1994 Food City 500

Race details
Race 6 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1994 Food City 500 program cover, featuring Jeff Gordon.
Date	April 10, 1994
Official name	34th Annual Food City 500
Location	Bristol, Tennessee, Bristol Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.533 mi (0.858 km)
Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Average speed	91.308 miles per hour (146.946 km/h)
Attendance	76,000
Pole position
Driver	Chuck Bown	Bobby Allison Motorsports
Time	15.357
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	183
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
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 Food City 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 34th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 10, 1994, in Bristol, Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.533 miles (0.858 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his 61st career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ken Schrader and Bud Moore Engineering driver Lake Speed would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Bristol Motor Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, April 8, 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, April 9, at 12:30 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-34 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; which was usually two. 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.

Chuck Bown, driving for Bobby Allison Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 15.357 and an average speed of 124.946 miles per hour (201.081 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Five drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Dale Earnhardt 964 1 2 Ernie Irvan 924 (-40) 3 Mark Martin 884 (-80) 4 Ken Schrader 838 (–126) 3 5 Lake Speed 812 (–152) 3 6 Sterling Marlin 757 (–207) 7 Morgan Shepherd 749 (–215) 3 8 Ricky Rudd 724 (–240) 1 9 Jeff Gordon 716 (–248) 3 10 Rusty Wallace 711 (–253) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References