1994 Goodwrench 500

Race details
Race 2 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1994 Goodwrench 500 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	February 27, 1994
Official name	29th Annual Goodwrench 500
Location	Rockingham, North Carolina, North Carolina Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.017 mi (1.637 km)
Distance	492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km)
Scheduled Distance	492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km)
Average speed	125.239 miles per hour (201.553 km/h)
Attendance	45,000
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Geoff Bodine Racing
Time	24.132
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Laps	347
Winner
No. 2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Television in the United States
Network	TNN
Announcers	Mike Joy, Buddy Baker, Glenn Jarrett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1994 Goodwrench 500 was the second stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 29th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 27, 1994, in Rockingham, North Carolina, at North Carolina Speedway, a 1.017 miles (1.637 km) permanent high-banked racetrack. The race took the scheduled 492 laps to complete. At race's end, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would manage to dominate the majority of the race to take his 32nd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Sterling Marlin and Precision Products Racing driver Rick Mast would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of North Carolina Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

North Carolina Speedway was opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School.^[3]

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, February 25, at 2:30 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, February 26, 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,^[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 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 24.132 and an average speed of 151.716 miles per hour (244.163 km/h) in the first round.^[5]

Seven drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Sterling Marlin 355 2 Ernie Irvan 335 (-20) 3 3 Dale Earnhardt 302 (-53) 4 Mark Martin 294 (–61) 5 Terry Labonte 282 (–73) 1 6 Morgan Shepherd 280 (–75) 1 7 Ricky Rudd 272 (–83) 3 8 Ken Schrader 272 (–83) 1 9 Geoff Bodine 258 (–97) 10 Rick Mast 247 (–108) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References