1979 Talladega 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 20 of 31 in the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
Layout of Talladega Superspeedway
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| Date | August 5, 1979 | ||
| Official name | Talladega 500 | ||
| Location | Alabama International Motor Speedway, Talladega, Alabama | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.660 mi (4.280 km) |
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| Distance | 188 laps, 500.1 mi (804.8 km) | ||
| Weather | Hot with temperatures reaching as high as 90.9 °F (32.7 °C); wind speeds up to 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 161.229 miles per hour (259.473 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 80,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Wood Brothers Racing | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Darrell Waltrip | DiGard Motorsports | |
| Laps | 102 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 88 | Darrell Waltrip | DiGard Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | CBS | ||
| Announcers |
Ken Squier Lee Petty |
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The 1979 Talladega 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on August 5, 1979, at Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Alabama.
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.
Talladega Superspeedway, originally known as Alabama International Motor Superspeedway (AIMS), is a motorsports complex located north of Talladega, Alabama. It is located on the former Anniston Air Force Base in the small city of Lincoln. The track is a Tri-oval and was constructed by International Speedway Corporation, a business controlled by the France Family, in the 1960s. Talladega is most known for its steep banking and the unique location of the start/finish line - located just past the exit to pit road. The track currently hosts the NASCAR series such as the Sprint Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and the Camping World Truck Series. Talladega Superspeedway is the longest NASCAR oval with a length of 2.66 miles (4.28 km), and the track at its peak had a seating capacity of 175,000 spectators.
There were 41 American-born drivers on the starting grid; 21 of these vehicles failed to finish the race. Most of the problems in this three-hour event was blamed on the engines. After 188 laps of racing and five caution flags, Darrell Waltrip would defeat David Pearson by a minute and two seconds in front of a live crowd of eighty thousand stock car racing fans. Rookie driver Dale Earnhardt's injuries prevented him from participating in this event. There were a massive amount of changes in the race's first-place position; with Waltrip leading the final 55 laps to his victorious fate.
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