1995 NAPA 500

1995 NAPA 500
Race details[1]
	Race 31 of 31 in the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
	Atlanta Motor Speedway, the race track where the race was held.
Date	November 12, 1995
Official name	NAPA 500
Location	Atlanta International Raceway, Hampton, Georgia
Course	Permanent racing facility; 1.522 mi (2.449 km)
Distance	328 laps, 499.2 mi (803.3 km)
Weather	Comfortable and sunny with temperatures reaching up to 66 °F (19 °C); wind speeds reaching of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h)
Average speed	163.633 mph (263.342 km/h)
Pole position
Most laps led
Laps	268
Winner
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins ; Benny Parsons ; Ned Jarrett

The 1995 NAPA 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on November 12, 1995, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia.

NASCAR ban tinted windshields starting with this race, confiscating any that teams had in the pits before this one. The move to mandate clear windshields was to make it easier for drivers to see through cars ahead of them and see if a driver in front was signaling them for any reason.

The 1990s were a time when "extreme sports" were considered to be cooler than the mainstream sports of baseball, basketball, ice hockey, and American football. Busch Beer used footage from this race in a commercial that aired during the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season with a stern declaration stating that the NASCAR Cup Series has been "extreme" since it began operations. This would also be the last NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held during an era where the Internet was used by a minority of US residents and people generally did not have the money, equipment, or computer literacy skills to use the Internet on a daily basis.

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of ten intermediate to hold NASCAR races; the others are Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway.[2] The standard track at Atlanta Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-oval track that is 1.54 miles (2.48 km) long.[3] The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five.[3]

Race report

Dale Earnhardt defeated Sterling Marlin by nearly four seconds after 22 lead changes during the event, with a record low of two safety car periods totaling eleven laps.[4][5] Earnhardt started in 11th place and came back from behind to win this race, which set a new race record for fastest 500-mile Cup race at the circuit in 3 hours, 3 minutes, 3 seconds, with an average speed of 163.633 MPH, a record that still stands after the 2019 season at the circuit.[4][5][6] Dale Earnhardt obviously had to dominate this race and they set up a very aggressive engine package and did just that as nobody could touch him and the engine held up for the win.[4][5]

Darrell Waltrip scored his 59th pole position with a qualifying time of 29.6099 seconds for an average speed of 185.046 miles per hour or 297.803 kilometres per hour, in what would be the final pole of his illustrious Hall of Fame career.[4] Ken Schrader finished dead last in this race in a coincidental manner; his engine blew and happened to be the one that clinched it for Jeff Gordon's championship. Ken had terrible luck all year in 1995.[4][5] The #26 of Hut Stricklin would be involved in an accident on the third turn.[4] Billy Standridge, Jack Sprague, Mike Wallace, Shane Hall, Delma Cowart, and Eric Smith would fail to qualify for this race.[7] Out of the 42-driver grid, only six of them would not finish the race.[4][5] All 42 of the qualifying drivers were born in the United States of America.[4]

Most of the field would have Chevrolet and Ford as their manufacturer while Pontiac would bring a limited number of vehicles.[4][5] The average speed of the race was 163.632 miles per hour or 263.340 kilometres per hour.[4][5] Jeff Gordon would go on to win the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship after this race. Gordon went with the least aggressive engine package they had all season to say the least, only needing to finish 41st and wanting to take no chance that it wouldn't fire or would blow up on the warm up laps or as soon as the green dropped. To say the least, the car was terribly slow, pretty much field filler slow; his vehicle managed to cough up a meager 32nd-place finish.[4][5] Junior Johnson would make his final appearance in this race as a car owner. He sold his team to Brett Bodine during the off-season.[4][5]

This was the final career race for owner Alan Dillard Jr., the owner of A.G. Dillard Motorsports.[4][5] It was also the final career race for long time veteran owner D.K. Ulrich.[4][5] The 1995 NAPA 500 was also the final race for Bobby Hillin in the #77, Michael Waltrip in the #30, Morgan Shepherd in the #21, Dick Trickle in the #15, Dale Jarrett in the #28, Jeff Burton in the #8, Hut Stricklin in the #26 and Todd Bodine in the #75.[4][5]

Some of the more notable crew chiefs to fully participate in this race were Robin Pemberton, Andy Petree, Donnie Wingo, Cecil Gordon, Ray Evernham, Larry McReynolds, and Tim Brewer.[8]

There was an opportunity for Dale Earnhardt to defeat Jeff Gordon by one point. Had Dale Earnhardt won the race and Jeff Gordon either finished in 42nd place, Earnhardt would have won the championship. Kenny Bernstein would retire from his career as a NASCAR team owner to spend more time with his family after this race.

Qualifying

Grid[4]	No.	Driver	Manufacturer	Owner
1	17	Darrell Waltrip	Chevrolet	Darrell Waltrip
2	10	Ricky Rudd	Ford	Ricky Rudd
3	43	Bobby Hamilton	Pontiac	Petty Enterprises
4	15	Dick Trickle	Ford	Bud Moore
5	98	Jeremy Mayfield	Ford	Cale Yarborough
6	2	Rusty Wallace	Ford	Roger Penske
7	30	Michael Waltrip	Pontiac	Chuck Rider
8	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Rick Hendrick
9	6	Mark Martin	Ford	Jack Roush
10	41	Ricky Craven	Chevrolet	Larry Hedrick
11	3	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet	Richard Childress
12	5	Terry Labonte	Chevrolet	Rick Hendrick
13	1	Rick Mast	Ford	Richard Jackson
14	26	Hut Stricklin	Ford	Kenny Berstein
15	94	Bill Elliott	Ford	Bill Elliott
16	7	Geoffrey Bodine	Ford	Geoffrey Bodine
17	16	Ted Musgrave	Ford	Jack Roush
18	4	Sterling Marlin	Chevrolet	Larry McClure
19	8	Jeff Burton	Ford	Stavola Brothers
20	11	Brett Bodine	Ford	Junior Johnson
21	18	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	Joe Gibbs
22	37	John Andretti	Ford	Michael Kranefuss
23	31	Gary Bradberry	Chevrolet	Allan Dillard, Jr.
24	12	Derrike Cope	Ford	Bobby Allison
25	19	Loy Allen, Jr.	Ford	Mark Smith

Top 20 finishers

Pos[4]	No.	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Laps led	Time/Status
1	3	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet	328	268	3:03:03
2	4	Sterling Marlin	Chevrolet	328	6	+3.74 seconds
3	2	Rusty Wallace	Ford	328	0	Lead lap under green flag
4	94	Bill Elliott	Ford	328	17	Lead lap under green flag
5	22	Ward Burton	Pontiac	328	0	Lead lap under green flag
6	23	Jimmy Spencer	Ford	328	0	Lead lap under green flag
7	88	Ernie Irvan	Ford	327	0	+1 lap
8	18	Bobby Labonte	Chevrolet	327	13	+1 lap
9	77	Bobby Hillin, Jr.	Ford	327	0	+1 lap
10	10	Ricky Rudd	Ford	327	11	+1 lap
11	7	Geoffrey Bodine	Ford	327	0	+1 lap
12	30	Michael Waltrip	Pontiac	326	0	+2 laps
13	5	Terry Labonte	Chevrolet	326	0	+2 laps
14	87	Joe Nemechek	Chevrolet	326	0	+2 laps
15	37	John Andretti	Ford	325	0	+3 laps
16	17	Darrell Waltrip	Chevrolet	325	3	+3 laps
17	6	Mark Martin	Ford	325	0	+3 laps
18	98	Jeremy Mayfield	Ford	325	0	+3 laps
19	9	Lake Speed	Ford	324	0	+4 laps
20	11	Brett Bodine	Ford	324	0	+4 laps

Timeline

Section reference: [4]

Start of race: Darrell Waltrip had the pole position to start the race.
Lap 2: Ricky Rudd took over the lead from Darrell Waltrip.
Lap 7: Bobby Hamilton took over the lead from Ricky Rudd.
Lap 16: Ricky Rudd took over the lead from Bobby Hamilton.
Lap 18: Dale Earnhardt took over the lead from Ricky Rudd.
Lap 55: Darrell Waltrip took over the lead from Dale Earnhardt.
Lap 56: Sterling Marlin took over the lead from Darrell Waltrip.
Lap 61: Jeff Gordon took over the lead from Sterling Marlin.
Lap 62: Bill Elliott took over the lead from Jeff Gordon.
Lap 64: Dale Earnhardt took over the lead from Bill Elliott.
Lap 72: Caution for debris; ended on lap 77.
Lap 82: Dale Earnhardt took over the lead from Ricky Rudd.
Lap 92: Ken Schrader became the last-place finisher due to a faulty engine. Jeff Gordon officially clinches the championship.
Lap 104: Robert Pressley had problems with his engine, forcing him to end the race early.
Lap 138: Dale Earnhardt took over the lead from Bobby Labonte.
Lap 141: Todd Bodine's engine started acting up, ending his NASCAR race weekend prematurely.
Lap 194: Steve Grissom's transmission stopped working properly, causing him to be the fourth DNF.
Lap 201: Dale Earnhardt took over the lead from Bobby Labonte.
Lap 202: Hut Stricklin had a terminal crash.
Lap 204: Caution due to Hut Stricklin's accident, ended on lap 208.
Lap 270: Dale Earnhardt took over the lead from Bill Elliott.
Lap 289: Dave Marcis' engine gave out, making him the 37th-place finisher in the race.
Finish: Dale Earnhardt was officially declared the winner of the event.

Standings after the race

Pos	Driver	Points[4]	Differential
1	Jeff Gordon	4614	0
2	Dale Earnhardt	4580	-34
3	Sterling Marlin	4361	-253
4	Mark Martin	4320	-294
5	Rusty Wallace	4240	-374
6	Terry Labonte	4146	-468
7	Ted Musgrave	3949	-665
8	Bill Elliott	3746	-868
9	Ricky Rudd	3734	-880
10	Bobby Labonte	3718	-896

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References

Weather information for the 1995 NAPA 500 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
"NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Archived from the original on September 12, 2010. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
"NASCAR Tracks—The Atlanta Motor Speedway". Atlanta Motor Speedway. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved September 2, 2011.
1995 NAPA 500 racing results at Racing Reference
1995 NAPA 500 results at Race-Database
NASCAR Race Results for the 1995 NAPA 500 at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
Qualifying information for the 1995 NAPA 500 at Racing Reference
1995 NAPA 500 crew chiefs at Racing Reference

Preceded by 1995 Dura Lube 500	NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season 1995-96	Succeeded by 1996 Daytona 500

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[race_weather-1] Weather information for the 1995 NAPA 500 at The Old Farmers' Almanac

[tacksnascar-2] "NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Archived from the original on September 12, 2010. Retrieved September 2, 2011.

[atlantatrack-3] "NASCAR Tracks—The Atlanta Motor Speedway". Atlanta Motor Speedway. Archived from the original on 2011-07-21. Retrieved September 2, 2011.

[1995n500-4] 1995 NAPA 500 racing results at Racing Reference

[racedatabase-5] 1995 NAPA 500 results at Race-Database

[6] NASCAR Race Results for the 1995 NAPA 500 at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet

[7] Qualifying information for the 1995 NAPA 500 at Racing Reference

[8] 1995 NAPA 500 crew chiefs at Racing Reference