1978 Old Dominion 500

1978 Old Dominion 500
Race details[1][2]
Race 25 of 30 in the 1978 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season

A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway
Date September 24, 1978 (1978-September-24)
Official name Old Dominion 500
Location Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia
Course Permanent racing facility
0.525 mi (0.844 km)
Distance 500 laps, 262.5 mi (442.4 km)
Weather Mild with temperatures approaching 70 °F (21 °C); wind speeds up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)
Average speed 79.185 miles per hour (127.436 km/h)
Pole position
Driver
Ranier Racing
Most laps led
Driver Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps 372
Winner
No. 11 Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1978 Old Dominion 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) race that took place on September 24, 1978, at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia. This race was the 28th to be held as a part of what is now known as the Tums Fast Relief 500.

By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore.

Background

Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races.[3] The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long.[4] The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has a zero degree banking.[4]

Summary

Five hundred laps were done on a paved oval track spanning 0.525 miles (0.845 km) for a grand total of 262.5 miles (422.5 km).[2] The complete time of the race was three hours, nineteen minutes, and fifty-four seconds.[2] There were four cautions given out by the NASCAR officials for nineteen laps.[2] Cale Yarborough defeated Darrell Waltrip by three car lengths.[2] Notable speeds recorded in both the qualifying session and the race were: 79.185 miles per hour (127.436 km/h) as the average speed and 86.558 miles per hour (139.302 km/h) as the pole position speed.[2] Twenty thousand people attended this live race.[2] Chevrolet vehicles would dominate the starting grid of the event with multi-car teams dominating the lineup.[5] By the late 1970s, it had become prohibitively expensive for a single person to own a NASCAR team. A series of oil crises in addition to changing sponsorship needs started to bring in the age of the multi-car team and the slow decline of the independent owners.

Harry Gant would lead a NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time in his career. However, he would only run ninety laps before having to leave the race due to an engine problem.[2] This would cause him to be relegated to a 28th-place finish and only $1,070 in prize winnings ($3,888.58 when considering inflation).[2] Total winnings for this race were $101,430 ($368,615.25 when considering inflation) and Cale Yarborough took the majority of the winnings with an easy $24,950 paycheck ($90,672.88 when considering inflation).

Satch Worley would retire from NASCAR after this race while Lennie Pond would never earn another pole position start after this race.[6] Herb Nab was Pond's chief mechanic for the sole qualifying run that managed to get him the pole position for the event along with an extremely rare silver trophy.[7]

Finishing order

  1. Cale Yarborough
  2. Darrell Waltrip (highest finishing Chevrolet vehicle)
  3. Benny Parsons†
  4. Neil Bonnett†
  5. Lennie Pond
  6. Richard Petty
  7. Bobby Allison (highest finishing Ford vehicle)
  8. Dave Marcis
  9. Terry Labonte
  10. Buddy Arrington (highest finishing Dodge vehicle)
  11. James Hylton
  12. Richard Childress
  13. Dick Brooks†
  14. Satch Worley*
  15. Gary Myers
  16. Ronnie Thomas
  17. Dick May†
  18. Ed Negre
  19. Baxter Price
  20. Ferrel Harris†
  21. Frank Warren†
  22. J.D. McDuffie*†
  23. Jimmy Means*
  24. Roger Hamby*
  25. David Pearson*
  26. Buddy Baker*†
  27. Tommy Gale*†
  28. Harry Gant*
  29. Tighe Scott*
  30. Cecil Gordon*†

* Driver failed to finish race
† Driver is deceased

Timeline

Standings after the race

Pos Driver Points[2] Differential
1 Cale Yarborough 4052 0
2 Benny Parsons 3644 -408
3 Dave Marcis 3624 -428
4 Darrell Waltrip 3598 -454
5 Bobby Allison 3507 -545
6 Richard Petty 3306 -746
7 Lennie Pond 3146 -906
8 Dick Brooks 3072 -980
9 Buddy Arrington 3070 -982
10 Richard Childress 2970 -1082

References

  1. ↑ "1978 Old Dominion 500 weather information". The Old Farmer's Almanac. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "1978 Old Dominion 500 racing results". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2010-11-19.
  3. ↑ "NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  4. 1 2 "NASCAR Tracks—The Martinsville Speedway". Martinsville Speedway. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
  5. ↑ "1978 Old Dominion 500 manufacturer/team information". Driver Averages. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  6. ↑ "1978 Old Dominion 500 racing results (third reference)". Race Database. Retrieved 2012-03-08.
  7. ↑ "All About Crew Chief Herbert "Herb" Nab". Legends of NASCAR. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
Preceded by
1978 Delaware 500		 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1978 		Succeeded by
1978 Wilkes 400
Preceded by
1977		 Old Dominion 500 races
1978 		Succeeded by
1979
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