin Jr. for the win. Hillin took himself out of the equation with a pit road spin and Earnhardt raced to an easy Daytona win under the hot Florida sun.
Photographers in the winner’s circle that day were treated to a picture of a “victory kiss” from little Taylor Nichole Earnhardt to her famous dad as well as a young Dale Earnhardt Jr. decked out in GM Goodwrench gear.
It’s all here in this slideshow from my shoot on that memorable day in Daytona back in July of 1990.
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Slideshows.bcpix.com is the Slideshow blog of Florida-based freelance photographer Brian Cleary and features selected collections of images from his online photo archive which contains more than 30 years of photography, both editorial stock and royalty-free stock photography and is housed at www.bcpix.com.