1986 TranSouth 500

Race details
Race 6 of 29 in the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1986 TranSouth 500 program cover, featuring Bill Elliott and Jack Ingram.
Date	April 13, 1986
Official name	30th Annual TranSouth 500
Location	Darlington, South Carolina, Darlington Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Scheduled Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Average speed	128.994 miles per hour (207.596 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	30.890
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	335
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Jack Arute
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1986 TranSouth 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 13, 1986, in Darlington, South Carolina, at Darlington Raceway, a 1.366 miles (2.198 km) permanent egg-shaped oval racetrack. The race took the scheduled 367 laps to complete.

In a race of attrition, Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt managed to fend off Junior Johnson & Associates' Darrell Waltrip on the final restart with two laps left, completing a dominant performance where he led 335 of the total 367 laps. The victory was Earnhardt's 16th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Waltrip and Stavola Brothers Racing's Bobby Allison finished second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Darlington Raceway, the venue where the race was held.

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, April 10, at 3:00 PM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round were guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Friday, April 11, at 2:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 were decided on time,^[3] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given.

Geoff Bodine, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, won the pole, setting a time of 30.890 and an average speed of 159.197 miles per hour (256.203 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Five drivers failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Darrell Waltrip 1,000 1 2 Dale Earnhardt 952 (-48) 1 3 Rusty Wallace 885 (-115) 2 4 Terry Labonte 861 (–139) 5 Bill Elliott 832 (–168) 1 6 Kyle Petty 785 (–215) 2 7 Tim Richmond 773 (–227) 8 Harry Gant 740 (–260) 1 9 Richard Petty 730 (–270) 3 10 Bobby Allison 726 (–273) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References