Photo by Ted Van Pelt
Rusty Wallace in Daytona and Talladega
Rusty Wallace was involved in two wrecks worthy of being in the top 10, with both resulting in his Thunderbird taking flight.. The first occurred in 1983 at the Daytona 500 when his car was hit by another driver, went airborne, and then flipped a number of times, leading to his hospitalization.
In just a couple months after the Daytona accident, a second accident occurred at Talladega, in which the rear of his car was tagged by Dale Earnhardt. This caused Wallace’s car to spin backward and then fly into the air. In this race, Wallace ended up with a broken wrist. This, and other crashes involving cars being propelled into the air, led to NASCAR’s introduction of roof flaps onto racecars to prevent the aerodynamic lift that could send the car into the audience.
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