He didn’t have a chance. Mired in traffic, the finish line nearly in sight, and half the field in front of him, there just wasn’t time… Until he found a way.
Every move had to be the right one, perfectly timed, or it was over. But every move was perfect. And when they came to the line, there he was: the winner. Everyone watching was, for a moment, collectively stunned.
Had it really happened? He was so far back…
It happened last Saturday (May 7) for a chestnut thoroughbred named Rich Strike. The horse was the longest of long shots in the 2022 Kentucky Derby, not even in the field until the 11th hour. He had no clear racing lane, making his stretch run even more unlikely. And yet, he had speed when it was needed and, perhaps more importantly, he had heart.
Rich Strike’s unlikely victory has played out in NASCAR as well over the years. Wendell Scott’s lone Cup Series win at Jacksonville, Fla. back in 1963 comes to mind. There have been numerous Daytona 500 upsets: Pete Hamilton (1970), Derrike Cope (1990), Trevor Bayne (2011) and Michael McDowell (2021) along with Paul Menard’s 2011 surprise in the Brickyard 400.
But Rich Strike’s stretch run is more reminiscent of another famous NASCAR finish.
Dale Earnhardt was hardly an underdog that day as the race began. Not with 75 wins already under his belt. Not the man who could, at least in legend, see the air at superspeedways.
Yet as the race unfolded under a bright blue October sky in 2000, Earnhardt’s chances at Talladega, Ala. looked poor. Mired deep in the field, sitting in 18th place with just four laps to go and the field fairly strung out, it looked more likely that his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr., would be racing for the checkered flag instead.
Earnhardt Jr. was leading what wasn’t a typical Talladega race. There had been few cautions, just one for a multi-car incident that collected only four cars. The final rundown shows more teams out of the race for engine failures than for…
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