Richard Petty's Big Engine

the 1983 season was coming to a close but the championship battle was just heating up with four races to go darl Waltrip was Within Reach of championship leader Bobby Allison but Waltrip knew that he would have to be on his aame and needed some Misfortune for Allison Richard Petty sitting at 197 career wins finally had some mojo back after a winless 1982 season it was Petty's first winless season in over 20 years despite a F Place finishing points after the number 43 Pontiac qualified Midfield it appeared it would be a quiet day for the petty team and it was for the most part now we're not going to go through the entire race in a lot of detail but here's a quick recap Buddy Baker and Terry leani appeared to have two of the fastest cars then Benny Parsons and Dell nhart would be two more that battled for the lead darl Waltrip Bill Elliot and Championship leader Bobby Allison would all take turns leading but towards the middle and back end of the race Tim Richmond seemed like he'd be the one to cross the finish line first despite this Daryl walro found himself in the lead with just 30 laps to go maybe this was his chance to close in on Allison for the points lead but if he looked up he would have seen petty blue filling up more and more of his mirror Richard Petty climbed through the field for 460 Mi just to catch the leader with 40 m to go in the race and then then wal Trip's car started wiggling and slowed down quite a bit compared to petty petty completed the move on wal trip and grabbed the lead he didn't look back those last few laps were all petty Le all day long on paper the race doesn't look super significant a handful of yellows dozens of lead changes and a handful of mechanical failures the favorites were up front and the slow cars were not it was cool to see Petty driveth through the field the King after going winless the year prior won his third trophy of 1983 and did it in style he captured his 198th career win just too shy of 200 but there was just one problem well actually two after celebrating Petty's car was taken for inspection it was found here that Petty's car had left side tires on the right side of the car which is a clear violation of the rules some sources indicate that this issue was spotted in Victory Lane by a NASCAR official the tires have different codes stamped on them to determine whether they are left side or right side tires Petty's car had four left side tires on it but why does this matter well it's because the left side tires are softer and softer is faster the right side of the car takes more of the load in the corners so the right side tires are harder if the tires are too soft they blow out after they get too much heat in them but with the cool temperature and the cloud cover the number 43 team figured they could just slap on the softer tires on the right side and the tires would be okay and they were right then it was found that Petty's machine had another violation an oversized engine rather than the limit of 358 cubic in his engine was 382 cubic in 24 over the limit at some point Maurice Petty confessed to NASCAR's chief official about how the oversized engine passed inspection Marie said that he placed wax in the engine wedging open valves on the 8 cylinders to foil an air pump test of the cylinder's cubic inch displacement when the race started heat quickly melted the wax the engine then produced increased speed and power from the oversized cylinders additionally the team would later admit to deliberately placing the left side tires on the right side of the car so this was quite the infraction two intentional rule breaks on the winning car so what would you do well disqualify the car and give it to second place right this would be a great option but the thing is that darl walp and his crew ran out of the track as soon as they could car owner of Wal Trip's car Junior Johnson ordered his crew to load up and leave the track before NASCAR could inspect it you have to think Waltrip was just barely behind Allison in the points he needed to string together some great finishes probably wins but remember how wal Trip's car slowed down and Petty passed him super easily well some even think that wal trp slowed down intentionally to finish second place so that his illegal car would not be inspected regardless of the illegality of Wal Trip's car NASCAR faced a tough decision they had an illegal first place car and a very likely illegal second place car that they couldn't inspect so NASCAR met and talked about it for 3 hours 4 hours after the finish of the race NASCAR decided that petty would keep the win but he'd be penalized 104 points and fined $35,000 this triggered an incredible debate amongst the fans media and teams NASCAR knowingly let an illegal car win a race this wasn't just about money and points it was about the Integrity of what fans were watching with their own eyes Maurice and Richard argued that they were tired of being beaten by illegal cars every week and basically called every race into question NASCAR wouldn't do themselves any good by making an oversized engine a ban of at least 12 weeks I mean this is a serious infraction look at Carl Long's big engine it was the largest penalty in NASCAR history at the time and yet they allowed Petty to keep the win Petty issued a statement and said we have accepted NASCAR's penalty I'm only the driver and I didn't know anything about the motor or tires NASCAR's take on the ordeal was his follows it's like a football game when the referee signals the winning touchdown on the last play of the game but you and I see on instant replay that he was out of bounds they don't take the win away the game is over this is just a terrible metaphor because they have nothing in common I mean NASCAR deliberated over this for 3 hours it wasn't an instant call so we could go a few different directions with this like how this race led to the end of petty Enterprises as it had been for decades after winning a couple of races for Mike cerb Petty returned to race for petty Enterprises for seven years and went winless the team almost went under it was never the same or we can kind of talk about the philosophy behind the decision we've seen in recent years how illegal winning cars are highly debated NASCAR hates when fans tune in watch an entire race and the car that finishes the race first doesn't win because of an illegal car in this case the new winner isn't declared for hours after the event and only a fraction of fans figure this out in the following days I mean most casual fans probably don't follow NASCAR on socials to see this kind of stuff so how do you avoid this back in 2016 and 2017 NASCAR had the encumbered work some of you just died inside essentially if a car won but was illegal you'd still keep the win but defer the money points and playoff eligibility that comes with it this happened to Joey Lano at Richmond in 2017 loner's car was deemed illegal but he kept the win or you can look at the fall Darlington Race that year in the Xfinity series the top two had illegal cars Hamlin and legano but they kept their finishes so Harvick and third was the fastest of the legal cars so that just left a sour taste in everyone's mouth but the other option is just as odd of a feeling I'm sure many of you all remember Pocono in 2022 we watched the race saw Hamlin win and turned off the TV then I was listening to the radio the next morning and heard an interview with the winner Chase Elliott turns out Hamlin and second place Bush were disqualified so Elliott stole the win my point is that no matter what nobody wins NASCAR is in a tough decision with this kind of stuff and 40 years later they're still trying to figure out what's best regardless the 1983 Miller highight 500 is one of the more controversial races in NASCAR because of this some go as far as saying that petty only has 199 wins and that's it for this video I hope you guys did enjoy if you did make sure you leave a like And subscribe so you never miss a video that's it for me I'll see you in the next one peace