1987 TranSouth 500

Race details
Race 5 of 29 in the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1987 TranSouth 500 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	March 29, 1987
Official name	31st Annual TranSouth 500
Location	Darlington, South Carolina, Darlington Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Scheduled Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Average speed	122.54 miles per hour (197.21 km/h)
Attendance	60,000
Pole position
Driver	Ken Schrader	Donlavey Racing
Time	31.048
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	239
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Larry Nuber, Jerry Punch
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1987 TranSouth 500 was the fifth stock car race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 31st iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 29, 1987, before an audience of 60,000 in Darlington, South Carolina, at Darlington Raceway, a 1.366 miles (2.198 km) permanent egg-shaped oval racetrack. The race took the scheduled 367 laps to complete.

Taking advantage of a misfortunate Bill Elliott, who ran out of gas on the final lap, Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt, who had been the dominant car of the race, passed Elliott with half a lap remaining to take his 23rd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his third victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Bill Elliott and owner-driver Richard Petty finished second and third, respectively.

Background

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

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, March 26, at 3:00 PM 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 Friday, March 27, at 2:00 PM 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 were given.

Ken Schrader, driving for Donlavey Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 31.048 and an average speed of 158.387 miles per hour (254.899 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Three drivers failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 840 2 Bill Elliott 769 (-71) 4 3 Neil Bonnett 700 (-140) 1 4 Darrell Waltrip 690 (–150) 5 5 Richard Petty 678 (–162) 5 6 Ken Schrader 655 (–185) 4 7 Ricky Rudd 650 (–190) 2 8 Benny Parsons 650 (–190) 5 9 Terry Labonte 643 (–197) 1 10 Rusty Wallace 628 (–212) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References