| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Exhibition race in the1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
 | |||
| Date | November 22, 1998 (1998-11-22) | ||
| Location | Twin Ring Motegi,Motegi,Japan | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1.5 miles (2.5 km) | ||
| Distance | 201 laps, 311.3 mi (500.9 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures ranging between 5 °C (41 °F) and 10 °C (50 °F)[1] | ||
| Average speed | 112.558 mph (181.145 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Penske Racing South | ||
| Time | 35.116 seconds | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Mike Skinner | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Laps | 94 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 31 | Mike Skinner | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | TBS | ||
| Announcers | Ken Squier,Buddy Baker,Dick Berggren | ||
TheCoca-Cola 500 was a non-championship exhibitionNASCARstock car race held on November 22, 1998, during the1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. The race took place on theTwin Ring Motegi oval course in the town ofMotegi on the mainJapanese island ofHonshu. It was the third straight year that NASCAR held an exhibition race in Japan, previously hosting races on theSuzuka Circuit in1996 and 1997. Teams from theWinston Cup Series,Busch Series,Craftsman Truck Series andWinston West Series made the trip to Japan to compete in the race. Four Japanese drivers entered the event as well. The race was also the first in whichDale Earnhardt and his son,Dale Earnhardt Jr. competed against one another in a NASCAR race, driving Nos. 3 and 1Chevrolets, respectively.[2] Thepole position was won byJeremy Mayfield ofPenske Racing South, whileMike Skinner ofRichard Childress Racing won the race.Hendrick Motorsports'Jeff Gordon finished second, while Mayfield finished third.
Located 60 miles (97 km) northeast ofTokyo,[3] Twin Ring Motegi opened on August 1, 1997.[4] In early 1998, plans to continue hosting theNASCAR Thunder 100 at Suzuka Circuit were cancelled,[5] and as a result, the NASCAR race in Japan was moved to the 1.5 mi (2.4 km) Motegi oval.[6] 28 cars traveled to Japan for the race,[5] and a total of 31 drivers competed in the race, 13 from the Winston Cup Series, 11 from the Winston West Series, 2 from theBusch Series, 1 from theCraftsman Truck Series and 4 from Japan.[7]
Qualifying took place on November 21.Jeremy Mayfield won thepole position for the race with a lap time of 35.116 seconds, and a speed of 158.799 miles per hour (255.562 km/h), his second pole of 1998. Three-time and reigning Cup championJeff Gordon[8] qualified second with 35.122 seconds and 158.772 mph (255.519 km/h), followed byMike Skinner with 35.162 seconds and 158.592 mph (255.229 km/h).[9]Elliott Sadler andDarrell Waltrip, filling in for the injuredDale Jarrett, rounded out the top five, whileJeff Burton,Bill Elliott,Rusty Wallace,Dale Earnhardt Jr., andLance Norick closed out the top ten.[10]
Although Jeremy Mayfield led the first lap, Jeff Gordon claimed the lead on the ensuing lap and led until lap 21, relinquishing first toJeff Burton. From laps 28 to 49, the lead would be exchanged by Mike Skinner and Rusty Wallace, withSterling Marlin, Burton and Mayfield also gaining the lead afterwards. Skinner, Wallace, Burton and Mayfield would all lead laps until lap 90, when Gordon took the lead, holding it for 49 laps. On lap 139,Dale Earnhardt took the lead,[11] but Skinner passed him and Gordon on the following lap, and led for the remainder of the race,[7] defeating Gordon by 0.153 seconds.[8] Gordon, Mayfield, Burton and Wallace comprised the remainder of the top five, while Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt, Sterling Marlin andMichael Waltrip finished in the top ten.[11]Scott Gaylord was the highest-finishing Winston West driver, finishing 13th.[12]
In the post-race press conference, NASCAR presidentMike Helton stated that since the three-year Cup Series contract to run in Japan expired after the 1998 race,[6] the Winston West Series would hold the event as the series'season-ending race in 1999;[13]Kevin Richards won the race.[14] However, due to high costs for transport to the event and poor attendance, the series did not return after the 1999 race.[5] Later in the conference, Helton was asked whether Japanese manufacturerHonda would join NASCAR, but stated that it did not "have a motor that meets specifications for NASCAR racing."[6] National rivalsToyota would eventually join theNASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2004 and eventually the Cup Series in 2007. In 2024, reports of Honda's potential entry began to resurface, amidist questions on the future of theirIndyCar Series program.[15]
The international exhibition race was later speculated to be moved toEuroSpeedway Lausitz inGermany.[5] As of 2013, NASCAR has not expressed any interest in having its national series run an international exhibition race; senior vice presidentSteve O'Donnell stated, "We've had 20 groups approach us from China. But most of them are one-offs. We keep pushing back and saying we're going to do this but in a smart way. If you can show us how we build stock-car racing, that's something we want to pursue."[16] Thesecond-tier series did hold international races (albeit for championship points) in Mexico and Canada in the 2000s, and NASCAR considered a Canadian race for the 2024 Cup Series schedule,[17] but the proposal fell through and a race atIowa Speedway took its place in the final 2024 schedule.[18] (A points-paying Cup race in the country was previously held in 1958, theJim Mideon 500, atExhibition Stadium inToronto, Ontario.) The first points-paying international NASCAR Cup Series race since 1958 was finally held in 2025, atAutódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico, which previously hosted second-tier series races.[19]
