1994 AC Delco 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 29 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1994 AC Delco 500 program cover, featuring Darrell Waltrip. | |||
| Date | October 23, 1994 | ||
| Official name | 30th Annual AC Delco 500 | ||
| Location | Rockingham, North Carolina, North Carolina Motor Speedway | ||
| Course |
Permanent racing facility 1.017 mi (1.636 km) | ||
| Distance | 492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km) | ||
| Scheduled Distance | 492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km) | ||
| Average speed | 126.408 miles per hour (203.434 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 55,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Rudd Performance Motorsports | ||
| Time | 23.305 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Laps | 108 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 3 | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | TNN | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy, Buddy Baker | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
The 1994 AC Delco 500 was the 29th stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 30th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 23, 1994, in Rockingham, North Carolina, at North Carolina Speedway, a 1.017 miles (1.637 km) permanent high-banked racetrack. The race took the scheduled 492 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would manage to defend against Precision Products Racing driver Rick Mast to take his 63rd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his fourth and final victory of the season.[1][2] To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Rick Mast and Wood Brothers Racing driver Morgan Shepherd would finish second and third, respectively.
With the victory, Earnhardt would manage to mathematically clinch and win a record-tying seventh NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship, which at the time was an achievement only achieved by Richard Petty. Earnhardt had only needed to gain 50 points on second-place driver in the driver's standings, Rusty Wallace. With Earnhardt's win and an early engine issue from Wallace, Earnhardt had managed to gain 127 points on Wallace, thus clinching the championship.[3] The feat would not be matched until 2016, when Jimmie Johnson managed to win his seventh championship at the 2016 Ford EcoBoost 400.
Background
North Carolina Speedway was opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School.
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
Qualifying
Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was scheduled to be held on Thursday, October 20, at 3:00 PM EST. However, after 35 drivers had taken times for qualifying, first-round qualifying was rained out and postponed until Friday, October 21, at 2:00 PM EST.[4] As a result of the rain delay, qualifying was decided to be combined into only one round. For this specific race, positions 1-40 would be decided on time,[5] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.
Ricky Rudd, driving for his own Rudd Performance Motorsports team, would win the pole, setting a time of 23.305 and an average speed of 157.099 miles per hour (252.826 km/h) in the first round.[6]
Three drivers would fail to qualify.
Full qualifying results
Race results
Standings after the race
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
- ^ Higgins, Tom (October 24, 1994). "Earnhardt's seventh Cup matches Petty". Lancaster New Era. p. 24. Retrieved December 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Harris, Mike (October 24, 1994). "Earnhardt wins race and his 7th Winston Cup title". Intelligencer Journal. p. 19. Retrieved December 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ McKee, Sandra (October 24, 1994). "Earnhardt new King?". Florida Today. p. 15. Retrieved December 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Nowell, Paul (October 21, 1994). "Weather postpones AC Delco 500 qualifying". The Beaufort Gazette. p. 19. Retrieved December 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "NASCAR today". The Charlotte Observer. October 20, 1994. p. 28. Retrieved December 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Harris, Mike (October 22, 1994). "Record ravaged by Rudd, 42 more at Rockingham". Centre Daily Times. p. 33. Retrieved December 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
See what we do next...
OR
By submitting your email or phone number, you're giving mschf permission to send you email and/or recurring marketing texts. Data rates may apply. Text stop to cancel, help for help.
Success: You're subscribed now !