Waltrip's win streak at BMS helped, hurt by breaks

There are breaks in racing, both figuratively and literally. For Darrell Waltrip in 1984, one break allowed him to tie Richard Petty's record with his seventh consecutive victory at Bristol. But another break later in the season put an end to that streak.

Heading into the 1984 Southeastern 500, Waltrip had been a dominant force at the high-banked half-mile in eastern Tennessee. His Cup debut at Bristol in 1973 ended prematurely with an engine failure, but he returned two years later and finished sixth. That set off an amazing streak in which Waltrip finished no worse than third in 17 of his next 18 visits to the track.

Teaming up with Junior Johnson in 1981 made Waltrip nearly unbeatable at Bristol. He won the pole and the race three consecutive times, and led at least 200 laps in five of his six consecutive victories.

But Waltrip's weekend started off ominously when he hit the wall in qualifying. Starting third, he claimed the top spot at the 100-lap mark, but was overtaken by Bobby Allison with 200 laps remaining, eliciting a cheer from the record April crowd of 26,800. Then Allison added insult to injury when he put Waltrip a lap down with less than 100 laps remaining.

''The frame was warped pretty badly. That's why we didn't run as well all day,'' Waltrip said. ''Under those circumstances I wasn't going to be disappointed at coming in second. But there's somebody riding in that car with me that's bigger than all of us.''

Waltrip worked hard to stay in Allison's tire tracks and hoped for a caution. What he didn't expect was that Allison's car would start to have mechanical issues.

''When I saw him smoking he was just ahead of me," he said. "I said, 'Nah, Waltrip, you didn't see him smoking. You just thought you saw him smoking.' But I took a few more looks and realized he was.''

On Lap 442, a frustrated Allison was forced to head for the garage area for extensive repairs, handing the lead to a surprised Waltrip, who led most of the remaining laps -- including the final 43 -- and beat Terry Labonte to the finish line by 2 seconds. Allison, who led 190 laps, finished 19th. (Continued)