| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 25 of 31 in the1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1994 SplitFire Spark Plug 500 program cover. | |||
| Date | September 18, 1994 | ||
| Official name | 24th Annual SplitFire Spark Plug 500 | ||
| Location | Dover, Delaware,Dover International Speedway | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1 miles (1.6 km) | ||
| Distance | 500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Scheduled distance | 500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Average speed | 112.556 miles per hour (181.141 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 94,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Geoff Bodine Racing | ||
| Time | 23.554 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Geoff Bodine | Geoff Bodine Racing | |
| Laps | 170 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 2 | Rusty Wallace | Penske Racing South | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | TNN | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy,Buddy Baker | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
The1994 SplitFire Spark Plug 500 was the 25thstock car race of the1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 24th iteration of theevent. The race was held on Sunday, September 18, 1994, inDover, Delaware atDover International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. With a handful laps to go in the race, previous damage sustained from an earlier incident causedRoush Racing driverMark Martin to blow his right front tire with six laps to go in the race, propellingPenske Racing South driverRusty Wallace to the lead when the caution would come out for Martin. Running with barely any fuel and a punctured left rear tire, Wallace was able to coast to the finish line, running at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) under caution to take his 38th careerNASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his seventh victory of the season.[1][2] To fill out the top three,Richard Childress Racing driverDale Earnhardt and owner-driverDarrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.
Dover International Speedway is an ovalrace track inDover, Delaware, United States that has held at least twoNASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hostedUSAC and theNTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1-mile (1.6 km) concreteoval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated byDover Motorsports.
The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway afterDover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, September 16, at 3:00 PMEST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be 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 Saturday, September 17, at 11:00 AMEST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be 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 provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.
Geoff Bodine, driving for his ownGeoff Bodine Racing team, would win the pole, setting a time of 23.554 and an average speed of 152.840 miles per hour (245.972 km/h) in the first round.[4]
Three drivers would fail to qualify.
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| Previous race: 1994 Miller Genuine Draft 400 (Richmond) | NASCAR Winston Cup Series 1994 season | Next race: 1994 Goody's 500 (Martinsville) |
