Thursday, December 3, 2015

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~
Rodney Combs #89 Evinrude Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR diecast blog Jim Sauter

    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~
Rodney Combs #89 Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR die-cast blog BGN
                                                               Click pics to enlarge~
Rodney Combs #89 Racing Champions 1/64 NASCAR die-cast blog BGN


    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~
                                                                                   

1 comment:

  1. I think they could have made an effort to make or paint the car with the real paint scheme like just the little red line for example.
    It was possible to do that on this 1/64 diecast in my opinion I think, but the car is still cool

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