The Snake-Bit 600

   The temperature was rising quickly on the morning of May 29, 1988 at the race track then known as Charlotte Motor Speedway, so Frank Tovornik had an especially important duty.
   It was his responsibility to hook up the "cool suit" air-conditioning apparatus in driver Alan Kulwicki's Ford and make sure that it was working properly for the Coca-Cola 600, one of NASCAR's classic races that was scheduled that afternoon.
   As crewman Torvornik looked into the car he saw something that he thought to be black tape in the caging of the driver's-side door.  He reached for it.
   That's when it bit him.
   The "tape" actually was a 3-foot black snake.
   The reptile apparently had been placed in the race car as someone's idea of a joke.
   Since the reptile was non-poisonous, Torvornik wasn't seriously hurt.
   "It got me on the left middle finger," he said.  "If I catch who did it, he'll need a doctor worse than I did."
   Turns out several drivers and a venerable team owner were to need doctors that day in one of the scariest, wildest and most snake-bitten 600s in the event's history, which dates to 1960.

   Among the injured in the race won by Darrell Waltrip were drivers Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, Dave Marcis and pioneer car owner Bud Moore.
   Several others miraculously escaped being badly hurt in savage crashes.
   Trace  most of this to a "war" between tire suppliers Goodyear and Hoosier, who had escalated their competition into an all-out battle to provide the fastest tires, which led to compromises in safety.
   Goodyear took the drastic step of withdrawing its products from the 400-lap race on the 1.5-mile track that is now  called Lowe's Motor Speedway, where the 49th running of the 600 is scheduled Sunday.  Goodyear officials said they felt their Charlotte tire couldn't take the strain of a hot day when the temperature reached 90, plus the high speeds that were expected.
   Forty of the 41 starters mounted Hoosier tires, some of them reluctantly.  Only Marcis, ever loyal, stuck with Goodyear, for whom he regularly tire-tested.
   There were 10 hard wrecks, a majority of them blamed on tire failure.  The trouble started relatively early.
   Derrike Cope and Jim Sauter crashed on Lap 58, and Cale Yarborough was swept into the accident.  Bonnett wrecked on Lap 114.   After Sterling Marlin blew a tire on Lap 169 he was trying to make it back to the pits when his car drifted into the path of Marcis.  The two cars collided and Marcis went airborne into the fourth turn wall.  Brad Nofsinger crashed on Lap 192.
   A six-car crash between Turns 1-2 eliminated Baker and Eddie Bierschwale on 244.  Rick Wilson  experienced an accident on Lap 334 resulting from tire failure. Wilson was leading at the time and appeared headed to a first Winston Cup Series victory, a goal he never was to realize. 
   Overall, 21 drivers wrecked at some point.  Only 22 of the starters were running at the finish.
   Said seven-time champion Richard Petty:
   "It was like Russian roulette out there.  Or Hoosier roulette.  Both companies (Goodyear and Hoosier), went too far.  Goodyear didn't get away with it, but after what happened today, Hoosier didn't get away with it either."
   Tires weren't the only major controversy.
   A boiling feud between Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine continued with especially strong steam.  Bodine had spun after contact with Earnhardt the day before in a Busch Series 300-miler at the Charlotte track.  On Lap 60 in the 600 they tangled again in Turn 2 and bumped each other all the way down the backstretch.  Bodine slammed into the wall in Turn 4, heavily damaging his car.  NASCAR competition director Dick Baity ordered Earnhardt onto pit road for a 5-lap penalty.
   "This is unjust," fumed Earnhardt.  "I wasn't trying to wreck him, I was just trying to race him.  This isn't bumper cars."
   Said Bodine:
   "I'm trying to win races.  I'm not out there to settle any old debts or scores.  I was concerned about my tires, so I decided to be more conservative.  I backed off and several cars went by me.  One of them was Earnhardt's.  He slowed up.  I didn't know if he had a tire problem or not.  I moved to the outside in Turn 2.  When we got to the third corner he turned right for no apparent reasons."
   Said an angry Rick Hendrick, Bodine's team owner, "I guess we're going to have an all-out war."
   Waltrip weighed into the feud, stating, "If they were real men they would go out and settle it behind the garage area."
   Waltrip took the lead on the 370th lap and maintained it to the finish, edging Rusty Wallace by a car length.  Kulwicki, shaking off the black snake incident, placed third, another car length back.  It was Waltrip's fourth triumph in NASCAR's longest event.
   Waltrip won at a slow average speed of 125.460 mph as 13 caution flags slowed the pace for 89 laps.
   "It was as tough a race as I've ever run because of the tire situation," said Waltrip, who was driving a Hendrick-owned Chevrolet.  "I'd see guys run off, their cars going really good, and then I'd come around and see them stuck in the wall.
   "Because of the tire problems, every time I went into a corner I'd just draw up (in tension) and hope I could make it to the other side.
   "I was very conservative the whole race.  I ran a radio-controlled race, you might say.  Me and my crew had determined that we would keep our tires in the safe range, 240 degrees, by running laps at 32.50 seconds (166.154 mph).  That's what we aimed for regardless of what anyone else was doing."
   Waltrip revealed that he had another worry other than tires.
   "The flywheel on my car was on the verge of breaking apart the final 10 laps," he said.  "It about shook my teeth out.  Normally, you can't run far with that problem because it'll break the engine apart, so we were really fortunate."
   Among the drivers injured, Gant suffered two broken bones in his left leg.  Bonnett had contusions of the knee, chest and shoulder.  Both were hospitalized overnight in nearby Concord.
   Marcis was knocked woozy.
  Car owner Moore also suffered a broken leg when the brakes failed during a pit stop on his Ford driven by Brett Bodine.  The car hit Moore, sending him flying over the hood and into the pit wall.  Moore was treated at Concord and released with a cast/splint on his leg.
   Turns out Baker was hurt most seriously, although Buddy thought he'd only sustained a bump on the head.
   Two months later Baker was practicing on the Watkins Glen road course in New York State when he almost passed out going down the long, straight backstretch.  Baker's sons Bryan and Brandon were with him at the track and insisted their dad return home to Charlotte for examination by Dr. Jerry Petty, a neurologist admired by many NASCAR competitors.  Morgan Shepherd was called in to drive the Baker-owned car.
   On Monday I got a phone call from Buddy.
   "Tom," he said, "I've got to have minor brain surgery."
   Before thinking, I blurted, "Buddy, there's no such thing as minor brain surgery!"
   "Oh, God, I was afraid of that," replied Buddy.
   Twenty-four hours later, Dr. Petty removed a blood clot the size of a peach from the brain of Buddy Baker in a very successful operation.
   I was allowed to see Buddy for a few minutes in the intensive care unit.
   He had several tubes running into his shaven head.
   "Look at me," he said, "They've taken a handsome devil and turned him into the Frankenstein Monster."
   The nurses were bursting in laughter.
   "Is he always like this?" one asked. "He's been joking and cracking one-liners ever since being brought in here."
   "Always," I said.
   The injury essentially led to hall-of-famer Baker's retirement in 1994.  He made only 17 of his 699 starts after leaving Watkins Glen because of the "lump on the head" he got in the 1988 Coke 600.
   "I don't want to be like the major leaguer who once pitched no-hitters but now just pitches," Buddy said upon retiring.
   In a twist of irony, Baker had this to say of how that Watkins Glen backstretch appeared when  he almost fainted at the wheel:
   "It was as crooked as a black snake," he said.