The 1994 SplitFire Spark Plug 500 was the 25th stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 24th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 18, 1994, in Dover, Delaware at Dover International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. With a handful laps to go in the race, previous damage sustained from an earlier incident caused Roush Racing driver Mark Martin to blow his right front tire with six laps to go in the race, propelling Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace to the lead when the caution would come out for Martin. Running with barely any fuel and a punctured left rear tire, Wallace was able to coast to the finish line, running at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h) under caution to take his 38th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his seventh victory of the season.[1][2] To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt and owner-driver Darrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 25 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1994 SplitFire Spark Plug 500 program cover. | |||
| Date | September 18, 1994 | ||
| Official name | 24th Annual SplitFire Spark Plug 500 | ||
| Location | Dover, Delaware, Dover International Speedway | ||
| Course |
Permanent racing facility 1 mi (1.6 km) | ||
| Distance | 500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Scheduled Distance | 500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Average speed | 112.556 miles per hour (181.141 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 94,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Geoff Bodine Racing | ||
| Time | 23.554 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Geoff Bodine | Geoff Bodine Racing | |
| Laps | 170 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 2 | Rusty Wallace | Penske Racing South | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | TNN | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy, Buddy Baker | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
Background
editDover International Speedway is an oval race track in Dover, Delaware, United States that has held at least two NASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the NTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1-mile (1.6 km) concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated by Dover Motorsports.
The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.
Entry list
edit- (R) denotes rookie driver.
Qualifying
editQualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, September 16, at 3:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, September 17, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,[3] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.
Geoff Bodine, driving for his own Geoff Bodine Racing team, would win the pole, setting a time of 23.554 and an average speed of 152.840 miles per hour (245.972 km/h) in the first round.[4]
Three drivers would fail to qualify.
Full qualifying results
editRace results
editStandings after the race
edit
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References
edit- ^ Snyder, Brad (September 19, 1994). "Cautious ending lifts Wallace". The Baltimore Sun. p. 61. Retrieved December 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (September 19, 1994). "Rusty Wallace good to the last drop of gas at Dover". The Republic. p. 12. Retrieved December 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "NASCAR today". The Charlotte Observer. September 16, 1994. p. 25. Retrieved December 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Brinster, Dick (September 17, 1994). "Bodine takes pole with record lap". Bennington Banner. p. 12. Retrieved December 19, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.