Tracy Read spun and hit the infield embankment on the 81st of the event's 117 laps. He was driving a car owned by his father, Gilbert Read. Read's spin occurred after he avoided the spinning car of Kirk Bryant on the second turn. Pronounced dead at the infield care center.
Tracy Read (December 23, 1960 - July 25, 1987) was a campaigner on the Automobile Racing Club of America tour. Read's first race was on October 31, 1981 at Milwaukee. Tracy Read also worked on Cale Yarborough's NASCAR team and for a few ARCA races in 1987 Read ran Yarborough's backup Winston Cup race car.
In the spring race at Talladega in 1987, Read was swept up in a massive pileup late in the race, but was uninjured. However, on his next race back at Talladega in July, on the 78th lap of the 117 lap (500 km race), Kirk Bryant spun and hit the outside wall. Read, who was behind Bryant's whirling Oldsmobile, spun through the infield grass to avoid him, but Read's car plowed nearly head on into the inside dirt bank. Read, 25, died instantly of massive head, chest, and abdominal injuries from the crash. Tracy Read, 26, became the seventh fatality in the 18-year history of the Alabama International Motor Speedway when he died of massive chest injuries, sustained in a crash during the ARCA 500k race. His father, working as his crew chief, was in the pits at the time of the crash. Read died instantly. It was the first fatality here since 1983.
Read was noted for his very close physical resemblance to Davey Allison, and may be best remembered for his actions following the big crash in the first Talladega race of 1987 when he climbed from his car and began waving frantically for safety crews to extinguish the flames from his burning car.
Following his death, Cale Yarborough said of Read, "Tracy was a nice young man who would do anything to help someone in need, he can never be replaced by anyone else and I'll miss him a lot"...
