By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
February 4, 2005
07:11 AM EST (12:11 GMT)
After four near-misses, Darrell Waltrip played the fuel mileage game to perfection in the 31st Daytona 500 on Feb. 19, 1989, coasting to victory after getting more than 132 miles on his final tank of fuel. In Victory Lane, Waltrip jumped out of his car and did an impromptu dance, then spiked his helmet. A 1989 Toyota SR5 V6 two-door pickup with four-wheel drive listed for $14,098, so Waltrip could have purchased 13 SR5s with his winning check for $184,900.  |  | NASCAR ACCELERATION | |
| ALSO in 1989... |
| • | The Sega Genesis is released in New York and Los Angeles (Jan. 9) |
| • | Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed in Florida's electric chair (Jan. 24) |
| • | A United Airlines Boeing 747 bound for New Zealand from Honolulu, Hawaii, rips open during flight, sucking 9 passenger and crew out of the first class section. Most other passengers and crew were still belted to their seats at the time (Feb. 24) |
| • | In Alaska's Prince William Sound the Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of oil after running aground (Mar. 24) |
| • | In Beverly Hills, Calif., Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their wealthy parents to death in their family's den (Aug. 20) |
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In 1989, N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton" was the first hip hop album to achieve widespread mainstream success. Stacy Compton made his Daytona 500 debut in 2000, finishing 26th. On June 14, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested in Beverly Hills, Calif., after slapping a motorcycle police officer. If Waltrip had been called to drive Gabor home from jail, the 2,022-mile trip from Franklin, Tenn. to Beverly Hills would have taken him 36 and a half hours in the SR5, or 13 hours and 37 minutes at his race-winning speed of 148.466 mph. The world was undergoing major political changes in 1989. On Feb. 14, Iranian leader Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa -- or legal pronouncement -- calling on all Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, the author of "The Satanic Verses." Ten days later, Khomeini offered a $3 million bounty for Rushdie's death. On June 3, Khomeini died. In 2005, a fatwa against Rushdie was reaffirmed by Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. On Jan. 7, Akihito became emperor of Japan, following the death of Hirohito. On Jan. 20, George H.W. Bush became President of the United States. Four years later, Bush met Akihito on his tour of Japan -- and then threw up on the Japan prime minister during a dinner in his honor. South African president P.W. Botha resigned his post on Feb. 3, following a stroke. The Soviet Union announced on Feb. 14 that all of its troops had left Afghanistan. On May 30, the "Goddess of Democracy" statue was unveiled in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. On June 4, Solidarity's victory in the first partly free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparked a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe. On Nov. 9, East Germany opened its checkpoints in the Berlin Wall, allowing citizens to freely travel to West German for the first time in nearly three decades. The next day, jubilant Germans began tearing the wall down. In Czechoslovakia, a peaceful student demonstration in Prague grew to 500,000 people within days after police severely beat students. By the end of the year, elections bring about the first non-communist government there in more than 40 years. On March 23, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced cold fusion at the University of Utah. On Dec. 3, President Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev released statements indicating that the cold war between their nations may be coming to an end. Teri Garr and John Lithgow starred in "Out Cold", which was released in 1989. On Feb. 14, the first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System was placed into orbit. According to GPS, the start-finish line of Daytona International Speedway is located at approximately 29.18768 degrees North, 81.07279 degrees West. On March 4, Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announced plans for a merger, forming Time-Warner. "Sounds Of the '80s," featuring "your favorite hits from the '80s on seven CDs, plus a free bonus volume", is available through Time-Life products. → Click here for more Daytona Countdown. | 
