Date May 12, 1979 (1979-May-12) Official name Sun-Drop Music City USA 420 Course Permanent racing facility0.596 mi (0.959 km) Distance 420 laps, 250.3 mi (402.8 km) Weather Hot with temperatures approaching 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds up to 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) | ||
The 1979 Sun-Drop Music City USA 420 as a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on May 12, 1979, at Nashville Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee.
Contents
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.
Background
Nashville Speedway was converted to a half-mile paved oval in 1957, when it began to be a NASCAR series track. The speedway was lengthened between the 1969 and 1970 seasons. The corners were cut down from 35 degrees to their present 18 degrees in 1972.
Summary
This race was a 420-lap race; Harry Gant would be credited with the last-place finish due to an engine problem after only 18 laps of racing.
Cale Yarborough would defeat Richard Petty by nearly three seconds after almost three hours of racing action. A small crowd of 16000 people would see only three caution periods (lasting 27 laps) and nine different changes concerning the leader of the race. Joe Millikan would get his only pole position start here; qualifying at speeds up to 104.155 miles per hour (167.621 km/h).
The finish was marred by controversy. Richard Petty and Bobby Allison asserted that Cale Yarborough was a lap down at the finish. Said Petty, "He lost one lap when he spun (with J.D. McDuffie), then he lost another when he spent 22 seconds in the pits." Allison agreed, saying, "Richard won this race and I finished second. I don't know how they had Cale winning."
A star-studded top ten finishing chart would include fan favorites like Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, J.D. McDuffie, Richard Childress, Benny Parsons, Buddy Baker, Terry Labonte, and Ricky Rudd. Al Elmore and Steve Spencer would make their NASCAR Cup Series debuts during this race.
The entire racing purse for this event was $70,100 ($231,320.36 when adjusted for inflation). Yarborough would receive $12,275 for winning ($40,505.81 when adjusted for inflation) the race while last-place finisher Gant would only receive $360 of the total purse ($1,187.95 when adjusted for inflation).