1983 Warner W. Hodgdon Carolina 500

This 492-lap event lasted for four hours and twenty-five minutes; drivers at this event managed to average speeds up to 113.055 miles per hour (181.944 km/h).[2] Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day. At the start of the race were 35 American-born drivers; Ernie Cline was the last-place finisher due to a crash on lap 2. Crashes and engine problems would take out more than a dozen drivers; with Neil Bonnett being the highest-finishing driver not to complete the race. Ruttman slammed the outside wall after spinning in oil. He spun backward and his left rear slammed the wall and Ruttman bounced off nearly getting airborne, almost flipping. His day would ultimately end on lap 176.[2]

Richard Petty would end up beating Bill Elliott by half a car length in one of the closest finishes at the speedway. Petty would acquire his only win in a race televised by ESPN.[2] Had the race been scheduled for 493 laps or more, Bill Elliott could have easily extended Richard Petty's winless streak (which had already reached 43 races by this event). This event resulted in Richard Petty's 196th win in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series instead in addition to his 900th Winston Cup Series start. The event was marred by 1.1 inches (28 mm) of rainfall forcing the race to be postponed for a week.[3][4]

The leaders for the first 100 laps of the race would be Ricky Rudd, Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Neil Bonnett, and Dick Brooks while the leaders during the last 100 laps would be Neil Bonnett, Darrell Waltrip, Richard Petty, and Bill Elliott. With about 10 or 15 laps to go, Neil Bonnett and Cale Yarborough crashed in Turn 1 while racing for the lead.[2]

Ricky Rudd won the pole position by qualifying with a top speed of 143.413 miles per hour or 230.801 kilometres per hour.[2] Out of Ricky Rudd's three poles to start 1983 this was the only one that netted him a good finish, he did not finish at Daytona or Richmond but brought the #3 Chevrolet home with a top-10 finish here.[2] A crowd of 37,000 die-hard NASCAR fans would show up to cheer on their favorite drivers even though 94 of 492 laps were run under caution.[2]

Joe Ruttman would lose his championship lead to Bill Elliott after this event was over.[5] Two years later, Elliott would become the top winner in NASCAR.

Individual winnings for this event ranged from the winner's cut of $24,150 ($61,993 when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finisher's purse of $910 ($2,336 when adjusted for inflation). The total prize purse offered at this event was $199,065 ($510,998 when adjusted for inflation).[6]