Barrett stunts Wallace's growth at Phoenix in 1989

Hollywood stuntman-turned-NASCAR driver Stan Barrett excelled at going fast in a straight line. But it was Barrett's apparent inability to turn left in a timely manner 20 years ago in the 1989 Autoworks 500 at Phoenix International Raceway that had Rusty Wallace wondering what kind of stunt Barrett was trying to pull.

Wallace, bidding for the victory and an opportunity to clinch the Cup championship, instead found himself getting wrecked by Barrett's lapped car with 57 laps remaining, handing the win to Bill Elliott, who fought handling problems to unexpectedly wind up in Victory Lane.

''It was just one of those things that happens in racing,'' Elliott said. ''I didn't see anything except two cars wrecked in the first turn.''

Barrett had set a land-speed record in a rocket-powered vehicle 10 years earlier at California's Edwards Air Force Base, clocking in at nearly 740 mph on the measured mile. But he was going considerably slower when Wallace came up to make the pass in Turn 1. When Barrett -- 13 laps down to the leaders -- went to push the brake pedal, two very bad things happened.

First, the brakes failed to slow the car. Second, Barrett clipped the rear of Wallace's machine and sent the leader of the race hard into the outside concrete wall. At the time, Wallace was 20 seconds ahead.

"I can't believe what happened," an agitatated and exasperated Wallace said. "It was a lapped car, a guy I'd lapped about 10 times, and he wrecks me. Here's a guy who runs only two or three times a year, and something like that happens." (Continued)