1994 Purolator 500

1994 Purolator 500

Race details
Race 4 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1994 Purolator 500 program cover, featuring Morgan Shepherd, Bill Elliott, and David Pearson. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	March 13, 1994
Official name	35th Annual Purolator 500
Location	Hampton, Georgia, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.522 mi (2.449 km)
Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Scheduled Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Average speed	146.136 miles per hour (235.183 km/h)
Attendance	102,000
Pole position
Driver	Loy Allen Jr.	TriStar Motorsports
Time	30.405
Most laps led
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing
Laps	207
Winner
No. 28	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ABC
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1994 Purolator 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 13, 1994, in Hampton, Georgia at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.522 miles (2.449 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 328 laps to complete. At race's end, Robert Yates Racing driver Ernie Irvan would manage to complete a dominant performance for the majority of the race to take his 11th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his second victory of the season, and his second straight victory.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Wood Brothers Racing driver Morgan Shepherd and owner-driver Darrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a 1.522-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.

The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of 1.54-mile (2.48 km) where before it was 1.522-mile (2.449 km). The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Entry list

• (R) - denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, March 11, at 2:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, March 12, at 10:30 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,^[3] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; which was usually two. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.

Loy Allen Jr., driving for TriStar Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.405 and an average speed of 180.207 miles per hour (290.015 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Eight drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ernie Irvan 705 2 2 Mark Martin 604 (-101) 1 3 Dale Earnhardt 594 (-111) 5 4 Morgan Shepherd 571 (–132) 5 Terry Labonte 551 (–154) 3 6 Sterling Marlin 549 (–156) 7 Jeff Gordon 544 (–161) 3 8 Ricky Rudd 519 (–186) 3 9 Ken Schrader 517 (–188) 4 10 Lake Speed 492 (–213) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References