1996 Tyson Holly Farms 400

1996 Tyson Holly Farms 400
Race details[1]
Race 27 of 31 in the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

North Wilkesboro Speedway
Date September 29, 1996 (1996-09-29)
Location North Wilkesboro Speedway, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Course Permanent racing facility
0.625 mi (1.006 km)
Distance 400 laps, 250 mi (402.336 km)
Weather Temperatures up to 66 °F (19 °C); wind speeds up to 6.9 miles per hour (11.1 km/h)[2]
Average speed 96.837 mph (155.844 km/h)
Pole position
Driver
Roush Racing
Time 19.059
Most laps led
Driver Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports
Laps 207
Winner
No. 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network ESPN
Announcers Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, Ned Jarrett

The 1996 Tyson Holly Farms 400 was the twenty-seventh stock car race of the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series. It was held on September 29, 1996 at North Wilkesboro Speedway in Wilkes County, North Carolina. The 400-lap race was won by Jeff Gordon of the Hendrick Motorsports team after he started from second position. Dale Earnhardt finished second and Dale Jarrett came in third.

The victory was Gordon's tenth of the season, and the nineteenth of his career. It was the last NASCAR race to be held at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Report

Background

Before the race Jeff Gordon led the Drivers' Championship with 3,903 points, eighty-one ahead of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Terry Labonte in second, with Dale Jarrett a further eighty-one points adrift in third. Dale Earnhardt was fourth on 3,562, and Mark Martin was a further seventy-nine behind in fifth place.[3] Martin was the race's defending champion.[4]

It was announced shortly beforehand that the Tyson Holly Farms 400 would be the last NASCAR race held at North Wilkesboro Speedway after the track was sold to promoters Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre following the death of its previous owner Enoch Staley in 1995. North Wilkesboro's two races would be taken over by Smith's Texas Motor Speedway in the spring and Bahre's New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the fall starting from 1997 as part of a schedule realignment.[5]

First Round Qualifying

First-round qualifying started at 3 P.M. on Friday. Bobby Hamilton, driving the popular #43 Petty Enterprises Pontiac, was had the fastest run before rain interrupted qualifying with 13 of the 40 drivers still waiting to get to make there run. After a 2 1/2-hour delay qualifying resumed with Jeff Gordon, the defending series champion, being the first driver to make a qualifying lap. Gordon put his #24 Chevrolet on top of the charts with a lap of 117.937 mph. Gordon's run held until Ted Musgrave, driving for Jack Roush in the #16 Family Channel/Primestar Ford Thunderbird, won the pole with a lap of 118.054 mph. It was Musgrave's first pole of the season and the fifth and final pole of his career. Hamilton ended up 3rd, with defending race winner Mark Martin and Ernie Irvan filling out the top five starting spots.

Second Round Qualifying

With only the top 25 locked in times from the first round Qualifying the previous day, Second-round qualifying allowing drivers to stand on their first-round times or make a second attempt. Only 6 drivers made a second-round attempt on Saturday. Hut Stricklin was the fastest second-round qualifying and Dale Jarrett also improving on his first day's effort. Race provisionals went to Geoffrey Bodine, Lake Speed, Robert Pressley, and Jeff Green. Darrell Waltrip got the past champion's provisional. Three drivers, Ward Burton, Dick Trickle and Gary Bradberry, failed to qualify.

Final Practice

Rain cut final practice short for Cup teams. Jeff Gordon completed just 15 laps when his car developed engine problems, later found to be debris in the carburetor.

Race Day

More than 40,000 fans were in attendance to see the final Winston Cup Series race at North Wilkesboro on Sunday. Many fans carried signs with messages such as, "We'll miss you North Wilkesboro," or "Farewell Old Friend". ESPN provided Television coverage of the race as it had since 1982. It was the 30th Winston Cup Series race broadcast from the track by ESPN.

Race

The race started at 1 P.M. on Sunday. From the 2nd starting spot, Jeff Gordon jumped out past pole sitter Ted Musgrave to lead the first few laps of the race. On lap 22 the first caution came out for debris on the track. Gordon had a dominant car throughout the race. A accident on the front-stretch between Ernie Irvan, Kyle Petty and Bobby Hamilton brought out the 2nd caution on lap 72. At halfway Gordon lead and collect the $10,000 halfway leader bonus. Another caution came out on lap 261 for oil on the track. Robert Pressley's accident in turn 3 brought out the final caution on lap 315. With 79 laps to go, Gordon moved past Dale Earnhardt on a restart and took the lead for the final time. Gordon would win the race by 1.73 seconds over Earnhardt. Dale Jarrett, Jeff Burton and Terry Labonte rounded out the top five. It was Gordon's 10th win of the season and third win in a row after victories at Dover and Martinsville. The highest-finishing rookie, Johnny Benson, finishing 17th. Pole sitter Ted Musgrave failed to lead a lap and ended up finishing 19th in the 37-car field. The race featured 18 Lead changes between 8 different drivers through out the day with Gordon leading a race-high 207 laps. Every car that stated the race was running at the finish.

Race results

Pos Grid No. Driver Team Manufacturer Laps Status Laps Led Points
1 2 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 400 running 207 185
2 11 3 Dale Earnhardt Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 400 running 35 175
3 30 88 Dale Jarrett Robert Yates Racing Ford 400 running 0 165
4 14 99 Jeff Burton Roush Racing Ford 400 running 2 165
5 16 5 Terry Labonte Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 400 running 0 155
6 28 1 Rick Mast Precision Products Racing Pontiac 400 running 0 150
7 21 10 Ricky Rudd Rudd Performance Motorsports Ford 400 running 17 151
8 3 43 Bobby Hamilton Petty Enterprises Pontiac 400 running 48 147
9 4 6 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 400 running 29 143
10 9 2 Rusty Wallace Penske Racing South Ford 400 running 43 139
11 13 4 Sterling Marlin Morgan-McClure Motorsports Chevrolet 400 running 0 130
12 10 21 Michael Waltrip Wood Brothers Racing Ford 399 running 0 127
13 18 18 Bobby Labonte Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 399 running 0 124
14 19 75 Morgan Shepherd Butch Mock Motorsports Ford 399 running 0 121
15 27 81 Kenny Wallace FILMAR Racing Ford 399 running 0 118
16 26 8 Hut Stricklin Stavola Brothers Racing Ford 399 running 0 115
17 6 30 Johnny Benson, Jr. Bahari Racing Pontiac 398 running 0 112
18 24 25 Ken Schrader Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 398 running 0 109
19 1 16 Ted Musgrave Roush Racing Ford 398 running 0 106
20 32 23 Jimmy Spencer Travis Carter Enterprises Ford 398 running 0 103
21 12 94 Bill Elliott Bill Elliott Racing Ford 398 running 0 100
22 20 41 Ricky Craven Larry Hedrick Motorsports Chevrolet 397 running 0 97
23 31 11 Brett Bodine Brett Bodine Racing Ford 397 running 0 94
24 23 98 John Andretti Cale Yarborough Motorsports Ford 397 running 0 91
25 34 9 Lake Speed Melling Racing Ford 397 running 0 88
26 29 87 Joe Nemechek NEMCO Motorsports Chevrolet 396 running 0 85
27 37 17 Darrell Waltrip Darrell Waltrip Motorsports Chevrolet 396 running 0 82
28 15 37 Jeremy Mayfield Kranefuss-Haas Racing Ford 395 running 0 79
29 22 71 Dave Marcis Marcis Auto Racing Chevrolet 395 running 0 76
30 33 7 Geoffrey Bodine Geoff Bodine Racing Ford 394 running 0 73
31 25 42 Kyle Petty Team SABCO Pontiac 394 running 0 70
32 36 29 Jeff Green Diamond Ridge Motorsports Chevrolet 394 running 0 67
33 35 33 Robert Pressley Leo Jackson Motorsports Chevrolet 392 running 0 64
34 17 15 Wally Dallenbach, Jr. Bud Moore Engineering Ford 391 running 0 61
35 8 77 Bobby Hillin, Jr. Jasper Motorsports Ford 389 running 0 58
36 5 28 Ernie Irvan Robert Yates Racing Ford 388 running 19 60
37 7 12 Derrike Cope Bobby Allison Motorsports Ford 369 running 0 52

Race statistics

Post-race

The results meant Gordon extended his lead in the Drivers' Championship, ahead of Labonte and Jarrett. Earnhardt and Martin rounded out the top five positions.[6] The race took two hours. thirty-four minutes and fifty-four seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 1.73 seconds.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 "1996 Tyson Holly Farms 400". Racing-Reference. USA Today Sports Media Group. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Weather Information for North Wilkesboro, North Carolina". Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  3. ↑ "1996 Official Driver Standings: Hanes 500". NASCAR. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on October 1, 2009. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  4. ↑ McKee, Sandra (September 28, 1996). "NASCAR takes last lap at roots Racing: With tomorrow's Holly Farms 400, NASCAR bids goodbye to its oldest track, North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway.". The Baltimore Sun. North Wilkesboro, North Carolina: Tribune Publishing. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ Harris, Mike (September 26, 1996). "NASCAR says goodbye to North Wilkesboro". The Advocate-Messenger. North Wilkesboro, North Carolina: Schurz Communications. Associated Press. p. 16. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  6. ↑ "1996 Official Driver Standings: Tyson/Holly Farms 400". NASCAR. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on October 1, 2009. Retrieved March 16, 2016.
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