Gene

Neil Bonnett

1946- 1994

Wood Brothers Mercury's and Fords, the Rahmoc Chevys and Pontiacs and Junior Johnson's Chevy's

Cars# 51 Country time Lemonade

#21 Purolator, #75 Valvoline

#12 Budweiser

Year	Starts	Top 5	Top 10	Wins
1974	1	0	0	0
1975	1	0	0	0
1976	11	1	4	0
1977	20	4	8	2
1978	30	7	11	0
1979	19	4	5	3
1980	22	10	13	2
1981	22	7	8	3
1982	25	7	10	1
1983	30	10	17	2
1984	30	7	14	0
1985	29	12	19	2
1986	27	6	11	1
1987	26	5	15	0
1988	27	3	7	2
1989	27	0	11	0
1990	05	0	0	0
TOTAL	352	83	153	18

Driven by his compassion to race again, Neil Bonnett was killed in an accident while practicing for the 1994 Daytona 500.

As the host of the Nashville Network's "Winners", a weekly half-hour show, Neil crossed every motorsports line, giving viewers the chance to learn more about every type of motorsport and meet the varied competitors. Following his accident at Darlington in 1990, Neil became the foundation of "Winners" and he brought his natural humility and compassion with him when he filmed the shows. He had enormous respect for racing and the people involved with it, and in every interview, it was obvious that the respect was mutual. From 1990-94, Neil worked hard to become one of the best analysts the sport has ever known. He constantly made self-deprecating jokes about his work behind the microphone, but his growth, maturity and self-confidence in front of the camera came as quickly and naturally as his success in the early '80s as a NASCAR Winston Cup driver.

Neil Bonnett was the star of the "reborn" IROC series, winning the opening and closing events at Michigan, but Cale Yarborough combined a victory on the Cleveland road course with two second-place finishes to take the IROC 8 title. In Race 1, Bonnett stormed from the ninth starting position and took the lead for good with four laps to go, holding off Benny Parsons and Gordon Johncock in a last-lap sprint after Danny Ongais tagged Yarborough, sending Cale into the wall. At Cleveland, Tom Sneva led the first 24 laps until a cut tire forced him to pit, giving Yarborough the win. Darrell Waltrip won Race 3 at Talladega, probably the best event of the series, in a wild last-lap dash over Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt. Bonnett, who had finished sixth at Cleveland, saw his championship hopes fade on the first lap in a crash with Derek Bell. Both continued, but Bonnett could place only 11th in his damaged car. Waltrip went into the finale as the IROC leader but quickly faded and finished sixth, as Bonnett used a last-lap "slingshot" to pass Yarborough for the win