1986 Miller High Life 500

Race details
Race 13 of 29 in the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1986 Miller High Life 500 program cover, featuring Buddy Baker.
Date	June 8, 1986
Official name	5th Annual Miller High Life 500
Location	Long Pond, Pennsylvania, Pocono International Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.0 km)
Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Scheduled Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Average speed	113.279 miles per hour (182.305 km/h)
Attendance	50,000
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	58.584
Most laps led
Driver	Tim Richmond	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	97
Winner
No. 25	Tim Richmond	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	SETN
Announcers	Mike Joy, Jerry Punch
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1986 Miller High Life 500 was the 13th stock car race of the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the fifth iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, June 8, 1986, before an audience of 50,000 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, at Pocono International Raceway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) triangular permanent course. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete.^[1]

In the final laps of the race, Hendrick Motorsports' Tim Richmond gambled on fuel strategy, opting to run the final 36 laps under one tank of fuel. With four laps left, a crash involving several drivers, incliudng Buddy Arrington, Geoff Bodine, and Morgan Shepherd occurred. Due to a lengthy cleanup, the race finished under caution, securing Richmond's sixth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt and Ranier-Lundy Racing's Cale Yarborough finished second and third, respectively.^[2][3]

Background

The layout of Pocono International Raceway, the venue where the race was held.

The race was held at Pocono International Raceway, which is a three-turn superspeedway located in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The track hosts two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, as well as one Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series event. Until 2019, the track also hosted an IndyCar Series race.

Pocono International Raceway is one of a very few NASCAR tracks not owned by either Speedway Motorsports, Inc. or International Speedway Corporation. It is operated by the Igdalsky siblings Brandon, Nicholas, and sister Ashley, and cousins Joseph IV and Chase Mattioli, all of whom are third-generation members of the family-owned Mattco Inc, started by Joseph II and Rose Mattioli.

Outside of the NASCAR races, the track is used throughout the year by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and motorcycle clubs as well as racing schools and an IndyCar race. The triangular oval also has three separate infield sections of racetrack – North Course, East Course and South Course. Each of these infield sections use a separate portion of the tri-oval to complete the track. During regular non-race weekends, multiple clubs can use the track by running on different infield sections. Also some of the infield sections can be run in either direction, or multiple infield sections can be put together – such as running the North Course and the South Course and using the tri-oval to connect the two.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Saturday, June 7, at 10:00 AM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round were 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, at 3:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 were decided on time,^[4] 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 were given.

Geoff Bodine, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, won the pole, setting a time of 58.584 and an average speed of 153.625 miles per hour (247.235 km/h) in the first round.^[5]

Jerry Ward, a United States Air Force lieutenant colonel and chaplain, was the only driver that failed to qualify.^[5]

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,097 2 Darrell Waltrip 1,846 (-251) 3 Bobby Allison 1,775 (-322) 4 Rusty Wallace 1,750 (–347) 2 5 Tim Richmond 1,742 (–355) 1 6 Bill Elliott 1,737 (–360) 2 7 Ricky Rudd 1,674 (–423) 2 8 Terry Labonte 1,626 (–471) 1 9 Harry Gant 1,608 (–489) 10 Kyle Petty 1,548 (–549) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References