NASCAR... A History Part 4 "The 80's"

   This decade saw the emergence of a new superstar, Dale Earnhardt. He won five races in 1980 and his first championship.  Darrell Waltrip continued to be dominant.  Names like Harry Gant, Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott, Geoff Bodine, Terry Labonte, Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace surfaced and would be relevant every week.  We saw ridiculous speeds on the track, leading to restrictor plates after Bobby Allison's terrible wreck at Talladega. Bill Elliott breaking (by a huge margin) the 200  mile per hour barrier.  This is the decade that I started watching Nascar, so it will always be my favorite.  The look of the Thunderbirds, Monte Carlos, Grand Prix's, the Oldsmobile's and Buicks.  The lack of big time sponsors.  Trying to find a race that was televised.  Mostly they were on ESPN, but the Nashville Network was broadcasting too, and some of the races would be televised on that station.  Living in the northeast, our cable company did not carry that station.  So, I would have to wait until Monday's two sentence blurb about the race in the sports section.