Atlanta 500 (1960–1980) Coca-Cola 500 (1981–1985) Motorcraft 500 (1986) Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 (1987–1993) Purolator 500 (1994–1996) Primestar 500 (1997–1998) Cracker Barrel 500 (1999) Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 (2000–2001) MBNA America 500 (2002) Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 (2003) Golden Corral 500 (2004–2006) Kobalt Tools 500 (2007–2010)
TheQuaker State 400 available at Walmart is aNASCAR Cup Seriesstock car race that was run annually each March atAtlanta Motor Speedway inHampton, Georgia from 1960 to 2010 and as a July race since 2021. The race is one of two races currently held at the Atlanta track every season, with theAmbetter Health 400 being the other and run at various times (originally November, later October and currently the second race of the season as of 2024).
The race was originally 500.5 miles (805.5 km) on the 1.54-mile quad-oval (325 laps). In August 2010, Atlanta Motor Speedway announced that they would no longer run this spring race, instead choosing to focus on the Labor Day weekend race at the track beginning in2011.[1] The end of the Atlanta 500 was followed by the addition of arace atKentucky Speedway starting in 2011, primarily due to litigation by Kentucky's former owners and a settlement of that trial.
On September 30, 2020, Speedway Motorsports announced Kentucky would lose its Cup race and the event be moved back to Atlanta, to be held July 11, 2021.[2] The race will only be 260 laps (400.4 miles), owing to Shell's prior sponsorship agreements and the first since 1966 to be held at the track at 400.4 miles (644.4 km). The event was held under the lights in 2023, the opening race of the playoffs race in 2024. 2025 will mark the opening round of theNASCAR in-season tournament.[3]
1960: The first race at Atlanta International Raceway (nowAtlanta Motor Speedway) was won byBobby Johns in a 1960 Pontiac.
1961:Bob Burdick led 44 laps to his only career Grand National win. Pole sitterMarvin Panch led 127 laps but faded to sixth, whileFred Lorenzen led 87 laps but fell out with engine failure. RookieBobby Allison finished 37th.
1964: Fred Lorenzen led the last 168 laps and 206 in all, en route to a two-lap win amid an epidemic of tire failures and resultant crashes;Paul Goldsmith led the first 54 laps but blew a tire, smashed the guardrail, and flipped over.
1966:Jim Hurtubise led the final 58 laps in his only career Grand National win.
1972: Bobby Allison posted the first win forChevrolet on a superspeedway since the 1960s, as he held off a strong challenge from A. J. Foyt andBobby Isaac.
1974:Cale Yarborough grabbed the lead whenDavid Pearson pitted under green and was trapped by an ill-timed yellow; the race was shortened to 450 miles (720 km) due to the energy crisis.
1975: After winning theDixie 500 four times, Richard Petty edgedBuddy Baker for his first Atlanta 500 win.
1976: David Pearson lost a lap early and spent 225 laps getting it back before winning. Cale Yarborough lost four laps on a green-flag stop and got three of them back to finish third.
1977: Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Cale Yarborough finished 1–2–3 as they combined to lead all 328 laps. Yarborough finished third after his brakes wore out and at times he had to be stopped byRichard Childress' car on pit road. Only two yellows flew.
1979: Buddy Baker caught a late yellow, got four tires, and won in a late sprint, his first win since 1976.
1980: SophomoreDale Earnhardt took the lead with 30 to go after Cale Yarborough broke while chasing down Bobby Allison. USAC stock car racerRusty Wallace finished second.Donnie Allison crashed out of the lead with sophomoreTerry Labonte in what became his final race for car ownerHoss Ellington.
1981: Cale Yarborough posted his first win for car ownerM.C. Anderson, but the story of the race was a loud protest by Bobby Allison over a NASCAR-mandated reduction of the spoiler of his 1981Pontiac Lemans to reduce the car's aerodynamic efficiency. Car ownerHarry Ranier threatened to boycott the race but got no support in the garage area and relented to the rule change.
1982: After Dale Earnhardt fell out, rain hit the race andDarrell Waltrip edged Richard Petty to the race-ending yellow.
1983: Cale Yarborough drove a backup car to victory for the second time in 1983. He'd wrecked his primary Ranier Chevy a week earlier in Rockingham and used a car that had been a show car. It was also the second time he won on his birthday.
1986:Morgan Shepherd outran Dale Earnhardt for his first win in five years and the first of three wins at Atlanta.
1987: Dale Earnhardt fell out late andRicky Rudd edged Benny Parsons and Rusty Wallace for his first win on an oval longer than a mile.
1989: Darrell Waltrip came back from nearly a lap down to win. During a mid-race caution, Waltrip was slowed by the pace car picking up the wrong leader during pitstops and was trapped barely on the lead lap. The mishap led to the implementation of the rule closing pit road when the yellow comes out; the rule was designed to stop cars from pitting before taking the yellow, which was blamed for scoring mistakes in the days of manual lap scoring. Also, during this race, Richard Petty's car caught fire during a pit stop, injuring his gasman and leavingJerry Punch some singed hairs (after this, pit reporters are required to wear fire suits).
1992:Bill Elliott won in unlikely fashion as a caution trapped the entire field behind him a lap down during green flag stops in the final 30 laps.
1993: A major snowstorm,Superstorm 93, caused the race (scheduled for March 14) to be rescheduled for March 20, withMorgan Shepherd taking the win.
1995:Jeff Gordon posted his second win of 1995 on his way to his first championship title.
1996:Dale Earnhardt scored his 70th career NASCAR Cup Series win in this race. Earnhardt collected his 8th Atlanta win, passingCale Yarborough as the all-time winningest driver at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This would be Earnhardt's last points victory until the1998 Daytona 500.
1997:Dale Jarrett dominated in a race whereSteve Grissom tore open a concrete wall and flipped over. His fuel cell hit the wall and erupted in flame.
1998:Bobby Labonte took the win in a race delayed to Monday by rain and in a weekend that saw numerous driver injuries, notablyMike Skinner andDerrike Cope.
2000: Dale Earnhardt won in a thrilling side-by-side finish, edging out Bobby Labonte by inches. Earnhardt scored his 75th career NASCAR Cup Series win, extending his record at the time as the 6th winningest driver in NASCAR History (currently 8th All-Time). This would be Dale Earnhardt's 9th and final victory at Atlanta Motor Speedway, extending his record as the all-time winningest driver of the racetrack. His record of 9 wins still stands today. This would also be Earnhardt's only win on the 1.54 mile quad-oval configuration. Mike Skinner, Dale Earnhardt's teammate ofRichard Childress Racing, had dominated the race by leading 191 of the 325 laps. His engine however blew up with 19 laps to go, allowing Earnhardt to win this race.
2001:Kevin Harvick edged Gordon by inches in his first win forRCR after Earnhardt's death. Although the car had been assigned a new number, Harvick used the same car and team Earnhardt won with the previous year. Prior to Earnhardt's death, this race had already been intended to be Harvick's Cup series debut. He was originally scheduled to run 7 races in 2001, and move to full-time in2002; but he would go on to race the remainder of the season for the team.
2002: Tony Stewart posted his first 500-mile (800 km) win.
2005:Carl Edwards slithered pastJimmie Johnson on the final lap to score his first career win, completing a sweep of the weekend at Atlanta.
2006:Bill Lester becomes the first African-American driver to race in a Cup series event sinceWilly T. Ribbs in 1986.Kasey Kahne would win this race, which became the first of his six wins that year.
2007: It was the last race that thefourth generation car was run consecutively. The fifth generationCar of Tomorrow would debut the following week at Bristol. Additionally, Mark Martin would close a 621-race Cup series consecutive start streak, reaching back to 1988.
2008:Kyle Busch won, givingToyota their first win in the Cup series. It was the first for a foreign automaker sinceJaguar in 1954. It was also Busch's first win under theJoe Gibbs Racing banner.
2009:Kurt Busch dominated the race after a pit crew mistake by one ofMarcos Ambrose's crewman trapped most of the cars that could challenge him a lap down.
2010: A scary flight byBrad Keselowski was a top story; he was spun out by the lapped car of Carl Edwards and nearly struck the fencing past the start-finish line in the final laps. This was also the last spring race at Atlanta until the track's surviving summer-autumn race was moved to March in 2015.
