Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"The Collapse of Blue Max Racing"

Posted by nascarman on September 5, 2018

Viewed 3262 times Tweet It's a familiar story, a team wins the Cup championship and shuts down a year later. Shocking and rare, the most recent occurance before Furniture Row Racing's closure was that of Blue Max Racing; 1989 Champions, closed at the end of 1990.







Blue Max Racing was formed by famed drag racer, Raymond Beadle. The 1979-1981 NHRA Funny Car champion wanted to expand his race team in mid-1982. At the same time he wanted to enter NASCAR, M.C. Anderson wanted out. Anderson's driver in 1982 was Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough, who at that point in his career only wanted to race a part-time schedule. Allegedly, Anderson badly wanted to race for a championship but Cale had no interest. After seven years in NASCAR and disappointed with Yarborough's reluctance, Anderson sold his team to Beadle.



Beadle had a grand vision of owning teams in three series and packaging sponsorship for all three. After being turned down by Coors, Beadle signed a deal with Old Milwaukee Beer to sponsor his drag racing team, a Cup team, and a sprint car team. He hired Tim Richmond to race in NASCAR and Sammy Swindell to drive his sprint cars.



During Blue Max's first three years in NASCAR, Richmond won twice and never finished higher than 10th in points. Richmond left for Hendrick Motorsports in 1986 and Blue Max hired Rusty Wallace. Unlike Richmond, Wallace was very knowledgable about setting up cars and the team's performance improved. In 1988, Blue Max came 24 points from winning the championship.



While the team went through 1989 as championship contenders, things began to fall apart. Privately it was rumored that Rusty wasn't getting paid on time and he wanted to leave. While he was in the 3rd year of a four year contract, not getting the money he was promised perhaps meant the contract could be broken.





Wallace and Beadle in early 1989 (Racing Photo Archives/Getty Images)



Leading up to the All Star race in May, Wallace tried to kill his departure rumors in a press conference. "I've been hearing and reading all this stuff about me leaving to go here and there and do all kinds of crazy things. It's time to put these rumors to rest.



"I'm happy with this team," Rusty insisted. "We have a good team and we're going to stay together."



On July 25, Wallace filed a lawsuit against Blue Max Racing seeking to have his contract voided.



"(Raymond) thinks we have a contract and I don't," Wallace said. "I don't want anybody to think this is a vicious lawsuit. It is, in fact, a declaratory (suit to find out what our) contract means. Raymond and i weren't coming to terms. I had asked him to let me out of the contract. Nothing happened, so I filed the suit."



Rumors in August had Wallace leaving to form his own team in 1990 in a partnership with Roger Penske. UPI stories said the pairing of Wallace and Penske would involve "the driver supplying the racing team and the owner funding the hardware."



Rusty made it clear he wanted to leave the team on a high note. But leave nonetheless



"My situation is I'm going to give 110 percent, do everything I can to win," Wallace said in August after winning his fifth race of the year. "My goal next year is to do something very special to me. I can leave best by doing this."



But Rusty's lawsuit was more trouble than it was worth. He and Beadle both spent over $50,000 in legal fees fighting each other before realizing they were getting nowhere.



"In the midst of all that, Raymond and I sat down and we really did a lot of talking and we worked it all out," Wallace said in a New York Times interview in Dcemeber 1989. Rusty agreed to stay with Blue Max for 1990, the final year of his contract.



By October 1989, Wallace was leading the points standings and trying to win his first championship. At the end of the month, Rusty announced a four-year personal contract with Miller Brewing Company to sponsor his racing through 1993 no matter where he drove. Despite Rusty publicly teasing teasing he might stay at Blue Max in 1991, it was obvious at the time that he would take Miller with him to another team.





Wallace's 1990 Pontiac (ISC Archives/Getty Images)



Despite the off-track drama, Wallace and Blue Max won six races in 1989 and won the Winston Cup Championship by 12 points. In his final year at the team, Wallace won twice and finished sixth in points. With his driver and sponsor both leaving at the end of 1990, Beadle saw this as an opportunity to retire from racing and sell the team. Most of Blue Max Racing became the foundation for Roger Penske's NASCAR team while many parts were sold at auction.



Maybe there are clear similarities between Furniture Row and Blue Max. Both owners came into NASCAR, reached the top, and left when problems mounted up. And perhaps there's a bit of irony that Brad Keselowski won at Darlington in a throwback to Blue Max's last car just two days before Furniture Row collapsed.





References:

*Greg Fielden 40 Years of Stock Car Racing

*Siano, Joe. "Wallace A Million Dollar Man." New York Times. December 11, 1989.

*"Wallace Wins 2nd Straight NASCAR Race." UPI. August 20, 1989.



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