Goody's Fast Relief 500

The Goody's Fast Relief 500 is a 500-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held at the 0.526 miles (0.847 km) Martinsville Speedway in Ridgeway, Virginia, just outside of Martinsville. Two races were run in 1961 when the first spring race was rained out before the halfway point and declared complete.

Long time sponsor GlaxoSmithKline returned as race sponsor for the 2007 spring race with their new orange-flavored brand with the race title being Goody's Cool Orange 500; the Goody's 500 was originally the name of the fall race, which since 2008 has also been sponsored by the British pharmaceutical conglomerate, as the TUMS QuikPak 500.

The race on April 1, 2007 was the second race for NASCAR's car design, the Car of Tomorrow.

This event is the sixth race of the season, the point where NASCAR begins to use the current season's owner's points standings.

Past winners

• 1957: Race shortened due to crash.
• 1961 (first): Race shortened due to rain. This race would not be declared official under current rules requiring 251 laps.
• 1961 (second): A replacement race for the original 1961 race.
• 1970, 1977, & 1995: Race shortened due to rain.
• 1974: Race shortened due to energy crisis.
• 2010: Race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to rain and extended due to a Green-white-checker finish.

Notable races

• 1971: Controversy dogged Richard Petty's win as he lost his gas cap (dry-brake fuel couplers were not mandated until 1974) during the race but was not black flagged; there had been incidents of drivers flagged to get gas caps under green.
• 1973: David Pearson won his first short track race since 1971, driving the Wood Brothers Mercury.
• 1976: Darrell Waltrip took the win, the first for the DiGard Racing Chevrolet under Gatorade sponsorship.
• 1979: Richard Petty posted his first win in a Chevrolet and first short track win since 1975.
• 1981: Morgan Shepherd stunned the field with his first career Winston Cup win.
• 1982: After nearly a dozen second-place finishes, Harry Gant pulled down his first win.
• 1984: Geoff Bodine edged Ron Bouchard for the win, the first for Bodine and the first for Hendrick Motorsports; it was also the first for crew chief Harry Hyde since 1977.
• 1986: Ricky Rudd won a race where wrecks and blown engines put the entire field behind him at least one lap down.
• 1989: Darrell Waltrip won, the final win for Chevrolet's bubble-glassed Monte Carlo racecar; the Monte Carlo was replaced by the Lumina.
• 1990: Geoff Bodine posted his first win with Junior Johnson.
• 1997: Jeff Gordon edged Bobby Hamilton for the win, ending a four-race win streak in the Virginia 500 by Rusty Wallace.
• 1998: Bobby Hamilton drove the Morgan-McClure Chevrolet to the win; he engaged in several bouts of multilap drag-racing with John Andretti, driving the Petty Enterprises Pontiac that Hamilton had driven the previous three seasons.
• 1999: John Andretti lost a lap after being tagged by Ward Burton; he made up the lap and ran down Jeff Burton; in the final ten laps he and Burton raced nose to nose for several laps before Andretti rallied to the win, his first for Petty Enterprises, the 200th short track win for the team, and the first for the team since 1997.
• 2002: Bobby Labonte posted his first career short track win.
• 2004: Rusty Wallace posted his final Nextel Cup win.
• 2010: Denny Hamlin stormed four-abreast through traffic on a late restart to steal the win.

Television broadcasters

External links

• NASCAR Commentators Crews and Networks
• Ratings For NASCAR's Spring Martinsville Race Since 1999

External links

• Crittenden Automotive Library: Sovran Bank 500