NASCAR takes victory away at Sonoma 1991 

Who would have thought Larry Mac be involved in NASCAR’s two most controversial finishes of all time?😅

Yup just like Regan Smith at Talladega. Stewart forced him below the line and he gets the win taken away which results in Carl Edwards flipping the following year.

They wouldn't dare do that to Earnhardt. Different standards for different people. Rudd got screwed.

I remember that Davy didn't even take a victory lap but instead pull immediately into victory lane. He reasoned that once he had his picture taken there NASCAR couldn't change its mind.

If that was the number 3 car,we would not be talking about it.

Dave Marcis was right behind them and he said it was a BS call.

I agree with Kyle Petty. They should have shown the BS flag on this one. That was just racing

That was back in the days when all Chevys in nascar ( especially #3 ) had really strong front bumpers. R.I.P. Davey

Favoritism goes hand in hand with nascar. Just like Earnhardt. He can wreck anyone and it's fine, you put a bumper to him, and the world falls apart.

I liked Davey, but Ricky got screwed on this one.

Davey Allison was NASCAR's golden child at the time. Ricky was the bad boy. Ricky won this race by all all established precident and rules except for bias in the tower. There is no other honest way to say it.

See? Even back in 1991, NASCAR made bad calls. Let's stop acting like NASCAR was perfect back in the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's,and even early 00's. No sport is perfect- no sport WAS perfect. It didn't have as many flaws back then, but it still had flaws. Nevertheless, no matter what time period, I'll always love NASCAR.

In a sport renowned for contact when racing, it's not surprising that reaction was mostly negative about the penalty for Ricky Rudd. Like S1apsho3s said, "in a move that has never been repeated before or since, NASCAR penalises Ricky Rudd with one lap for dumping Davey Allison,"

Arguing about nascars inconsistentcy has been a Multipul decade thing. The constant rule changes have made it a circus.

Rudd should have subtracted two numbers from his car number, painted his car black, grown a mustache, and argued to Nascar that he was rattling Davey's cage a little. Then he would have kept the win.

Same ol' Nascar officials back then, but way better race cars. Watching those cars go around Sonoma makes me wish I was old enough to have seen them real time.

I remember this like yesterday and I can remember being so pissed even though I was 10 years old.

This is undoubtedly the WORST call that NASCAR has ever made.

NASCAR was cheering "go Davey go," and then Rudd took a shit on their party, and they weren't going to have it...

For some reason, NASCAR never took kindly to Ricky Rudd. They treated him like the red-headed step-child early and often. What is shameful is that this incident sullies Davey Allisons reputation by association.

Allison was the poster child for NASCAR. Not suprised they did that.

Kinda funny that people are now making a fuss over the winning car failing post-race inspection and still keeping the win.

Dale Earnhardt Sr. did this EXACT same thing 20+ times and was NEVER penalized. Complete Bullshit.

What about all those times Dale Earnhardt spun guys out on the last lap and won, on purpose!

how many times did Earnhardt do the same thing and not get back flagged NASCAR kissed his ass

Rudd pulled a Earnhardt and lost the race

If this happened in any other motorsport everyone would've agreed about the black flag. Only in NASCAR are you allowed to flat out dump the leader and win a race. That's a big reason why everyone else in the motor racing circuit doesn't take NASCAR seriously.

This one still sticks in my craw. I promised myself if I ever met Ricky that I would tell him NASCAR owes him big time. Davey Allison was a very good driver but he was also NASCAR's golden boy at the time. Ricky was always seen as a bit of a Rebel, not endeared to NASCAR officialdom. Kyle Petty said it well. Bullshit flag.

I am sorry for Davey but witnesses said Davey threw a failed block just as Ricky moved over Davey. Officials robbed Ricky Rudd. I know Ricky won this race and there is no doubt he won.

Heck, if they applied the same rules over Irvans career or Dale Srs career they would have lost about 80% of their wins. Can count more than a few #3 wins that involved a car getting punted. I will say it would make the NFL so much more interesting if they ran the rulebook the way NASCAR does. "ok so when the Vikings have the ball they will need 12 yards for a first down but when the Saints have the ball all they wil need is 6 yards. "

2009 Talladega fall race. Last lap: Regan Smith and Tony Stewart coming through the tri oval to the finish. Regan Smith on the bottom Tony Stewart on top. Tony forces Regan below the yellow line which is illegal. They come to the line and Smith wins. NASCAR holds a meeting. Comes back saying Smith went below the yellow line so they take away the win and give it to Tony. Of course Smith was a rookie and Tony was a champion and running for the chase points. So there's another example of a driver being robbed of a win. A couple of years ago at Talladega in the Xfinity race Elliot Sadler was racing Brennan Poole and there was a wreck coming to the finish and Poole crossed the line first but NASCAR gave the win to Sadler because the caution lights came on while he was in the lead. Which NASCAR has never changed that rule. If the wreck is behind the leaders why can't they race to the flag? Doesn't make any sense. This is why people don't care about NASCAR anymore.

Ricky Rudd was a BAMF

Ricky Rudd did a dirty move but no different than almost any Dale Earnhardt victory..

I guess Terry Labonte is wondering where was the black flag for Dale at Bristol in 1999. This was just racing. Rudd didn't intentionally take out Davey. He came into the turn hot, Davey came down on him, they touched, and Davey spun. There was malice in what Ricky did. It was just the breaks of what happened. It happened in Nascar plenty times before, and plenty of times after. Ricky got screwed.

Ricky Rudd should have 24 Sprint Cup Series wins. Come on NASCAR!

Ricky Rudd is a very good honest man. Doesn’t complain too much even though most of us would never stop complaining!

From an Earnhardt fan they should give the win to Ricky no matter how many years ago it was.

The problem is simple: NASCAR has encouraged wrecking the leader on the last lap, REPEATEDLY. If they believe he was wrecked deliberately, then absolutely the result should be reversed. That said, it's almost every Superspeedway race that there is a deliberate wreck on the last lap to decide the result and NASCAR looks like fools.

NASCAR blew it again.

Kinda wish they did this more often. Drivers who can't pass cleanly for the win should not WIN the race.

Larry has 2 wins that he doesn't deserve. That's crazy he is also the chief for Brett Bodine's bogus victory.

And yet today we "celebrate" Austin Dillon "winning" at Daytona for a much more blatant, dangerous and more obvious "dump". As I said below, this was the race that made me realize NASCAR wasn't on the up and up.

Damn those cars look good.

If that was Earnhardt instead of Rudd they wouldn’t have done jack

NASCAR has always played GOD it will be a great day to see them go under.

Ricky wound up winning there later on in his career.

They did the same to Robby Gordon at Montreal in 2007

Ricky was the original heal toe hero

The intro was utterly hallarious.

That's crazy. I would be pissed

nascar was just mad bc it was not Dale sr doing the same move

This isn’t BS, just year or so before they penalized Dale for like 4 laps for taking out bodine. They were being serious about this kinda thing cause of Dale and Geoff’s feud

It was a trash call...BUT lost in all of this is that this controversy would've never occurred if Dave Marcis who was off the pace of the leaders had just harmlessly moved out of the way and let the leaders pass and decide it among themselves. Instead he was an impediment and held Davey up through all of the esses.

Ricky Rudd won that race and 21 years later I still say he won that race but because Davey Allison was more popular back in 1991 they gave it to him

I was covering this race and was in victory circle on the final lap and we heard what happened. Once victory circle had wrapped up I just kind of hung around nearby and shot exclusive photos for Circle Track of Waddell Wilson and Ricky Rudd making their case with one of the higher-ups of NASCAR - can't remember who right now. As the magazine worded it, these exclusive photos showing the protestations must have done some good as they made the call from DQ to second. The weirdest call I ever covered though a night race in Bristol - Dale vs.Terry - was close.

Davey was NASCAR'S "POSTER CHILD"..If it happened the other way around, the win for Davey would have been upheld

That call was almost as bad as stage racing!

That time NASCAR said, "Sorry you can't cheat and spin the guy in front of you to win anymore. The number 2 guy won't be the winner anymore if he rams the number 1 guy to pass."

Many of us use to call Davey "Cry Baby Allison". He seemed to constantly be whining about how everybody done him wrong if he didn't win. He was NASCAR's Golden Boy, though, and given more slack than almost anyone else at the time. That's the only race in NASCAR history that was taken away from the winner, even though hundreds of races have been won in the exact same way, with over a dozen on that same track on the same corner. Davey was a damned good race car driver, though. I loved to watch him race, but couldn't stand to listen to his interviews.

They were probably sitting in their suite with a Texaco big oil exec at the time of the decision.

Exactly why NASCAR started losing viewership. It was bad enough when you ban Mopar engine because Ford and General Motors couldn't make anything to compete. When that engine finally came back it was once again dominant. And then after Chrysler left NASCAR for a while they did everything in their power to keep them from coming back in.

I find some of the comments entertaining to say the least. At some point organizations realize that they have simply gone too far with a penalty. This was NASCAR's example with a black flag for avoidable contact while racing for the lead. Notice you haven't seen that penalty called again. This is similar to the death penalty in major college football. After the NCAA handed SMU the death penalty for 1 season (the second year was self imposed by SMU due to severe restrictions that would have been in place) the NCAA realized the cost of the penalty was simply too great and no program, no matter how deserving, has been handed the death penalty again. (There has been discussion about it for a couple programs within the NCAA Infractions Committee, including Alabama in the early 2000's, Penn State Miami (Florida), and USC. ) NASCAR's penalty at Sonoma that day rose to that level and that's why you haven't seen that penalty handed down since. NASCAR knew it was wrong after the fact and couldn't change it. It was also similar to the penalty handed to Mark Martin in 1990. They penalized him a bunch of points that ended up costing him a championship. Subsequent violations of the same rule have not resulted in the points penalty anywhere near as severe.

This was when I first realized the NASCAR powers that be weren't/aren't on the up and up. Of course 25 years later they are so blatantly manipulating race outcomes....in fact the entire season.......it's just taken as a given.

Coming from a Davey Allison fan that's just messed up.. Ironically not far in the future Ricky Rudd would drive the #28.

Man, NASCAR seemed to have it out for Ricky Rudd back in the day. I watched the last race at Richmond before the reconfiguration in spring 1988 and there was a really inexcusable scoring error in that race. Neil Bonnett was given the win but a review proved that he was actually a lap down and Rudd should've been awarded the win. Instead of doing what was right and giving the win and points to Rudd, NASCAR just left it alone and Bonnett kept the win, the points and the winning purse.

NASCAR has always played favorites. This was before Hendrick was Hendrick. They were already a big team then but not what they later became, and Yates was bigger at that time. If this happened now with a Hendrick car, no way they would have taken the race away from them. Rudd takes the blame here, saying it was his fault, but it looks to me like Davey came down on Rudd in an attempted block, so was at least as much to blame. An obvious BS decision. Now if this became a standard policy after this race, then you can say, "OK, NASCAR changed the rule book", but it didn't and they didn't, so it was a made-up, one-time decision to affect one race, one driver, one team and one circumstance, which makes an impartial observer think not everything was on the level, and anyone who doesn't realize there isn't a whole lot phony about NASCAR hasn't been watching the sport long enough.

As a die hard Rudd fan in those days , I found this whole thing ridiculous. The races year after year are won constantly on one guy bumping into another guy on the final lap . So stupid for any true Nascar fan to even doubt Rudd’s win here . Another reason I completely stopped watching the sport after he retired !

Bump and Run. If this was Bristol or Martinsville it would NEVER be looked at any other way than racing.

I like how Dave Marcis actually witnessed the incident right in front of him

Robert Yates screwed Ricky Rudd out of that win. There’s other incidents in racing where there’s other drivers getting spun out on purpose but yet NASCAR doesn’t do anything about but fine the driver.

You suppose they would have made this call had the positions been reversed? Yeah, I doubt it, too.

I was a Davey Allison fan at that time but Ricky Rudd won this race. This is one area in where NASCAR gets it wrong. They have their favorite driver and will help him get by but not another racer. It is obvious. If they enforce a rule on one driver enforce in on all drivers. The Joey Logono incident with Matt Kenseth a couple of seasons ago is another example of this. This is one reason NASCAR is losing fans. I love racing but I don't go anymore because of the favoritism shown to some and not others.

I remember watching this race live & cheering for Davey. Then the spin & I was heated, then they said Davey was gettin the win & I was like WHAT, REALLY? I can think of at least 2 other times that shouldve happened, 1989 Holly Farms 400 again with Rudd but that time he spun Earnhardt & the 2013 truck road race in Canada when Elliott spun Ty Dillon...

"I'm just fed up with this mess."

thats bs they never did that to dale sr

If davy had been a real sport he would have refused this win thats all i got to say about this I remember watching this race they treated Ricky wrong period

Larry McReynolds, "We're doubting that we won this race." You didn't win this race Larry. NASCAR gave you this race. You know it and you've known it for 30 years. How you can count this as a win to this day is a joke. I know it's been 30 years but it still irritates me. Not that I hold grudges.

At the time of this race, Davey was NASCAR's golden boy. They got pissed someone spun their favorite, dropped the hammer. I've been watching this sport since the early eighties as this was and still is the worst call I've ever seen.

The 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 at Sonoma Raceway was notorious for Ricky Rudd not having a road course victory. The race, which was won by the late Davey Allison, was produced by SilverStar Communications, Inc. and aired via tape delay on GMA Radio-Television Arts on June 10, 1991 at 2:30 P.M. right after Goodyear NASCAR Today with Rico Hizon and Bobby Guanzon

List of names who have done the same thing to win and nothing happened. Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Brian Vickers, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Terry LaBonte, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Bobby Allison, John Hunter Nemacheck, Rusty Wallace. Where's their black flag NASCAR?

Here we are all those years later and Denny Hamlin got his win taken away after the race was already over

NASCAR finally had enough of Rudd pulling this kind of shit so they sent a message. Right or wrong it is was what it was. BTW I have seen this kind of action many times at lower division racing all over the west coast after a driver dumps another on the last lap so it happened finally in the bigs.

NASCAR IS The Professional Wrestling of Motorsports. Rudd "Lou Albanoed" Allison on That one. The only thing missing were the Wood Splinters from the Chair!!!!!

Wow... This is bizarre. What a terrible call by Nascar. Why the hell would they black flag Rudd??? Like Kyle Petty said, this SAME THING happens almost every single race! Holy crap. Was there a substitute race director that day?!?

Rudd should have let Davey catch up then pass him again. Then Nascar couldn't say it wasn't clean.

That's NASCAR for you.

Davey was awesome and I'm still a big fan of him, but Ricky should have won. You can't black flag someone because they spun the leader out, it's just pure hard racing. While I'm happy Davey won, Ricky had the win fair and square.

Austin Dillon got his win taken away

This was the beginning of the down word swing of NASCAR. They keep doing dumb things and fans quit coming.

Kyle was right if they would do for everyone it be fine but they don't. Ricky wasn't a dirty driver. Nothing against Davey.

Black flag on Rudd for making a good move Davery Alison to me that's just good road course racing

Imagine how many times since this happened race “winners” could have been black flagged. I loved and miss Dale Earnhardt but he was notorious for spinning people to take wins

Rudd beat Davey into that corner just like keselowski beat eadwards into the taladega turn.

I have no words to describe how stupid NASCAR's call was.

It was BS and its BS today!

Nascar is their own governing body, so they can do whatever they want! Wrong right indifferent.

The years of bad calls by NASCAR is one of the reasons NASCAR is not doing well.

Ricky won that race. Fight me

Ohh it happens when Rudd does that, but when keslowski pulls some shit like that and almost kills tons of people, he still gets the win

Always liked the tide car, especially when D.W. drove it.