1987 was a building year in many ways. With sponsorship from Wynn's Car Care products, Kmart and Delco Battery, Speed built an entirely new race team with himself as the owner, and veteran crew chief Darrell Bryant helping him to build the operation. The purple and white Oldsmobile donned the number 83, in honor of the year Lake became a born-again Christian. In his thirteen starts Speed finished ninth in the first Talladega race and followed that up with a third-place finish in the World 600. Speed's other two top ten finishes were at the same tracks, seventh place at both Talladega and Charlotte.