Speed's 1988 Darlington win proof that he belonged

When an emotional Lake Speed finally reached Victory Lane after winning the 1988 TranSouth 500, he couldn't help but think about seeing Darlington Speedway for the first time.

''The first time I ever came here, Darel [Dieringer] brought me,'' Speed said. ''When we first drove onto the frontstretch in 1980, I looked at him and said, 'You have got to be kidding. That looks like a sidewalk. We aren't going to race here?' He said, 'Sorry, son. This is it. There is no way I would take a rookie here without him practicing first. It would be like a sacrifice if I did.'"

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But Dieringer, fighting liver cancer, was not there for Speed's lone Cup victory.

''He did a lot for me,'' Speed said. ''I wish he could have been here. I hope he was able to watch it on television or listen to it. If it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't be here.

''He told me this was the most prestigious and meant more to drivers to win here than anywhere else. I wanted to master this place because if I ran good here, no one could tell me I couldn't drive.''

Speed, a Jackson, Miss., native who once beat Ayrton Senna for the World Championship of Karting, was on a 163-race winless streak over eight seasons -- and was campaigning his own No. 83 Oldsmobile, having lost the RahMoc ride four races into the 1986 season.

''There have been a lot of people involved to make this happen,'' Speed said. ''In my case, it was my faith in the Lord that brought me to this. If it hadn't been for that in 1986, I would have packed it up and gone back to Mississippi.''

But Speed thought there might be something special about this trip to Darlington.

"It was good right off the bat," Speed said. "We never had to change anything on the car since we've been here. We just brought our setup and didn't have to do anything, just change the tires and adjust the stagger.

"It was running really, really good, but I knew that didn't make any difference if you don't finish the 500 miles. At the beginning of the race, they told me, 'Whatever you do, don't let those guys wreck you. Just stay out of the way and wait 'til things thin out and then show 'em your stuff.' So that's basically what we did."

Good advice, but it almost backfired when pole-sitter Ken Schrader hit the wall in Turn 3 on Lap 16, setting off the second multi-car accident of the day. Schrader had led the first 14 laps but was running fourth, just in front of Speed, when he lost it.

"I thought I was in it," Speed said. "It was that close. I had to jam on the brakes just for a second and then it looked like it was going to open up, and I just nailed the throttle and shot through before it could get me." (Continued)