2004 Subway 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 32 of 36 in the 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series | |||
A map showing the layout of Martinsville Speedway
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| Date | October 24, 2004 | ||
| Location | Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville, Virginia | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility .526 mi (.827 km) |
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| Distance | 500 laps, 263 mi (423.257 km) | ||
| Weather | Temperatures up to 60.8 °F (16.0 °C); wind speeds up to 4.1 miles per hour (6.6 km/h) | ||
| Average speed | 66.103 mph (106.382 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Penske-Jasper Racing | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Kurt Busch | Roush Racing | |
| Laps | 120 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | NBC | ||
| Announcers | Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons, Wally Dallenbach, Jr. | ||
| Nielsen Ratings | 4.4/10 | ||
The 2004 Subway 500 was a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series stock car race held on October 24, 2004 at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia. Contested over 500 laps, the race was the 32nd of the 36-race 2004 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season, and the sixth race in the 2004 Chase for the NEXTEL Cup.
Pole position was won by Penske-Jasper Racing's Ryan Newman, while Jimmie Johnson of Hendrick Motorsports won the race. Chip Ganassi Racing's Jamie McMurray and Newman finished second and third, respectively.
Martinsville Speedway, considered the "Paperclip" for its paper clip shape, is .526 miles (0.847 km) long, the shortest track on the Cup circuit. The track's banking is 12 degrees, while the straightaways were flat.
Entering the race, Kurt Busch led the points standings with 5850 points. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (5826), Jeff Gordon (5776), Elliott Sadler (5693), and Mark Martin (5664) comprised the top five, while Tony Stewart (5646), Matt Kenseth (5635), Jimmie Johnson (5623), Ryan Newman (5579), and Jeremy Mayfield (5501) rounded out the Chase field.
Before the race, a Beechcraft Super King Air carrying ten people, seven of whom were Hendrick Motorsports personnel, including John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's brother, and his two daughters Kimberly and Jennifer; Ricky Hendrick, Rick's son and former driver; Jeff Turner, Hendrick Motorsports' general manager;Randy Dorton, Hendrick's Director of Engine Operations; Joe Jackson, an executive for Jeff Gordon's sponsor DuPont; along with Scott Lathram, a pilot for Tony Stewart, and pilots Richard Tracy and Elizabeth Morrison, crashed into nearby Bull Mountain, killing all on board. The crash occurred 27 minutes before the race began.
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