1976 Gwyn Staley 400

1976 Gwyn Staley 400
Race details[1]
Race 7 of 30 in the 1976 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

North Wilkesboro Speedway
Date April 4, 1976 (1976-April-04)
Official name Gwyn Staley 400
Location North Wilkesboro Speedway, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Course Permanent racing facility
0.625 mi (1.005 km)
Distance 400 laps, 250 mi (402 km)
Weather Temperatures reaching as warm as 73.9 °F (23.3 °C); wind speeds up to 18.8 miles per hour (30.3 km/h)
Average speed 96.858 miles per hour (155.878 km/h)
Attendance 18,000[2]
Pole position
Driver
K&K Insurance Racing
Most laps led
Driver Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps 364
Winner
No. 11 Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1976 Gwyn Staley 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car race held on April 4, 1976, at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Contested over 400 laps, it was the seventh race of the 30-event 1976 season. Cale Yarborough of Junior Johnson Motorsports took his second win of the season, while Richard Petty finished second and Bobby Allison third. Benny Parsons left the event with the season points lead.

Summary

There were 28 American-born drivers who participated in this race; Jeff Handy finished in last-place due to an engine problem on the third lap of this 400-lap race.[2] Jabe Thomas was the lowest-finishing driver to finish the race.[2] He was 51 laps behind the leaders.[2] Cale Yarborough defeated Richard Petty after two and a half hours of racing in front of 18000 people;[2] it was the first time any driver other than Petty had won the event since 1969.[3]

Yarborough won the race by a margin of one lap "and about 100 feet" over Petty; Petty had been ten seconds behind Yarborough before being trapped a lap down during a pit stop under caution, when Yarborough managed to beat the pace car out of the pits while the slower Petty had to wait.[3] Benny Parsons, Yarborough, and Petty had been exchanging the lead amongst each other up to that point.[3] The other drivers who finished in the top ten were Bobby Allison, Parsons, J.D. McDuffie, Lennie Pond, Dick Brooks, Dave Marcis, Richard Childress and Walter Ballard.[2] Yarborough set an average speed of 96.858 miles per hour (155.878 km/h) for the event;[3] he described the race as a turnaround for his team, which had struggled, by his standards, up to that point in the 1976 season.[4]

Marcis, who was described as having his "best season ever" to that point in the year,[5] earned the pole position for the event, setting a speed of 108.585 miles per hour (174.751 km/h) in his Dodge during solo qualifying runs; Marcis' time set a new track record speed, with Parsons and Darrell Waltrip also breaking the old track record.[6] Only two caution periods slowed the race, one for an accident by James Hylton, another for a crash by Junior Miller,[3] who was making his first appearance in professional stock car racing.[7]

Bill Champion would retire from NASCAR competition following the event,[8] along with last-place finisher Jeff Handy.[9]

Results

Yarborough drove the No. 11 to victory lane

Race results

Pos Grid No. Driver Team Manufacturer Laps Points
15 11 Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates Chevrolet 400 185
27 43 Richard Petty Petty Enterprises Dodge 399 175
38 2 Bobby Allison Penske Racing Mercury 397 165
42 72 Benny Parsons DeWitt Racing Chevrolet 397 165
512 70 J. D. McDuffie McDuffie Racing Chevrolet 393 155
69 54 Lennie Pond Elder Racing Chevrolet 391 150
74 90 Dick Brooks Donlavey Racing Ford 388 146
81 71 Dave Marcis Marcis Auto Racing Dodge 385 142
910 3 Richard Childress Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 385 138
1013 30 Walter Ballard Ballard Racing Chevrolet 378 134
1111 92 Skip Manning # Hagan Racing Chevrolet 375 130
1221 24 Cecil Gordon Gordon Racing Chevrolet 374 127
1319 48 James Hylton Hylton Motorsports Chevrolet 370 124
1414 95 Junior Miller Miller Racing Chevrolet 370 121
1524 64 Elmo Langley Langley Racing Ford 368 118
1622 10 Bill Champion Champion Racing Ford 359 115
1725 8 Ed Negre Negre Racing Dodge 359 112
1816 67 Buddy Arrington Arrington Racing Plymouth 359 109
1920 40 D. K. Ulrich DeLotto Racing Chevrolet 358 106
2015 79 Frank Warren Warren Racing Dodge 354 103
2118 25 Jabe Thomas Robertson Racing Chevrolet 349 100
223 88 Darrell Waltrip DiGard Motorsports Chevrolet 291 97
2327 45 Baxter Price Price Racing Chevrolet 278 94
2426 44 Richard D. Brown Brown Racing Pontiac 172 91
2523 5 Neil Castles A-J-S-T Racing Dodge 125 88
266 15 Buddy Baker Bud Moore Engineering Ford 38 85
2717 05 David Sisco Sisco Racing Chevrolet 12 82
2828 33 Jeff Handy Handy Racing Chevrolet 3 79
# Rookie of the Year candidate / † Driver change following qualifying
Source:[10]

References

  1. ↑ "1976 Gwyn Staley 400 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "1976 Gwyn Staley 400". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Yarborough Wins 400". St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, FL. April 5, 1976. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  4. ↑ "Yarborough bounces to win in Gwyn Staley 400 event". Rome News-Tribune. Rome, GA. April 5, 1976. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  5. ↑ Garrett, Jerry (April 4, 1976). "Staley Competition Tough for Dick Petty". The Robesonian. Lumberton, NC. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  6. ↑ "Marcis On Pole For Staley 400". The Ledger. Lakeland, FL. April 3, 1976. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  7. ↑ "Junior Miller - NASCAR Sprint Cup Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  8. ↑ "Bill Champion - NASCAR Sprint Cup Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  9. ↑ "Jeff Handy - NASCAR Sprint Cup Results". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
  10. ↑ "1976 Gwyn Staley 400 Results". ESPN. Retrieved 2012-06-21.
Preceded by
1976 Atlanta 500		 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1976 		Succeeded by
1976 Rebel 500
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