1979 Gabriel 400

1979 Gabriel 400

Race details[1][2]
Race 16 of 31 in the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Roger Hamby's vehicle (driven by Steve Pfeiffer) crashes while racing at the 1979 Gabriel 400.
Date	June 17, 1979 (1979-June-17)
Official name	Gabriel 400
Location	Michigan International Speedway (Brooklyn, Michigan, USA)
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.000 mi (3.218 km)
Distance	200 laps, 400 mi (643 km)
Weather	Hot with temperatures approaching 90.9 °F (32.7 °C); wind speeds up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h)
Average speed	135.798 miles per hour (218.546 km/h)
Attendance	62,000[3]
Pole position
Driver	Neil Bonnett	Wood Brothers Racing
Most laps led
Driver	Buddy Baker	Ranier Racing
Laps	121
Winner
No. 28	Buddy Baker	Ranier Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ABC
Announcers	Al Michaels Jackie Stewart

The 1979 Gabriel 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) race that took place on June 17, 1979, at Michigan International Speedway in the American community of Brooklyn, Michigan.

By the following season, 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

Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long.^[4] Opened in 1968, the track's turns are banked at eighteen degrees, while the 3,600-foot-long front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at twelve degrees.^[4] The back stretch, has a five degree banking and is 2,242 feet long.^[4]

Summary

Two hundred laps were done on a paved oval track spanning 2.000 miles (3.219 km).^[3][2] The total time of the race was two hours, fifty-six minutes, and forty-four seconds.^[3][2] There were six cautions for thirty-three laps with the race finishing under caution.^[3][2] Speeds were: 135.798 miles per hour (218.546 km/h) as the average and 162.371 miles per hour (261.311 km/h) as the pole position speed.^[3][2]

Sixty-two thousand fans managed to see Buddy Baker defeat Donnie Allison under caution.^[3][2] The race was also Bill Seifert's final start in addition to being Bill Elliott's 33rd start in the NASCAR Cup Series; Elliott would lead the first lap of his NASCAR Cup Series career during this event. Other famous drivers like Darrell Waltrip (who retained the championship points lead after this race^[3] but lost it at the 1979 running of the Los Angeles Times 500 by 11 points^[5]), Richard Childress (now the owner of Richard Childress Racing), Benny Parsons, and Terry Labonte have participated in this race.^[3] While substituting for Roger Hamby during the middle of this racing event, Steve Pfieffer lost control of his car during a caution period and injured a couple of spectators on the pit wall while attempting to stop his vehicle for maintenance. He would be later sent to Foote West Hospital in nearby Jackson; where the doctors gave him a good prognosis and eventually released him with cuts on his right knee and chest.^[6]

The total winnings of this race were $148,505 ($490,046.07 when adjusted for inflation). Buddy Baker earned $16,780 in cash prizes for his win ($55,371.69 when adjusted for inflation) while Bill Seifert walked away only $960 wealthier ($3,167.87 when adjusted for inflation).^[7]

Qualifying

Finishing order

Note: The participants of this race were all American-born males.^[3] Chevrolet vehicles made up the majority of the racing grid while the rest of the field consisted of Oldsmobile, Mercury, Ford, Buick and Dodge entries.^[3]

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race

Standings after the race

Pos	Driver	Points[3]
1	Darrell Waltrip	2555
2	Bobby Allison	2514
3	Cale Yarborough	2397
4	Richard Petty	2362
5	Dale Earnhardt	2172
6	Joe Millikan	2079
7	Benny Parsons	2069
8	Terry Labonte	1933
9	Richard Childress	1931
10	J.D. McDuffie	1897

References