1979 Southern 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 23 of 31 in the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
Layout of Darlington Raceway
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| Date | September 3, 1979 | ||
| Official name | Southern 500 | ||
| Location | Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.198 km) |
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| Distance | 367 laps, 501.3 mi (806.7 km) | ||
| Weather | Hot with temperatures reaching a maximum of 88.9 °F (31.6 °C); with wind speeds up to 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 126.259 miles per hour (203.194 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Bud Moore Engineering | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Darrell Waltrip | DiGard Motorsports | |
| Laps | 165 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 88 | David Pearson | Osterlund Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | ABC | ||
| Announcers |
Keith Jackson Chris Economaki |
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Coordinates: 34°17′50.5″N 79°54′18.4″W / 34.297361°N 79.905111°W
The 1979 Southern 500, the 30th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) race that took place on September 3, 1979, at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina.
Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. 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 will be effective at both ends.
The track is a four-turn 1.366 miles (2.198 km) oval. The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees. The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch is banked at six degrees. Darlington Raceway can seat up to 60,000 people.
Three hundred and sixty seven laps were done on a paved oval track spanning 1.366 miles (2.198 km) for a grand total of 501.3 miles (806.8 km). The total time of the race as three hours, fifty-eight minutes, and fourteen seconds. Speeds were: 126.259 miles per hour (203.194 km/h) for the average and 154.88 miles per hour (249.26 km/h) for the pole position speed. There were nine cautions for fifty-two laps.David Pearson, who was in semi-retirement and had left the Wood Brothers after a disastrous pit stop at the Rebel 500 earlier that year, was driving for Rod Osterlund in his last race for the team as a substitute for rookie contender Dale Earnhardt, injured at the Pocono race, defeated Bill Elliott by two laps and four seconds. He would race for an injured Dale Earnhardt. Sixty thousand people came to watch this live event. Other famous drivers at the event include Darrell Waltrip, Richard Childress, Richard Petty, Terry Labonte, and Ricky Rudd.
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