1994 TranSouth Financial 400

1994 TranSouth Financial 400

Race details
Race 5 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1994 TranSouth Financial 400 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	March 27, 1994
Official name	38th Annual TranSouth Financial 400
Location	Darlington, South Carolina, Darlington Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance	293 laps, 400.238 mi (644.12 km)
Scheduled Distance	293 laps, 400.238 mi (644.12 km)
Average speed	132.432 miles per hour (213.129 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Bill Elliott	Junior Johnson & Associates
Time	29.704
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	166
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1994 TranSouth Financial 400 was the fifth stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 38th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 27, 1994, in Darlington, South Carolina, at Darlington Raceway, a 1.366 miles (2.198 km) permanent egg-shaped oval racetrack. The race took the scheduled 293 laps to complete. At race's end, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would manage to dominate the majority of the race to take his 60th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and Junior Johnson driver Bill Elliott would finish in the respective positions. ^[3]

Background

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, March 4, at 11:30 AM 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 5, at 12:15 PM 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,^[4] 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.

Bill Elliott, driving for Junior Johnson & Associates, would win the pole, setting a time of 29.704 and an average speed of 165.553 miles per hour (266.432 km/h) in the first round.^[5]

Eight drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ernie Irvan 860 2 2 Dale Earnhardt 779 (-81) 1 3 Mark Martin 779 (-81) 5 4 Ken Schrader 688 (–192) 3 5 Ricky Rudd 657 (–203) 4 6 Lake Speed 647 (–213) 3 7 Morgan Shepherd 640 (–220) 1 8 Jeff Gordon 615 (–245) 3 9 Sterling Marlin 614 (–246) 5 10 Terry Labonte 609 (–251) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References