1978 Southern 500

1978 Southern 500
Race details[1][2]
Race 22 of 30 in the 1978 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season

Layout of Darlington Raceway
Date September 4, 1978 (1978-September-04)
Official name Southern 500
Location Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina
Course Permanent racing facility
1.375 mi (2.212 km)
Distance 367 laps, 500.5 mi (805.4 km)
Weather Hot with temperatures reaching up to 88 °F (31 °C); wind speeds up to 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h)
Average speed 116.828 miles per hour (188.016 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Wood Brothers Racing
Most laps led
Driver Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps 203
Winner
No. 11 Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Television in the United States
Network ABC
Announcers Keith Jackson
Chris Economaki

The 1978 Southern 500, the 29th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on September 4, 1978, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.

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. Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.

Background

Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.

The track is a four-turn 1.366 miles (2.198 km) oval.[3] The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees.[3] The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch is banked at six degrees.[3] Darlington Raceway can seat up to 60,000 people.[3]

Summary

There were forty American-born competitors who competed in this 367-lap race.[2] A crowd of 65000 racing fans would cheer them on for four hours and seventeen minutes.[2] NASCAR officials would signal nine cautions for an outstanding 72 laps; 21 changes for the first-place position were made. There were moments when the race leader remained unchanged for a long period of time; including Cale Yarborough's 69-lap lead which lasted from lap 118 to lap 186 and his late-race streak where he would take over the lead on lap 261 and would never relinquish it for the remainder of the event.[2][4]

Cale Yarborough would defeat future NASCAR on Fox personality Darrell Waltrip by three seconds while Richard Petty, rookie driver Terry Labonte, and Bobby Allison would round out the top five finishers.[2][4] Yarborough's win would become the fourth ever at the Southern 500.[5] He would also retain the lead in championship points right after this race.[2] Bruce Hill would finish in last place on lap 80 due to a problem with his vehicle's rear end.[2][4] David Pearson would get the pole position with a top speed of 153.685 miles per hour (247.332 km/h).[2][4] D. K. Ulrich would bring nitrous oxide into his racing vehicle and lost the rest of the 1978 Winston Cup Series season. Neil Bonnett had the most unfortunate incident by hitting the telephone wires while exiting pit road; nobody was injured.

The total prize purse of the race was $200,170 ($727,454.55 when considering inflation); Yarborough received $30,175 of it for winning the race in first-place ($109,661.49 when considering inflation).[4]

Top ten finishers

Pos[2] Grid No. Driver Manufacturer Laps Winnings Laps led
1 6 11 Cale Yarborough Oldsmobile 367 $30,175 203
2 2 88 Darrell Waltrip Chevrolet 367 $18,450 44
3 9 43 Richard Petty Chevrolet 366 $13,175 1
4 19 92 Terry Labonte Chevrolet 356 $9,850 0
5 3 15 Bobby Allison Ford 355 $10,875 21
6 16 9 Bill Elliott Mercury 355 $5,200 0
7 25 48 James Hylton Chevrolet 353 $7,000 0
8 29 67 Buddy Arrington Dodge 350 $6,380 0
9 28 25 Ronnie Thomas Chevrolet 349 $6,270 0
10 4 72 Benny Parsons Chevrolet 348 $7,650 12

Standings after the race

Pos Driver Points[2] Differential
1 Cale Yarborough 3532 0
2 Benny Parsons 3244 -288
3 Dave Marcis 3197 -335
4 Darrell Waltrip 3083 -449
5 Bobby Allison 3001 -531
6 Richard Petty 2966 -566
7 Buddy Arrington 2724 -808
8 Lennie Pond 2708 -824
9 Dick Brooks 2643 -889
10 Richard Childress 2586 -946

References

  1. Weather information for the 1978 Southern 500 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1978 Southern 500 at Racing Reference. Accessed 2012-03-05. Archived 2012-03-07.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Darlington Raceway". CBS Sports. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 1978 Southern 500 racing information at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Accessed 2012-03-05. Archived 2012-03-07.
  5. 1978 SOUTHERN 500 - Yarborough makes it four at YouTube
Preceded by
1978 Volunteer 500
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1978
Succeeded by
1978 Capital City 400
Preceded by
1977
Southern 500 races
1978
Succeeded by
1979
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