1976 Volunteer 400

The 1976 Volunteer 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on August 29, 1976, at Bristol International Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee.

1976 Volunteer 400
Race details[1][2]
Race 21 of 30 in the 1976 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Layout of Bristol Motor Speedway
Date August 29, 1976 (1976-August-29)
Official name Volunteer 400
Location Bristol International Speedway, Bristol, Tennessee
Course Permanent racing facility
0.533 mi (0.857 km)
Distance 400 laps, 166.5 mi (328.8 km)
Weather Temperatures reaching of 84.9 °F (29.4 °C); wind speeds of 10.9 miles per hour (17.5 km/h)
Average speed 99.175 miles per hour (159.607 km/h)
Attendance 12,000[3]
Pole position
Driver
DiGard Motorsports
Most laps led
Driver Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps 373
Winner
No. 11 Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The five drivers that dominated the 1976 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season were David Pearson (average finish of 7th place), Cale Yarborough (average finish of 8th place), Richard Petty (average finish of 9th place), Benny Parsons (average finish of 10th place), and Bobby Allison (average finish 12th place).

Race report

By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore.

This racing event took two hours and eighteen minutes to complete in front of an audience of twelve thousand stock car racing fans.[3] Two cautions were handed out by NASCAR officials on the track for thirteen laps.[3] Cale Yarborough defeated Richard Petty by more than two laps.[3][2] Other notable drivers included Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parsons, Richard Childress, J.D. McDuffie, and Elmo Langley.[3][2]

Joe Frasson ran out of tires on lap 5 while Ed Negre would lose the rear end of his vehicle on lap 12. Dean Dalton's transmission would stop working on lap 15. Gary Myers would blow his engine on lap 35 while Walter Ballard would do the identical thing on lap 55. Elmo Langley would ruin his vehicle's engine on lap 106. Clyde Lynn would wreck the transmission of his car on lap 123. J.D. McDuffie's engine only could make it to lap 154 while Dave Marcis' engine lasted until 248. Cecil Gordon's engine would last until lap 270; when he had to leave the race.[3][2] Frank Warren was the lowest finishing driver to complete the entire race without any mechanical problems.[3][2]

Clyde Lynn would retire after this event.[3]

Notable speeds at the race were: 99.175 miles per hour (159.607 km/h) as the average speed and 110.300 miles per hour (177.511 km/h) as the pole position speed achieved by Darrell Waltrip in qualifying.[3]

The points leader after this event would be Cale Yarborough.[2] He would go on to become the NASCAR Cup Series champion at the end of the season.[4]

All the drivers competed for the prize purse which added up to $61,105 ($274,543.69 when adjusted for inflation).[5] Yarborough earned the largest share of the pie with $10,025 ($45,042.15 when adjusted for inflation) while last-place finisher Joe Frasson walked away with a meager $400 ($1,797.19 when adjusted for inflation).[5]

Qualifying
Grid No. Driver Manufacturer Speed[6] Owner
1 88Darrell WaltripChevrolet110.307DiGard
2 11Cale YarboroughChevrolet110.123Junior Johnson
3 15Buddy BakerFord109.401Bud Moore
4 72Benny ParsonsChevrolet109.314L.G. DeWitt
5 90Dick BrooksFord109.308Junie Donlavey
6 54Lennie PondChevrolet109.305Ronnie Elder
7 71Dave MarcisDodge108.991Nord Krauskopf
8 2Bobby AllisonMercury108.757Roger Penske
9 43Richard PettyDodge108.217Petty Enterprises
10 30Terry BivinsChevrolet107.749Walter Ballard

Finishing order

Section reference: [3]

  1. Cale Yarborough (No. 11)
  2. Richard Petty (No. 43)
  3. Darrell Waltrip (No. 88)
  4. Benny Parsons† (No. 72)
  5. Buddy Baker† (No. 15)
  6. Bobby Allison (No. 2)
  7. Dick Brooks† (No. 90)
  8. Lennie Pond (No. 54)
  9. Bobby Wawak† (No. 36)
  10. Richard Childress (No. 3)
  11. D.K. Ulrich (No. 40)
  12. Terry Bivins (No. 30)
  13. James Hylton† (No. 48)
  14. David Sisco (No. 05)
  15. Henley Gray (No. 19)
  16. Dick May† (No. 25)
  17. Buddy Arrington (No. 67)
  18. Skip Manning (No. 92)
  19. Jimmy Means (No. 52)
  20. Frank Warren (No. 79)
  21. Cecil Gordon*† (No. 24)
  22. Dave Marcis* (No. 71)
  23. J.D. McDuffie*† (No. 70)
  24. Clyde Lynn*† (No. 10)
  25. Elmo Langley*† (No. 64)
  26. Walter Ballard* (No. 45)
  27. Gary Myers* (No. 04)
  28. Dean Dalton* (No. 7)
  29. Ed Negre* (No. 8)
  30. Joe Frasson*† (No. 18)

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race

Standings after the race
Pos Driver Points[3] Differential
1 Cale Yarborough 3211 0
2 Benny Parsons 3112 -99
3 Richard Petty 3106 -105
4 Bobby Allison 2982 -229
5 Dave Marcis 2749 -462
6 Lennie Pond 2741 -470
7 Richard Childress 2611 -600
8 Buddy Baker 2575 -636
9 Frank Warren 2364 -847
10 J.D. McDuffie 2357 -854

References
  1. "1976 Volunteer 400 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  2. "1976 Volunteer 400 racing results (second reference)". Driver Averages. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  3. "1976 Volunteer 400 racing results". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2011-01-11.
  4. "1976 NASCAR Cup Series Championship points results". Driver Averages. Archived from the original on 2011-10-05. Retrieved 2011-01-12.
  5. "1976 Volunteer 400 racing information". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2012-07-06.
  6. "1976 Volunteer 400 qualifying results". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
Preceded by
1976 Champion Spark Plug 400		 NASCAR Winston Cup Season
1976		 Succeeded by
1976 Southern 500
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