NASCAR was just better back then. This was one of the best seasons in NASCAR. This was when the drivers created the drama instead of NASCAR trying to fabricate it like now a days.
This was a golden age of NASCAR where about half the field on any given Sunday could win the race, and the old rules were still intact, racing back to the caution, passing the leader to get laps back, the old points system, which I believe should have been tweaked to favor winning a little more, but the chase format with multiple changes year to year just sucked
@@sevendst19 The only changes I would've made are that the winner receives 200 points (regardless of laps led or any other criteria), and award 5 bonus points each for pole position, fastest lap of the race, and for gaining the most positions from where you started. 2nd place could then collect a maximum of 190 points. The winner wouldn't score any bonus points, but could keep someone else from getting them if he led the most laps, set fast lap, etc. I'd keep everything else about Bob Latford's system the same, but I'm also fine with the way it was.
@@NotSteveCook these changes are small enough to keep the integrity of the championship and with today's timing and scoring would have really been easy to integrate. I don't watch NASCAR anymore but I do get the freezing the field for a caution, I didn't like it back then because so many times you'd see someone make that pass coming back to the line to take the caution flag but the drivers should just adjust and know being in the lead is a major advantage than running a close 2nd waiting for a passing opportunity
@@sevendst19 I know I am late to this but the rule about racing back to the caution was due to safety concerns because drivers got too aggressive coming back to the yellow. I think that was a good rule change honestly.
I consider this race as "one for the books" for a number of reasons. 1. Pretty good racing from start to finish. 2. Championship implications for top contenders (Marlin and Jeff Gordon). 3. 9/11 tribute during the pre-race 4. Funny coverage with Looney Tunes references and impressions.
Drivers in the Looney Tunes Chevrolets: #4 - Mike Skinner (Yosemite Sam) #5 - Terry Labonte (Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote) #24 - Jeff Gordon (Bugs Bunny) #25 - Joe Nemechek (Speedy Gonzalez) #29 - Kevin Harvick (Tazmanian Devil) #30 - Jeff Green (Daffy Duck) #31 - Robby Gordon (Pepe Le Pew) #48 - Jimmie Johnson (Sylvester and Tweety) #55 - Greg Biffle, filling in for Bobby Hamilton (Marvin the Martian)
@@shawnchristianson324The Dupont car is his backup car. His Looney Tunes car ended up getting damaged from scraping the wall in practice. The backup car didn't have the Looney Tunes paint scheme for some weird reason.
@@MovieLover1995 Great info. I didn’t start watching NASCAR until 2005 so I appreciate the info! That is very odd that the backup did not have the Looney Tunes.
@@shawnchristianson324 Because it was a car that was painted exclusively for that event and the decals and everything were single use and since it happened in practice, they couldn't reskin the car again.
At exactly 2:20:17 the 44 car, white & blue Georgia Pacific car, made a most SPECTACULAR avoidance maneuver! INCREDIBLE driving esp since he may have hit some water as well. So disappointing that TNT & all 3 announcers missed it : (
They also had a Muppets theme for the cars at Chicagoland earlier that year. I agree. They should go back to putting TV and movie characters on the cars whenever they have a theme for something.
2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 with the Looney Tunes Location: Richmond, Virginia Track: Richmond International Raceway Type of race track: Short Track Starting cars: 43 Finishing cars: 34 Laps: 400 Cautions: 10 Red flags: 1 Pole Winner: Jimmie Johnson (48) (Rookie) Most laps led: Ryan Newman (12) (Rookie) (145 laps led) Race Winner: Matt Kenseth (17)
You know watching the Sterling Marlin crash there he did say his neck was sore. Wondering if that was the start of his neck injury and just further aggravated it when he wrecked at Kansas.
I attended The Richmond September Races between 2001-2004 GOOD TIMES Always wanted to know what the song is that’s playing during the 9/11 Tribute with the Drivers speaking 23:18-25:38
Forgot how close Rusty came to winning this race, running 2nd, closing in on Kenseth before that fucking right front tire went down again with like 10 laps left, I remember he was mired back in traffic the entire first half of the race then just started dicing his way through the field and moved up into the top 5, I remember thinking everyone was pitting, but they weren't, his car just came in, and he was passing everyone, idk if he could have caught/passed Kenseth but it sucks he didn't even get to try
If they can do themes of Looney Tunes, The Muppets, and SpongeBob SquarePants in NASCAR races, they should do a theme for a NASCAR race one of these days with The Simpsons. Preferably at Daytona or Talladega.
It always, ALWAYS bothered me that Marlin's wreck never had a good camera angle. This makes it seem like Marlin's car actually spun right INTO the wall head-on, which...still looked rather off to me. Also, BOTH Richmond races that year had crashes that involved water barrels splashing everywhere. Insane.
TYSM for including all the pre-race show & festivities & red flags. I just watched '01 full season & now on complete '02 season & I personally like 2 watch every single second of every race, minus the commercials obviously even tho I remember most of them & some were good & funny. I don't understand y uploaders cut so much out sometimes?? If viewer doesn't wana watch, they can always FF?? I've seen some races where they're so edited that every second is on of green flag racing? I don't get it but Thank You for posting FULL 🏁🏆👍
16:40 Shocked and truly at a loss as to why someone would accuse you? I don't really remember this incident but I'm neither shocked or at a loss by hearing Tony Stewart shoved a fan...
NASCAR was just better back then. This was one of the best seasons in NASCAR. This was when the drivers created the drama instead of NASCAR trying to fabricate it like now a days.
This was a golden age of NASCAR where about half the field on any given Sunday could win the race, and the old rules were still intact, racing back to the caution, passing the leader to get laps back, the old points system, which I believe should have been tweaked to favor winning a little more, but the chase format with multiple changes year to year just sucked
@@sevendst19 The only changes I would've made are that the winner receives 200 points (regardless of laps led or any other criteria), and award 5 bonus points each for pole position, fastest lap of the race, and for gaining the most positions from where you started. 2nd place could then collect a maximum of 190 points. The winner wouldn't score any bonus points, but could keep someone else from getting them if he led the most laps, set fast lap, etc. I'd keep everything else about Bob Latford's system the same, but I'm also fine with the way it was.
@@NotSteveCook these changes are small enough to keep the integrity of the championship and with today's timing and scoring would have really been easy to integrate. I don't watch NASCAR anymore but I do get the freezing the field for a caution, I didn't like it back then because so many times you'd see someone make that pass coming back to the line to take the caution flag but the drivers should just adjust and know being in the lead is a major advantage than running a close 2nd waiting for a passing opportunity
@@sevendst19 I know I am late to this but the rule about racing back to the caution was due to safety concerns because drivers got too aggressive coming back to the yellow. I think that was a good rule change honestly.
Oh my god the coverage of this race was hilarious. My favorite part being Dave Burns' Marvin impression.
I consider this race as "one for the books" for a number of reasons.
1. Pretty good racing from start to finish.
2. Championship implications for top contenders (Marlin and Jeff Gordon).
3. 9/11 tribute during the pre-race
4. Funny coverage with Looney Tunes references and impressions.
I’m gonna expand on #2. CAREER implications for Sterling Marlin.
Man #RIP #BennyParaons what a Legend!!
I can't even begin to say how amazing these videos are. The ability to watch the whole 2002 season, and other seasons, is incredible. Thank you!!!
God the race coverage was so fun back then!
Drivers in the Looney Tunes Chevrolets:
#4 - Mike Skinner (Yosemite Sam)
#5 - Terry Labonte (Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote)
#24 - Jeff Gordon (Bugs Bunny)
#25 - Joe Nemechek (Speedy Gonzalez)
#29 - Kevin Harvick (Tazmanian Devil)
#30 - Jeff Green (Daffy Duck)
#31 - Robby Gordon (Pepe Le Pew)
#48 - Jimmie Johnson (Sylvester and Tweety)
#55 - Greg Biffle, filling in for Bobby Hamilton (Marvin the Martian)
Gordon was driving the DuPont car. Why wasn’t he in the looney toons car?
@@shawnchristianson324The Dupont car is his backup car. His Looney Tunes car ended up getting damaged from scraping the wall in practice. The backup car didn't have the Looney Tunes paint scheme for some weird reason.
@@MovieLover1995 Great info. I didn’t start watching NASCAR until 2005 so I appreciate the info! That is very odd that the backup did not have the Looney Tunes.
@@shawnchristianson324 Because it was a car that was painted exclusively for that event and the decals and everything were single use and since it happened in practice, they couldn't reskin the car again.
The last three races (Bristol-Darlington-Richmond) is absolutely beautiful racing at high difficultly racing
I am a drum corps guy. It was so damn cool to hear the Cadets and the Crossmen play at this race!!
glad i wasnt the only one going "holy shit a drum corps at a NASCAR event???"
Why dont others use them...
I remembered watching this race and the Busch the night before nearly 15 years ago. Great action packed races.
Golden age of nascar.
Things will never be the same, it’ll never capture the magic it had
Gotta love seeing the looney toons here at 7:41
Man that crash Cope had was one of the hardest wall shots I've ever seen I was watching when it happened, I was like holy 💩!! 18:04
Just saw it my self I was like damn that was massive
1:22:07 NASCAR: "That's not close enough; we need a chase..."
"Its no cartoon" as they show a cartoon character
At exactly 2:20:17 the 44 car, white & blue Georgia Pacific car, made a most SPECTACULAR avoidance maneuver! INCREDIBLE driving esp since he may have hit some water as well. So disappointing that TNT & all 3 announcers missed it : (
The Looney Tunes were awesome on the cars, they need to do this again.One of my all time favorite races!!
They also had a Muppets theme for the cars at Chicagoland earlier that year. I agree. They should go back to putting TV and movie characters on the cars whenever they have a theme for something.
2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 400 with the Looney Tunes
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Track: Richmond International Raceway
Type of race track: Short Track
Starting cars: 43
Finishing cars: 34
Laps: 400
Cautions: 10
Red flags: 1
Pole Winner: Jimmie Johnson (48) (Rookie)
Most laps led: Ryan Newman (12) (Rookie) (145 laps led)
Race Winner: Matt Kenseth (17)
Now we got ABC with Jerry Punch and Dale Jarrett....how exciting
Nice intro to the race
You know watching the Sterling Marlin crash there he did say his neck was sore. Wondering if that was the start of his neck injury and just further aggravated it when he wrecked at Kansas.
I attended The Richmond September Races between 2001-2004 GOOD TIMES Always wanted to know what the song is that’s playing during the 9/11 Tribute with the Drivers speaking 23:18-25:38
2:24:40 if you want to hear Dave Burns do a Looney Tunes impression! Pretty funny!
45:44 I love the Bud pole award
Just that first 2 minute intro got me pumped to watch an 11 year old race
That's how good this era (2001-2006) of broadcasting was.
@@NotSteveCooka legendary cartoon
Forgot how close Rusty came to winning this race, running 2nd, closing in on Kenseth before that fucking right front tire went down again with like 10 laps left, I remember he was mired back in traffic the entire first half of the race then just started dicing his way through the field and moved up into the top 5, I remember thinking everyone was pitting, but they weren't, his car just came in, and he was passing everyone, idk if he could have caught/passed Kenseth but it sucks he didn't even get to try
Time machine please?
If they can do themes of Looney Tunes, The Muppets, and SpongeBob SquarePants in NASCAR races, they should do a theme for a NASCAR race one of these days with The Simpsons. Preferably at Daytona or Talladega.
Back when NASCAR didn't need to manufacture excitement; it just happened.
It always, ALWAYS bothered me that Marlin's wreck never had a good camera angle. This makes it seem like Marlin's car actually spun right INTO the wall head-on, which...still looked rather off to me.
Also, BOTH Richmond races that year had crashes that involved water barrels splashing everywhere. Insane.
Didn't he hurt his neck (break a vertebrae?) in this crash and it caused him to miss some races?
n/m, he wrecked at Kansas and that happened, thought it might have been this one and I guess he was out the rest of the year
2003 sirius 400 Ricky Rudd/Ken Schrader crashes in feel it....
Feeling at Michael Waltrip Flip Rival it...
I've been watching pretty much all the classics races it's TNT/NBC. I've seen many crashes with only 1 angle if that
The start of the end of Sterling Marlin. And Jeff did horrid at the begining. Wasnt ment to be that weekend.
Rip noel blank jr and randy dorton
TYSM for including all the pre-race show & festivities & red flags. I just watched '01 full season & now on complete '02 season & I personally like 2 watch every single second of every race, minus the commercials obviously even tho I remember most of them & some were good & funny. I don't understand y uploaders cut so much out sometimes?? If viewer doesn't wana watch, they can always FF?? I've seen some races where they're so edited that every second is on of green flag racing? I don't get it but Thank You for posting FULL 🏁🏆👍
Nice tribute at 42:35
Lol at Jimmy Spencer interview around 59 minute mark
15:30 ahh wouldn't be NASCAR without Tony Stewart's anger involved.
Austin Cindric needs to learn from Wally's words @ 38:27.
The Team killer for One teams: Chip Ganassi Racing. All because of Chip Ganassi accident crashes. Richmond is sometimes truly The Onelight Zone
45:47 starting lineup
1:23:44 Gordon's bad luck
45:40 - Start of race
2:18:09 Poor Mikey
I got the diecast on every car done with the Looney Toons,!
1:54: they're here
16:40 Shocked and truly at a loss as to why someone would accuse you? I don't really remember this incident but I'm neither shocked or at a loss by hearing Tony Stewart shoved a fan...
The drivers in the meeting stuck up for him.
1:17:38
55:35
10:24 GB
Lmao. Is it bad terry? Oh yeah
I personally think Eliott Sadler crashed on purpose on Lap 2. It appeared he crashed intentionally anyways.
55:42 Sterling Marlin(or Chip Ganassi Racing) Wrecked in Feeling at Michael Waltrip Flip Rival it...
55:33 2003 sirius 400 Ricky Rudd/Ken Schrader crashes in feel it....
2:23:24-2:25:00
XD
The race that started thr downfall for sterling marlin so sad he worked hard all year
0:39
41:10
Chevy Monte Carlo = endless money Pit crap car!
God the race coverage was so fun back then!
30:28
46:21