1999 Cracker Barrel 500

Race details
Race 4 of 34 in the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1999 Cracker Barrel 500 program cover.
Date	March 14, 1999
Official name	40th Annual Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500
Location	Hampton, Georgia, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.54 mi (2.48 km)
Distance	325 laps, 500.5 mi (805.476 km)
Scheduled Distance	325 laps, 500.5 mi (805.476 km)
Average speed	143.284 miles per hour (230.593 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing
Time	28.437
Most laps led
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	109
Winner
No. 24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ABC
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The 1999 Cracker Barrel 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 1999 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 40th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 14, 1999, in Hampton, Georgia at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.54 miles (2.48 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 325 laps to complete. In the closing laps of the race, Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon would manage to pull a sizable lead over the rest of the field to win his 44th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the podium, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bobby Labonte and Roush Racing driver Mark Martin would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Atlanta Motor Speedway, the circuit where the race was held.

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a 1.54-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.

The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of 1.54-mile (2.48 km) where before it was 1.522-mile (2.449 km). The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Practice

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, March 12, at 2:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 25 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, March 13, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time.^[3] Positions 26-36 would be decided on time, while positions 37-43 would be based on provisionals. Six spots are awarded by the use of provisionals based on owner's points. The seventh is awarded to a past champion who has not otherwise qualified for the race. If no past champion needs the provisional, the next team in the owner points will be awarded a provisional.^[7]

Bobby Labonte, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 28.437 and an average speed of 194.957 miles per hour (313.753 km/h).^[8]

Three drivers would fail to qualify: Robert Pressley, Steve Grissom, and Morgan Shepherd.

Race results

References