1979 Gabriel 400
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 16 of 31 in the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
Roger Hamby's vehicle (driven by Steve Pfeiffer) crashes while racing at the 1979 Gabriel 400.
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| Date | June 17, 1979 | ||
| Official name | Gabriel 400 | ||
| Location | Michigan International Speedway (Brooklyn, Michigan, USA) | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.000 mi (3.218 km) |
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| Distance | 200 laps, 400 mi (643 km) | ||
| Weather | Hot with temperatures approaching 90.9 °F (32.7 °C); wind speeds up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 135.798 miles per hour (218.546 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 62,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Wood Brothers Racing | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Buddy Baker | Ranier Racing | |
| Laps | 121 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 28 | Buddy Baker | Ranier Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | ABC | ||
| Announcers |
Al Michaels Jackie Stewart |
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The 1979 Gabriel 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) race that took place on June 17, 1979, at Michigan International Speedway in the American community of Brooklyn, Michigan.
By the following season, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore. Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.
Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long. Opened in 1968, the track's turns are banked at eighteen degrees, while the 3,600-foot-long front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at twelve degrees. The back stretch, has a five degree banking and is 2,242 feet long.
Two hundred laps were done on a paved oval track spanning 2.000 miles (3.219 km). The total time of the race was two hours, fifty-six minutes, and forty-four seconds. There were six cautions for thirty-three laps with the race finishing under caution. Speeds were: 135.798 miles per hour (218.546 km/h) as the average and 162.371 miles per hour (261.311 km/h) as the pole position speed.
Sixty-two thousand fans managed to see Buddy Baker defeat Donnie Allison under caution. The race was also Bill Seifert's final start in addition to being Bill Elliott's 33rd start in the NASCAR Cup Series; Elliott would lead the first lap of his NASCAR Cup Series career during this event. Other famous drivers like Darrell Waltrip (who retained the championship points lead after this race but lost it at the 1979 running of the Los Angeles Times 500 by 11 points), Richard Childress (now the owner of Richard Childress Racing), Benny Parsons, and Terry Labonte have participated in this race. While substituting for Roger Hamby during the middle of this racing event, Steve Pfieffer lost control of his car during a caution period and injured a couple of spectators on the pit wall while attempting to stop his vehicle for maintenance. He would be later sent to Foote West Hospital in nearby Jackson; where the doctors gave him a good prognosis and eventually released him with cuts on his right knee and chest.
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