1978 Delaware 500

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Date September 17, 1978 (1978-09-17)
Official name Delaware 500
Location Dover Downs International Speedway, Dover, Delaware
Course Permanent racing facility
1978 Delaware 500
Race details[1][2]
Race 24 of 30 in the 1978 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Layout of Dover International Speedway
Layout of Dover International Speedway
Date September 17, 1978 (1978-09-17)
Official name Delaware 500
Location Dover Downs International Speedway, Dover, Delaware
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 1.609 km (1.000 miles)
Distance 500 laps, 500.0 mi (804.6 km)
Weather Warm with temperatures of 79 °F (26 °C); wind speeds of 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h)
Average speed 119.323 miles per hour (192.032 km/h)
Pole position
Driver
McDuffie Racing
Time 26.572
Most laps led
Driver Bobby Allison Bud Moore Engineering
Laps 267
Winner
No. 15 Bobby Allison Bud Moore Engineering
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1978 Delaware 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on September 17, 1978, at Dover Downs International Speedway (now Dover International Speedway) in Dover, Delaware.

Dover Downs International Speedway, now called Dover International Speedway, is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway.[3] The NASCAR race makes use of the track's standard configuration, a four-turn short track oval that is 1 mile (1.6 km) long.[4] The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, and both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the backstretch are banked at nine degrees.[4]

Race report

Five hundred laps were completed on the paved oval track spanning 1.000 mile (1.609 km).[2] The race took four hours, eleven minutes, and twenty seconds to complete.[2] Three cautions slowed the race for eighteen laps.[2] Thirty thousand fans attended.[2] Notable speeds were: 119.323 miles per hour (192.032 km/h) for the average speed and 135.480 miles per hour (218.034 km/h) for the pole position speed (accomplished by J.D. McDuffie[5]).[2]

Bobby Allison defeated Cale Yarborough by 111⁄2 seconds.[2] J.D. McDuffie won his only NASCAR Cup pole position [2] while using tires from the McCreary Tire Company. This pole position also secured a spot in the first running of the Busch Clash (now the Sprint Unlimited);[6] Buddy Baker would ultimately win that race in February 1979.

Jabe Thomas would retire from NASCAR after this race. Bobby Allison would gain his 50th career Winston Cup Series victory from this race. Although McDuffie would never win a Winston Cup Series race, his best overall finish would come at the 1979 Sun-Drop Music City USA 420 in Nashville, Tennessee.[7]

Notable crew chiefs who participated in the race included Darrell Bryant, Junie Donlavey, Buddy Parrott, Jake Elder, Joey Arrington, Herb Nab, Dale Inman, Walter Ballard, Kirk Shelmerdine, and Bud Moore.[8]

Qualifying

Grid No. Driver Manufacturer Speed[9] Qualifying time[9] Owner
1 70J.D. McDuffieChevrolet135.48026.572J.D. McDuffie
2 15Bobby AllisonFord134.86626.693Bud Moore
3 3Richard ChildressOldsmobile134.80626.705Richard Childress
4 5Neil BonnettOldsmobile134.71326.723Rod Osterlund
5 21David PearsonMercury134.69526.727Wood Brothers
6 27Buddy BakerChevrolet134.46826.772M.C. Anderson
7 88Darrell WaltripChevrolet134.39326.787DiGard
8 11Cale YarboroughOldsmobile134.35326.795Junior Johnson
9 72Benny ParsonsChevrolet133.54626.957L.G. DeWitt
10 2Dave MarcisChevrolet133.29827.007Rod Osterlund

Finishing order

Section reference:[2]

  1. Bobby Allison
  2. Cale Yarborough†
  3. Buddy Baker†
  4. David Pearson
  5. Darrell Waltrip
  6. Dick Brooks†
  7. Lennie Pond†
  8. Dave Marcis
  9. Donnie Allison
  10. Dick May†
  11. Ronnie Thomas
  12. Richard Childress
  13. Al Holbert†
  14. Cecil Gordon†
  15. Ed Negre†
  16. Earle Canavan
  17. Tommy Gale†
  18. Roger Hamby
  19. Nestor Peles
  20. Gary Myers*
  21. Frank Warren
  22. Buddy Arrington
  23. Baxter Price
  24. Nelson Oswald*
  25. Tighe Scott*
  26. Benny Parsons*†
  27. Richard Petty*
  28. Dave Dion*
  29. Neil Bonnett*†
  30. Ralph Jones*
  31. Joey Arrington*
  32. Jimmy Means*
  33. J.D. McDuffie*†
  34. James Hylton*†
  35. Louis Gatto*
  36. Ferrel Harris*†
  37. Jabe Thomas*†

* Driver failed to finish race
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased

Timeline

Standings after the race

References

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