1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500 (June)

1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500

Race details[1]
Race 12 of 31 in the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Layout of Dover International Speedway
Date	June 4, 1995 (1995-June-04)
Official name	Miller Genuine Draft 500
Location	Dover International Speedway (Dover, Delaware)
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.000 mi (1.609 km)
Distance	500 laps, 500.0 mi (804.6 km)
Weather	Mild with temperatures reaching up to 77.9 °F (25.5 °C); wind speeds up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h)
Average speed	119.880 miles per hour (192.928 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Most laps led
Driver	Kyle Petty	SABCO Racing
Laps	271
Winner
No. 42	Kyle Petty	SABCO Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TNN
Announcers	Mike Joy Buddy Baker Dick Berggren

The 1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on June 4, 1995, at Dover Downs International Speedway in the American community of Dover, Delaware.

Souvenir magazines for this race sold for a price of $10.00 ($15.53 when adjusted for inflation) per copy and featured the then-favored driver Rusty Wallace. This race would see the final race victory from a Petty family member: Kyle Petty, son of Richard Petty and grandson of Lee Petty.

Summary

Kyle Petty would defeat Bobby Labonte by nearly a quarter of a second after racing for more than four hours in front of an unspecified live audience; leading Pontiac into its first victory since Penske Racing South switched to Ford vehicles.^[2] He would have an awful season prior to this event and used it to springboard a comeback.^[3] After the race, Petty had to be put on oxygen due to the double pneumonia that he had at the time. His victory also came at a time where Pontiac was underfunding their NASCAR teams in advance of their permanent withdrawal from NASCAR after the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. 1994 and 1995 were critical years for drivers using the Pontiac manufacturer as first-rate equipment started to become harder to come by.

While future superstar Jeff Gordon would clinch the pole position driving up to 153.669 miles per hour (247.306 km/h) during solo qualifying runs, the average pace of the race was 119.880 miles per hour (192.928 km/h). The fan favorite, Rusty Wallace, started in an agonizing 16th place and would make an improvement of seven positions to finish in ninth place on lap 499. Almost 8% of the race was run under caution and the average green flag run was a mere 77 laps.^[2] Petty's final race in the NASCAR Cup Series would eventually signal an end to the dominance that the Petty family had in NASCAR (with his father Richard not winning a race after the 1984 Firecracker 400 and retiring after the 1992 Hooters 500)^[4] and would cement the dominance of the Earnhardt family over the then-current NASCAR scene.

There were 20 difference changes in the first-place position of this race; with Petty holding the lead for 82 laps at one point during the event. There were 500 laps in this event which took place on a paved oval track. All of the 42 drivers on the racing grid were male and American-born. Bobby Hillin, Jr. would become the last-place finisher of this race on lap 2 along with Elton Sawyer, Dale Jarrett, and John Andretti.^[2] This event was known as the The Big One at Dover.^[5] Kyle Petty walked away $77,665 richer ($120,610.57 when adjusted for inflation) while Hillin, Jr. walked away with only $12,780 more to his name ($19,846.82 when adjusted for inflation). The overall winnings for this racing event were $1,031,965 ($1,602,599.5 when adjusted for inflation).^[6]

Top twenty finishers

Post-race standings

References