 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "1995 NAPA 500" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Race details[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 31 of 31 in the1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
 1995 NAPA 500 program cover | |||
| Date | November 12, 1995 (1995-11-12) | ||
| Official name | NAPA 500 | ||
| Location | Atlanta International Raceway,Hampton, Georgia | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1.522 miles (2.449 km) | ||
| Distance | 328 laps, 499.2 mi (803.3 km) | ||
| Weather | Comfortable and sunny with temperatures reaching up to 66 °F (19 °C); wind speeds reaching of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 163.633 mph (263.342 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | DarWal Inc. | ||
| Time | 29.610 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Laps | 268 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 3 | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | ESPN | ||
| Announcers | Bob Jenkins Benny Parsons Ned Jarrett | ||
The1995 NAPA 500 was aNASCAR racing event that took place on November 12, 1995, atAtlanta Motor Speedway inHampton, Georgia, United States. It was the final round of the1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and was won byDale Earnhardt, who also led the most laps, whileJeff Gordon won the championship.
Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of tenintermediate to holdNASCAR races; the others areCharlotte Motor Speedway,Chicagoland Speedway,Darlington Raceway,Homestead Miami Speedway,Kansas Speedway,Kentucky Speedway,Las Vegas Motor Speedway,New Hampshire Motor Speedway, andTexas Motor Speedway.[2] The standard track at Atlanta Motor Speedway is a four-turnquad-oval track that is 1.54 miles (2.48 km) long.[3] The track's turns arebanked at twenty-fourdegrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five.[3]
NASCAR banned tinted windshields starting with this race, confiscating any that teams had in the pits before this one. The move to mandate clear windshields was to make it easier for drivers to see through cars ahead of them and see if a driver in front was signaling them for any reason.[citation needed]
Most of the cars entered wereChevrolets andFords, with a limited number ofPontiacs competing.[4][5] This was the final career race for owner Alan Dillard Jr., the owner of A.G. Dillard Motorsports.[4][5] It was also the final career race for long time veteran owner D.K. Ulrich.[4][5] The 1995 NAPA 500 was also the final race for Bobby Hillin in the #77, Michael Waltrip in the #30, Morgan Shepherd in the #21, Dick Trickle in the #15, Dale Jarrett in the #28, Jeff Burton in the #8, Hut Stricklin in the #26 and Todd Bodine in the #75.[4][5] Junior Johnson would make his final appearance in this race as a car owner. He sold his #11 team to Brett Bodine during the off-season.[4][5] Some of the more notable crew chiefs to fully participate in this race wereRobin Pemberton,Andy Petree,Donnie Wingo,Cecil Gordon,Ray Evernham,Larry McReynolds, andTim Brewer.[6]Kenny Bernstein would retire from his career as a NASCAR team owner to spend more time with his family after this race.[citation needed]
Points leaderJeff Gordon was ahead ofDale Earnhardt by 147 points entering the race. To win his eighth Cup championship, Earnhardt had to win the race and lead the most laps during the race to earn the maximum 185 points while Gordon had to finish 42nd (the last-place finish) and not lead a single lap during the race (drivers that lead a lap during a race earn 5 bonus points). If all this occurred, Earnhardt would win the championship by only one point. For Gordon to win his first Cup championship, he had to finish no worse than 41st without leading a single lap during the race. If Gordon led a single lap during the race, he would secure his first championship regardless of where he finished.
Dale Earnhardt defeatedSterling Marlin by nearly four seconds after 22 lead changes during the event, with a record low of two safety car periods totaling eleven laps.[4][5] Earnhardt started in 11th place and came back from behind to win this race, which set a new race record for fastest 500-mile Cup race at the circuit in 3 hours, 3 minutes, 3 seconds, with an average speed of 163.633 MPH, a record that still stands after the 2019 season at the circuit.[4][5][7] Dale Earnhardt was able to dominate this race, as they set up a very aggressive engine package that would make him untouchable all race long, and the engine held up for the win.[4][5] The average speed of the race was 163.632 miles per hour or 263.340 kilometres per hour.[4][5]
Darrell Waltrip scored his 59th pole position with a qualifying time of 29.6099 seconds for an average speed of 185.046 miles per hour or 297.803 kilometres per hour, in what would be the final pole of his illustrious Hall of Fame career.[4]Ken Schrader finished dead last in this race in a coincidental manner;[clarification needed] his engine blew and that happened to be a situation that helped Jeff Gordon clinch his championship, as he was required to finish 41st or better to win.[4][5] The #26 ofHut Stricklin would be involved in an accident on the third turn.[4]Billy Standridge,Jack Sprague,Mike Wallace,Shane Hall,Delma Cowart, andEric Smith would fail to qualify for this race.[8] Out of the 42-driver grid, only six of them would not finish the race.[4][5] All 42 of the qualifying drivers were born in the United States.[4]
Jeff Gordon won the1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship after finishing in 32nd-place in this race.[4][5]
Section reference:[4]
| Pos | Driver | Points[4] | Differential |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jeff Gordon | 4614 | 0 |
| 2 | Dale Earnhardt | 4580 | -34 |
3 | Sterling Marlin | 4361 | -253 |
4 | Mark Martin | 4320 | -294 |
| 5 | Rusty Wallace | 4240 | -374 |
| 6 | Terry Labonte | 4146 | -468 |
| 7 | Ted Musgrave | 3949 | -665 |
| 8 | Bill Elliott | 3746 | -868 |
| 9 | Ricky Rudd | 3734 | -880 |
| 10 | Bobby Labonte | 3718 | -896 |
| Preceded by | NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season 1995-96 | Succeeded by |