Evergreen Speedway is a .646 mile paved track, that has a seating capacity of 15,000~ The track consists of 5/8 mile outer oval, as well as a 3/8 mile inner oval, a 1/5 mile inner oval, a 1/8 mile drag strip, and a figure 8 track, are all incorporated into the track layout~ While the Cup guys had the weekend off, Bill Elliott and several other Cup drivers headed to Evergreen Speedway to compete in the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500, in the Winston West Series~ So here we go, off to Monroe, Washington and the Evergreen State Fairgrounds~
Elliott pitting in the 1990 "Motorcraft 500"~
The weekend kicked off on Friday, July 12th, with what I would assume would have been a practice, or qualifying session~ I'm not sure what they did on Friday, but they did something~ This was followed up the next day with the "Sound Advice 100", a 100 lap Winston Northwest Tour race~ Canadian Pete Harding led 76 laps from the pole position, but was spun late in the race by Dirk Stephens, who was passed three laps later by Ron Eaton, who led the final 16 laps on his way to the checkered flag in the #7 Lake's Body Shop Pontiac~
On Sunday, July 14th, the main event took place, and the field was already set for the "Motorcraft Quality Parts 500", with Sterling Marlin beating out Bill Elliott for the pole position, with a lap of 98.907 mph~ Marlin was driving the #22 Maxwell House Coffee Ford, owned by Junior Johnson, while Elliott was in the #9 Motorcraft Ford, owned by Harry Melling~
Other notable drivers in the field consisted of Rick Carelli, Chad Little, Ron Hornaday, Jr., Geoff Bodine, Bill Sedgwick, Hershel McGriff (ran his final race at age 84, and claims he's going to race one more next year, at age 90), and Jim Bown, along with series regulars Bill Schmitt, Mike Chase, Butch Gilliland (David Gilliland's father), Robert Sprague (Jack Sprague's cousin), and John Krebs~
Front of the Racing Champions card~
From the very start of the race, this thing was a wreck fest~ It's a shame this race isn't posted anywhere on the internet, because it sure seems like a wild, awesome race~ I'm just having to make stuff up the way it looks on the record books~ So on the very first lap of the race, there were two separate crashes that took out three drivers~ The first crash happened when Mike Chase got tapped from behind, and collected Larry Gunselman following his spin, and the second happened on the lap following the crash, when Wayne Jacks couldn't get his car slowed down enough, and he rammed into the wreckage of Chase and Gunselman~
By the end of the race, the caution flag waved 14 times, totaling 105 laps ran under yellow~ Along with the crashes, eight teams suffered blown engines in the grueling event~ Pole sitter Sterling Marlin led 24 laps before fading, and eventually crashing out of the race on lap 279~ Chad Little started third, and he took the lead over from Marlin, and stayed there for 80 laps before his engine expired on lap 180~ Bill Schmitt stayed out under caution and led four laps, and John Krebs led a lap during green flag pit stops~
Bill Sedgwick got out front in the #75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet, where he led a total of 13 laps in the Wayne Spears owned machine, but for the most part at this point, it was Geoff Bodine leading the way in the #11 Budweiser Ford, owned by Junior Johnson~ With his second car out of the race, Johnson was banking on Bodine to make up the difference, and pick up the win for the famed team~
Someone had to put this sticker on the back of every card for this one~
Bill Elliott was the 1987 winner of this event, and the pole winner in 1990, and with his outside pole for this event, many people were rooting for Awesome Bill to pull it off again at Evergreen that day~ Bill's approach for the race was to lay low, and save his stuff for the end of the race... a wise move considering how many engine/mechanical issues teams were having~
The bad thing was, he waited a little too long, and as he was trying to work his way to the lead, he was caught up in a crash on lap 417, which ended his day with a 12th place finish~ With Bill's exit from the event, only 14 of the 36 drivers who started the race were left out there~ The 10th place finisher was 46 laps down.. it was a slaughterhouse to say the least~
In the end it was the dominant Budweiser Ford of Geoff Bodine who would come out victorious, having led 378 of 500 laps on his way to victory lane~ BGN regular Jim Bown was runner-up, followed by Bill Sedgwick, Jon Paques in the #09 Red Line Oil Ponitac was fourth, and Billy Jac Shaw finished out the top 5 in the #93 Taco Bell Buick, owned by Troy Beebe's father, Allen~ Bodine won the race from the 21st starting spot, in his only ever race at Evergreen Speedway~
Bill Elliott #9 Motorcraft Ford~
I was really excited to get to work on this post at first, but once I found out that there was no film of it anywhere on the internet, and no photos from the 1991 event, I was pretty bummed out~ Footage and photos are all we have left to remember these races by, other than stat sheets, and when there is not footage or photos, a part of history is all but forgotten~ I did everything I could to find out more about this event, but it's just one of them things where sometimes all you can do just isn't good enough~
This is a great looking car however, and the card is beyond awesome for the 1991 set~ Why couldn't Racing Champions make awesome cards like this for all of the drivers?~ Some guys got pretty junky looking cards, and that sucks~ I tried to look up if there was a possibility of Motorcraft becoming a primary sponsor for Elliott at some point during his tenure with Junior Johnson, but I couldn't find anything about it, so I'm guessing this was just a deal they had when they ran the Winston West races~
I give this car an A+ on the Racing Champions quality scale, as it's a beautiful car, and an awesome card~ I really wish I could have found more out about the race, but sometimes you just come up empty~ Maybe someday in the future someone will post the race, or photos from the event, and I can include them into the post at that time, but until then, this is all we've got.. so let's move on to the bonus car for this post~
Steve Boley #10 Ingram Racing Chevrolet~
Well, this was probably the easiest Photoshop custom I've ever made~ In 1992, Steve Boley made his BGN debut in this #10 Ingram Racing Chevrolet, owned by Jack Ingram~ Ingram bought up some old Sterling Marlin #10 Maxwell House cars, well.. at least one, and simply took the Maxwell House logos off of it, and ran it with the same paint scheme that Marlin raced with~
Boley's first race was the "Miller 500" @ Martinsville, where he qualified 29th, and finished 18th~ He then ran the "Mountain Dew 400" @ Hickory, where he crashed out after 198 laps, and finished 21st~ His best finish came at Lanier for the "Nestle 300", where he qualified 21st (career high), and finished in 8th (career high)~ His final race for Ingram came in the "Granger Select 200" @ Dublin, where he rolled off 24th, and finished in 19th place~
Steve made two more starts in the BGN series in 1995, with a best finish of 25th @ Richmond in the "Hardee's 250", driving the #05 Key Motorsports Chevrolet, owned by Curtis Key~ He was a dirt track ace from Iowa, as well as the 2000 NASCAR O'Reilly All-Star Dirt Track Series champion~
Thank you all for visiting the blog~ Please share this post on social media with your friends, and click the "follow" button that the top right hand side of this page~ Below are some videos on Bill's career, since I can't find any footage of the Evergreen race~ Enjoy them, and I'll be back soon for another installment of the NASCAR Racing Champions blog~ :)
Bill Elliott - In Their Own Words~
Bill Elliott flips at Eldora - 2007~
Bill Elliott Coors commercial~
Crazy Racing Man - Bill Elliott~
