Sunday, March 25, 2018

The last time a NASCAR race was postponed by snow...

Something very unusual happened today. The NASCAR Cup race from Martinsville, Virginia was postponed until tomorrow by snow. This isn't unheard of, but it's a pretty rare occurrence- the last time it happened was in March, 1993, and the race that was postponed was only the 4th I ever saw.

Since it was the 1990s and everything was great back then, the snowout actually got it's own card.
The front of the card shows Geoff Bodine's Bud Moore Engineering Ford under the car cover.  I'm not sure why nobody thought to close the garage doors, but it led to this great photograph and very memorable card, which is from 1994 Maxx Premier Series.



Just because it's relevant to the post, here is the card of Morgan Shepherd in victory lane after winning, card #269 from the same set:


I was new to the sport and kind of young, so I don't remember too much about that race, but I do remember seeing Morgan Shepherd winning, and I remember some of the on track action.

Amazingly, Morgan Shepherd- now 78 years old- still shows up for some of the Xfinity races, although the last time he was actually competitive was 1997. He holds the record for the oldest driver to start a Cup race. He and Derrike Cope are the only drivers left from 1993 when I started watching to even try to race, although neither have had a full-time ride since the late 1990s, and neither has won a race since Shepherd won in 1993.

9 comments:

  1. I knew Morgan Shepherd was still around racing but I'm amazed that he's made four starts in the Xfinity Series this year. He's never more than a backmarker but the fact that he's out there is pretty stupendous. Guys like him and Dave Marcis never get racing out of their system.

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    1. True..and don't forget hershal McGriff who only retired in 2012 at age 86!

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  2. That "snow day" card is really cool. Surprised with the crazy climate changes that we don't see an occasional "snow day" more often.

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    1. Me too...but if the Phoenix race is ever postponed by snow, then I'll be worried, lol.

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  3. When I heard it was postponed due to snow, I figured it had to be rare, but not that rare. Crazy!! Cool card!

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    1. I'm not sure how many times it happened before 93 but I'm sure it did. The race at Bristol was delayed a few hours by snow in 2006 as well.

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  4. If we didn't have enough proof that this winter has been crazy..a snowed-out Nascar race confirms it. That is wild! And as Fuji said, the card from '93 is awesome. I wonder how many snow-outs we'll see during baseball season. I'm going to say at least three..especially if the Rockies have home games in March.

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    1. I wouldn't be too surprised if there were a few. All our snow is melted now.

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  5. Seriously....the odds of a race both being snowed out AND Morgan Shepherd winning...

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