NASCAR's top series, the Winston Cup, was catching fire as a major league sport in the early 1990s. The Star Tribune wanted to join in, although we didn't have what you would call a racing expert.
So, when the boss wanted a national story, I was generally the volunteer.
On July 12, 1993, Davey Allison -- a Cup racing star -- crashed his helicopter and died the next morning. The crash occurred at Talladega Speedway, as Davey and Red Farmer, an old-time racer, were arriving at the track.
They were there to watch David Bonnett, son of driving great Neil, take some practice laps. Young Bonnett was hoping to get up to speed for the upcoming Busch race at the superspeedway.
The summer races at Talladega were set for the weekend of July 23-25. I spent a couple of days in Hueytown, Ala. -- ancestral home of the Allisons, Bonnetts and Farmer -- and then went to Talladega.
The Cup race in the summer steam of Alabama turned into a marathon. There was a long delay when Neil Bonnett, coming back after missing four years because of a head injury, put a car owned by Dale Earnhardt into the catch fence in front of the grandstand. There was another delay when journeyman Stanley Smith dang near killed himself on the near turn.
Earnhardt claimed his sixth victory in 18 races that day. With a 30-race schedule, he was on the way to the sixth of his seven Winston Cup championships.
The Intimidator also had won the Busch race on Saturday, leading to this postrace quote on Sunday: "I sold out of T-shirts and we won two races, so I'm happy about the weekend."