Rodney Combs #89 Evinrude Outboards Pontiac

    Rodney Combs was a heck of a dirt track racer, as well as a 2 time ASA National Tour Champion~ His venture into the Winston Cup series went about as bad as it could have gone, and today, I'm gonna be writing about his tenure in the Mueller Brothers #89 Evinrude Outboards Pontiac~

    His first start in the car was in the 1989 Daytona 500, where he qualified 30th, and finished in the 37th position, due to a crash on lap 72~ He then drove several races for Ken Allen, in the #34 Allen's Auto Glass Buick~ Combs returned to the #89 Evinrude car for the Miller High Life 400 @ Michigan, qualifying 35th, and finishing in 40th, due to engine troubles~

    Following a 1 race deal with Lake Speed @ Darlington, Combs was back in the Evinrude car for the All Pro Auto Parts 500 @ Charlotte, where he qualified 31st, and finished 32nd, again due to engine malfunctions~ In the Autoworks 500 @ Phoenix, Combs qualified in 40th place, and finished in 27th, his highest finish of the season for Mueller Brothers Racing~ In his last race of the 1989 season, Combs qualified 32nd in the Atlanta Journal 500, and finished in 41st, due to oil line issues~

                                                           Rodney Combs promo card~

    The start of the 1990 season didn't fare any better for Combs, who failed to make the field for the Daytona 500~ In his first start of the season, he qualified 39th in the Coca-Cola 600 @ Charlotte, and finished 33rd due to engine issues~ In the Miller Genuine Draft 400 @ Michigan, Combs started and finished the race in the 40th position, due to a bad piston~

    He didn't race again until the next Michigan race, the Champions Spark Plug 400, where he qualified 23rd, but due to oil line issues, finished in 34th~ He qualified 31st for the Checker 500 @ Phoenix, and finished a season best 27th~ In the final race of the season, the Atlanta Journal 500, Rodney qualified 38th, and finished in 30th place, in what would be his final career Cup start~

                                                  Rodney Combs #89 Evinrude Pontiac~

                                                               Click pics to enlarge~

    I did a post a while back on Jim Sauter's version of this car, and while both of them look similar, there are a few differences between them~ The #89 on this version is red, where on the Sauter car, the numbers are pink~ Rodney's version also has the silver coned rims, which I always think is a plus~ I probably have a stronger connection to Sauter's version, because that's the one I had when I was young~ I never had the Combs version back then~

    As I said with the Sauter car, I love the white stripe along the bottom of the car, and that blue color is one of the coolest looking colors on a Racing Champions car, in my opinion~ The Pontiac cars were always pretty crude back then, but this is a fairly decent one~ Overall, I give the Evinrude car an A- on the Racing Champions quality scale~ Could have been an A+, but Combs is looking like a total creeper on the card, so that knocks a few points off~

    I have to admit, there are a lot of older drivers that I miss being in the sport, but Rodney Combs just isn't one of them~ He was always so boring, and he never amounted to much even in the BGN series, and he had decent rides back then~ Even though I don't really miss him, I do enjoy his old Racing Champions cars, especially the Lance Crackers one~ Below are some videos featuring Rodney during his time in NASCAR~ Thanks for stopping by the blog~ :D

                                         1996 Hummingbird Fishfinder 500k Combs crash~

                                                       Rougemont 1994 Combs crash~

                                                   Rodney Combs interview IRP 1995~

                                                  Rare footage of Combs leading a race~