NOTE: This episode and all to follow are dedicated to the memory of the late, great Steve Waid.

Newly slenderized Michael McSwain joins host Rick Houston to discuss a whopper of an unfiltered Tim Brewer interview. This week, Brewer drops not one … not two … but three MAJOR bombshells about qualifying for the 1992 Daytona 500 and the iconic NASCAR’s Greatest Race … the 1992 Hooters 500.

Rick and Michael then break down the February 13, 1992 issue of Winston Cup Scene.

Gary Nelson is in his first year with NASCAR as its Winston Cup director in training … and let’s just say that Gary is loaded for bear and swinging from the heels when it came to policing the inspection process.

Tim Brewer does NOT get sent to NASCAR’s electric chair after Junior Johnson & Associates teammates Sterling Marlin and Bill Elliott sweep the first two starting spots for the next weekend’s Daytona 500, while Geoff Bodine overcomes ... cough, cough ... handling problems to win the Busch Clash.

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Steve Waid, this one's for you. 

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It's not the 400th episode celebration we had planned ... but it's a celebration of life, nonetheless.

Hosts Rick Houston and Jeffrey Baker remember the late, great champion driver, iconic broadcaster, NASCAR Hall of Fame, and even better human being ... Ned Jarrett.

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NOTE: Co-host Steve Waid is under the weather and won't be on the podcast this week. At this point, we're not quite sure when he might be able to return. Prayers would be sincerely appreciated.

This week, in the third and final installment of our interview, Jeffrey Baker tells us about a fuel incident at Talladega, a penalty the very next week at California, an ACRIMONIOUS split with Jeremy Mayfield, and being man enough to apologize to Mike Wallace.

Hosts Rick Houston and Tony Liberati then dig into the November 1, 2001, issue of Winston Cup Scene.

Mike Wallace has a career day at Phoenix … and in the process … makes a STRONG case to keep his Roger Penske-owned team open for business.

But then Jeff Burton INSISTS on ruining the Cinderella story by getting by Mike in the closing laps to win … and give Roush Racing a 1-2-3 sweep of the weekend’s Cup, Busch, and Truck series events.

There are actually FOUR big races that weekend. Cup, Busch, Truck … and trying to get from the track to Game One of the World Series.

Martinsville Speedway’s Mike Smith shares a FANTASTIC memory of Dale Earnhardt, and … finally … this issue raises an age-old question: Team Dave or Team Sammy?

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Former Las Vegas Motor Speedway President and General Manager Chris Powell and Toyota Racing Development's Joe Dan Bailey join hosts Rick Houston and Steve Waid to remember the man, the myth, the enigma ... Kyle Busch.

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This week in the second installment of our interview, Jeffrey Baker gives us an insider’s view of the Tabasco Fiasco, rooting AGAINST Dale Earnhardt in the closing laps of the 1998 Daytona 500 and the best advice he’s EVER received in NASCAR.

We then dig into the May 14, 1998 issue of Winston Cup Scene.

Teammates Rusty Wallace and Jeremy Mayfield are featured as the cover story in this issue, in a piece in which everybody involved said the right things about how well they were working together.

Buckshot Jones wins at New Hampshire in an event that’s notorious to all who listen to and love The Scene Vault Podcast. Bill France Sr takes on Curtis Turner, Tim Flock and the Teamsters, while Randy LaJoie talks to somebody at Winston Cup Scene OTHER than Rick Houston about his seating company.

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This week in our first segment … I sat down with Jeffrey Baker in our studio at the Universal Technical Institute in Mooresville … actually … back a few months ago.

If you’ve been wondering WHY we asked Jeffrey to join our little family as one of our co-hosts, our conversation during that interview IS WHY.

You’re going to hear stories you’ve NEVER heard before … told in a way that you’ve never heard before.

From getting an ultimatum about his involvement in the sport from a soon-to-be FORMER girlfriend to a Bobby Hamilton caper that you’ve got to hear to believe … Jeffrey brings the heat.

Then in our second segment, we'll dig into the November 19, 1987 issue of Grand National Scene.

The cover story in this issue is about the private planes that were coming into vogue at the time, so we did into the recorded archive to share stories about competitors and their planes.

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This week in the third and final installment of our epic conversation with Ben Leslie, we discuss:

Superstar drivers with ego … and DRIVERS with ego

Mark Martin’s massive influence at Roush Racing

And MORE good ol’ fashioned cheating stories.

In our second segment, we'll dive into the September 29, 1983 issue of Grand National Scene.

Ricky Rudd and Richard Childress WHUP the field at Martinsville, while Bobby Allison holds off Darrell Waltrip for second place. DW and Junior Johnson aren’t exactly pleased with the day’s effort.

Steve Waid’s column discusses the high-school educational pursuits of several folks in the Winston Cup garage. Popular David Ifft recovers from a bad accident on the way home from Dover.

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For 25 years, not a single driver in NASCAR's top three national touring divisions has been fatally injured during a race. That isn't luck. That's a legacy written in tragedy.

This is the Firestorm finale — the story of the most radical safety transformation in motorsports history, the truth behind the most persistent conspiracy theory in NASCAR, and the enduring question every fan carries: did the sport die with Dale Earnhardt?

In this episode:

⚙️ The SAFER barrier in action — Ryan Blaney's 2023 Daytona crash mirrored Dale Earnhardt's fatal impact almost exactly. Watch the wall flex. That flex is the reason he walked away.

🪖 The HANS device — why it took five deaths to mandate the one piece of equipment that changes everything on impact

🚗 The Car of Tomorrow — NASCAR's most ridiculed car, the bolted-on wing, the weird splitter... and the thousands of crash tests that proved none of that mattered

🔩 The Dale Earnhardt seatbelt controversy — definitively addressed — the left lap belt was torn, not cut. There is no photographic evidence, no witness testimony, and no logical motive for a cover-up. The most prevalent theory about that day doesn't survive scrutiny.

🏁 The legacy of the Firestorm 5 — Adam Petty. Kenny Irwin Jr. Tony Roper. Dale Earnhardt. Blaise Alexander. Five deaths. One transformed sport.

🤔 Did NASCAR die with Dale Earnhardt? — If the sport is nothing without him, then what did his 76 wins and 7 championships actually mean?

The sport is different today. Stage racing. The Hail Melon. The siren still blaring at the Dawsonville pool room with every Chase Elliott victory. It's different — but it's very much alive.

And at 200 miles an hour, the beast is always lurking. Always hungry.

That is the lesson of the Firestorm series.

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Blaise Alexander. Adam Petty. Kenny Irwin. Tony Roper. Dale Earnhardt. Five drivers lost in the darkest two seasons in NASCAR history — and only one of them gets the headlines. After 10 episodes and two and a half months, Firestorm is complete. This is where we land.

In this series finale, Steve Waid and Rick Houston close the books on the most emotionally demanding project The Scene Vault Podcast has ever produced — a full examination of the 2000–2001 NASCAR safety crisis that claimed five lives and permanently altered stock-car racing. We're talking about the drivers who don't make the anniversary posts. The names that get erased when history gets rewritten. Not anymore.

But closing the series doesn't mean closing the conversation.

In this episode:

Why crediting Dale Earnhardt alone for NASCAR's safety revolution is revisionist history — and who else deserves to share that legacy

The listener feedback that made this series worth every painful minute

The harshest criticism we received — and why it proves the journalism is working

Debunking the biggest conspiracy theory in NASCAR history: the seatbelt myth, dissected with the burden of proof it deserves

The safety progress NASCAR has made since 2001 — and why that progress can never become complacency

The tracks that still worry us today, and the 1977 story that shows this fear is nothing new

What's next on The Scene Vault Podcast — interviews, roundtables and a "big" announcement coming in August

"If we remember Dale's part of the story without also recognizing Adam Petty, Kenny Irwin, Tony Roper and Blaise Alexander — it would be a huge disservice to their memories."

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