1986 Champion Spark Plug 400
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 19 of 29 in the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
Layout of Michigan International Speedway
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| Date | August 17, 1986 | ||
| Official name | Champion Spark Plug 400 | ||
| Location | Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Michigan | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.000 mi (3.218 km) |
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| Distance | 200 laps, 400 mi (643 km) | ||
| Weather | Warm with temperatures reaching up to 84 °F (29 °C); wind speeds up to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 135.376 miles per hour (217.867 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 64,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Leo & Richard Jackson | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Bill Elliott | Melling Racing | |
| Laps | 115 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 43 | Bill Elliott | Melling Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | untelevised | ||
| Announcers | none | ||
The 1986 Champion Spark Plug 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that was held on August 17, 1986, at Michigan International Speedway in the American community of Brooklyn, Michigan.
Michigan International Speedway has been a Ford dominated track starting in 1984, and a Mercury track before that from 1969-78. It was also a track that suited a smooth driver or a driver that could change his driving tactics for Michigan International Speedway.
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.
There were 41 drivers on the starting grid for this event. Gary Fedewa (uncle of later Busch Series driver Tim Fedewa), Dick Trickle, USAC veteran Cliff Hucul of Canada, Ronnie Thomas, Joe Booher, and Howard Mark failed to qualify for this race. In this 200-lap event, Buddy Baker deserved his last-place finish due to a problem with the rear end of his vehicle on lap 27. Various problems including engine troubles and crashes caused several drivers not to finish the race. All of the drivers in this racing event were born in the United States of America, and prior to the green flag the total number of Winston Cup wins among all 41 drivers equaled 672, and a total of 20 Winston Cups.
Sixty-four thousand people witnessed a race lasting for almost three hours. Bill Elliott managed to defeat Tim Richmond by almost one and a half seconds. Benny Parsons earned the pole position for this racing event by driving up to 171.924 miles per hour (276.685 km/h) during qualifying. While the opening laps in the race saw four different drivers duel each other for the lead, only Bill Elliott and Darrell Waltrip would be able to fight for the first-place position on the closing laps. Michael Waltrip would become the lowest-finishing driver to finish the race; even though he only logged in 122 laps of actual racing.
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