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Origin of the 'Midnight' Name

4:26
44:36
324.5K views

At 4:26 in

Rusty Wallace's Legendary "Midnight" NASCAR Race Car is Track Ready Again! (Ford C3 Engine Sounds)

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What happens here

Rusty Wallace shares the unique origin story of the 'Midnight' name. During a rainy race at Richmond, after a long rain delay, Rusty famously crossed the finish line to win exactly at midnight. His PR representative, Tom Roberts, immediately suggested the name, which resonated with the fans and became an iconic identifier for the car. Rusty also discusses the broader practice of naming race cars in his era, which fostered a stronger connection between fans and the vehicles, a tradition he believes is lost today.

Goal: Explain how the car received its distinctive name.

What they say

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behind the name Midnight okay I won the race at Richmond and what happened was it rained and when it rained at Richmond they went under a red flag for a while and uh so then when we restarted we took back off we took back in the lead and when I crossed the start Finish Line after all this rain delay um it was midnight I didn't know that and so I pulled into Victory Lane and my buddy Tom Roberts my PR guy came up so rusty rusty I got a name I said what he said man I looked down on my digital watch and when you crossed that start Finish Line my watch went to midnight he said let's name it midnight and I said man that's a great idea and I love the the name you know so we we won and we named it midnight because we won at the stroke of midnight at Richmond so that's how I got its name that is cool was there anything technically different about this chassis that made it more preferable to you than other ones you know I think you'll have all kinds of drivers and crew chiefs to tell you man they've always had this one car that just everything about it just did everything right it behaved right it was always predictable it

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