1994 Mountain Dew Southern 500

Race details
Race 23 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1994 Mountain Dew Southern 500 program cover, feautring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	September 4, 1994
Official name	45th Annual Mountain Dew Southern 500
Location	Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.221 km)
Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Scheduled Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Average speed	127.952 miles per hour (205.919 km/h)
Attendance	50,000
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Geoff Bodine Racing
Time	29.447
Most laps led
Driver	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	127
Winner
No. 11	Bill Elliott	Junior Johnson & Associates
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1994 Mountain Dew Southern 500 was the 23rd stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 45th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 4, 1994, before an audience of 50,000 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. In the final stages of the race, Junior Johnson & Associates driver Bill Elliott would make a late-race charge to the lead, passing with 13 to go to take his 40th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt and Wood Brothers Racing driver Morgan Shepherd would finish 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 Friday, September 2, 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 3, at 11:30 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 29.447 and an average speed of 166.998 miles per hour (268.757 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Two drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 3,450 1 2 Rusty Wallace 3,223 (-227) 1 3 Mark Martin 3,167 (-283) 2 4 Ricky Rudd 3,055 (–395) 1 5 Ernie Irvan 3,026 (–424) 1 6 Ken Schrader 3,001 (–449) 7 Morgan Shepherd 2,956 (–494) 2 8 Bill Elliott 2,769 (–681) 1 9 Jeff Gordon 2,746 (–704) 1 10 Michael Waltrip 2,744 (–706) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References