1978 Capital City 400

Last updated
1978 Capital City 400
Race details [1] [2] [3] [4]
Race 23 of 30 in the 1978 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Richmond International Speedway.png
Layout of Richmond Speedway
Date September 10, 1978 (1978-September-10)
Official name Capital City 400
Location Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway, Richmond, Virginia
Course Permanent racing facility
0.542 mi (0.872 km)
Distance 400 laps, 216.8 mi (348.9 km)
Weather Extremely hot with temperatures up to 95 °F (35 °C); wind speeds up to 17.26 miles per hour (27.78 km/h)
Average speed 79.568 mph (128.052 km/h)
Attendance 18,000
Pole position
Driver
 DiGard Motorsports
Most laps led
Driver Neil Bonnett Osterlund Motorsports
Laps 276
Winner
No. 5Darrell WaltripDiGard Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1978 Capital City 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that took place on September 10, 1978, at Richmond Fairgrounds (now Richmond Raceway) in Richmond, Virginia.

Contents

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

In 1953, Richmond International Raceway began hosting the Grand National Series with Lee Petty winning that first race in Richmond. [5] The original track was paved in 1968. [6] In 1988, the track was re-designed into its present D-shaped configuration

The name for the raceway complex was "Strawberry Hill" until the Virginia State Fairgrounds site was bought out in 1999 and renamed the "Richmond International Raceway".

Race report

Four hundred laps were completed on an oval track spanning 0.546 miles (0.879 km) per lap for a grand total of 216.8 miles (348.9 km) of racing. [2] The race was completed within two hours and forty-three minutes of the first official green flag of the race. [2] Darrell Waltrip would end up defeating Bobby Allison (who drove a 1978 Ford Thunderbird) by only one second. [2] [4]

Neil Bonnett started chasing down Waltrip on pit road and slammed into Waltrip's vehicle; creating a rather brutal race ending battle and forcing Bill France Jr. to put them on probation for the remainder of the year. The spectators were incredibly disgruntled after Darrell Waltrip's victory so Waltrip needed police protection in order to make it to the post-race interviews. [7]

The unliked bad boy driver (Waltrip) spins out the popular fan-favorite driver (Bonnett) who had dominated the race about to get a victory to end a winless streak. [2] [4]

When I passed Neil, I was on the inside and he was on the outside. It think it's pretty poor strategy when he doesn't move up. He actually cut into me.

— Darrell Waltrip

Eighteen thousand people were a live witness to five yellow flags being used for twenty-seven laps in addition to 16 lead changes by the drivers. [2] The pole position speed was acquired by Darrell Waltrip's Chevrolet Monte Carlo with a qualifying speed of 91.964 miles per hour (148.002 km/h) during his solo run. [2] [4] Meanwhile, the average speed of the actual race would be 79.568 miles per hour (128.052 km/h). [2] [4]

Dave Dion had his best start of fourth place and had a fast car in the race until an incident took him out of the race on lap 85. [2] [4] Roger Hamby matches his best Cup finish of tenth place. [2] [4]

Notable crew chiefs for this race included Darrell Bryant, Junie Donlavey, Buddy Parrott, Jake Elder, Kirk Shelmerdine, Dale Inman, Bud Moore, and Tim Brewer. [8]

Ed Negre would receive the last-place finish for a brake problem acquired on lap 6 of the race. [2] [3] [4] The top prize of the race was $13,800 ($57,333 when adjusted for inflation) while last placed awarded the driver with a meager $300 ($1,246 when adjusted for inflation). [2] [3] [4] Cale Yarborough would retain his lead in the championship points after this race. [2] [3] 30 drivers would attend this race; all of them were born in the United States of America. [2]

Qualifying

Grid [2] No.DriverManufacturerOwner
188 Darrell Waltrip Chevrolet DiGard Racing
215 Bobby Allison Ford Bud Moore
35 Neil Bonnett Chevrolet Rod Osterlund
429 Dave Dion Ford Dave Dion
543 Richard Petty Chevrolet Petty Enterprises
672 Benny Parsons Chevrolet L.G. DeWitt
790 Dick Brooks Ford Junie Donlavey
848 James Hylton Chevrolet James Hylton
954 Lennie Pond Chevrolet Harry Ranier
1011 Cale Yarborough Oldsmobile Junior Johnson
112 Dave Marcis Chevrolet Rod Osterlund
1270 J.D. McDuffie Chevrolet J.D. McDuffie
1392 Terry Labonte Chevrolet Billy Hagan
1417 Roger Hamby Chevrolet Roger Hamby
153 Richard Childress Oldsmobile Richard Childress
1630 Tighe Scott Chevrolet Walter Ballard
1725 Ronnie Thomas Chevrolet Don Robertson
1867 Buddy Arrington Dodge Buddy Arrington
194 Gary Myers Chevrolet Gary Myers
2045 Baxter Price Chevrolet Baxter Price
2152 Jimmy Means Chevrolet Jimmy Means
2264 Tommy Gale Ford Elmo Langley
2381 Ferrel Harris Chevrolet Robert Gee
241 Ed Negre Chrysler Ed Negre
2524 Cecil Gordon Chevrolet Cecil Gordon

Top 10 finishers

Pos [2] GridNo.DriverManufacturerLapsLaps ledPointsTime/Status
1188 Darrell Waltrip Chevrolet 400651802:43:19
2215 Bobby Allison Ford 40044175+1 seconds
335 Neil Bonnett Chevrolet 400276175Lead lap under green flag
41011 Cale Yarborough Oldsmobile3990160+1 lap
5790 Dick Brooks Oldsmobile3970155+3 laps
6672 Benny Parsons Ford 3970150+3 laps
71392 Terry Labonte Chevrolet 3920146+8 laps
81270 J.D. McDuffie Chevrolet 3910142+9 laps
9112 Dave Marcis Chevrolet 3881143+12 laps
101417 Roger Hamby Chevrolet 3880134+12 laps

Timeline

Section reference: [2]

Championship standings

PosDriverPoints [2] Differential
1 1rightarrow.png Cale Yarborough 36920
2 1rightarrow.png Benny Parsons 3394-298
3 1rightarrow.png Dave Marcis 3340-352
4 1rightarrow.png Darrell Waltrip 3263-429
5 1rightarrow.png Bobby Allison 3176-516
6 1rightarrow.png Richard Petty 3074-618
7 Increase2.svg Lennie Pond 2840-852
8 Decrease2.svg Buddy Arrington 2839-853
9 1rightarrow.png Dick Brooks 2798-894
10 1rightarrow.png Richard Childress 2176-976

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References

  1. ↑ "1978 Capital City 400 weather information". Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 "1978 Capital City 400 racing results". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2011-07-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "1978 Capital City 400 racing results". Driver Averages. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-07-10.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "1978 Capital City 400 racing results". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2011-08-13.
  5. ↑ http://racing.ballparks.com/Richmond/index.htm "Richmond International Raceway has hosted the NASCAR Winston Cup Series since 1953. Lee Petty won the first race that year. "
  6. ↑ http://racing.ballparks.com/Richmond/index.htm "The original track was paved in 1968."
  7. ↑ "Racing History Minute - September 10, 1978". Racers Reunion. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2015-01-28.
  8. ↑ "1978 Capital City 400 crew chiefs information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2018-09-03.
Preceded by NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1978		Succeeded by
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