During the preceding 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.
The NASCAR Winston Cup Series was also plagued with top teams running big engines and finishing in third place to avoid inspection around the time that this race was held.
Five hundred laps took place on a paved track spanning a distance of 1.000 mile or 1.609 kilometres per lap.[3][2] It took four hours and seventeen minutes for Jody Ridley to defeat Bobby Allison by 22 seconds in front of 40,000 live spectators. This race was the only win for a car numbered 90 in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was also the only Cup Series win for Ridley and the only points paying win for Donlavey Racing.[3][6] However, this victory was controversial because Allison's team blamed a scoring error for his loss (even though Allison himself did not actually protest the win).[7]
The winner would win $22,560 in prize money ($75,607 when adjusted for inflation) while the last place winner would take home only $5,980 ($20,041 when adjusted for inflation).[6][8] Two cautions slowed the race for 24 laps and the average racing speed was 116.925 miles per hour (188.173 km/h).[3]David Pearson would acquire the pole position with a speed of 138.425 miles per hour (222.773 km/h).[3] Darrell Waltrip got his Mountain Dew #11 Buick in trouble early when he lost it off Turn 4 and set off a multi-car crash. The Junior Johnson team managed to make repairs and get him back out there, with the high attrition rate they salvaged a 12th place finish and maintained their third place position in the points.[3]
David Pearson returns to the tour for the first time the Halpern team shut down after the owner's untimely death to take the wheel of Kennie Childers' #12 Kencoal Mining Oldsmobile. The new effort paired two legends of the sport with the Silver Fox driving and Jake Elder acting as crew chief with the pair winning the pole for this race. Unfortunately, engine issues started to arise as the weekend progressed so while Pearson led early in the time one a blown engine eventually sent him to the sidelines just after the one-tenth mark. The partnership of Pearson and the Childers team ended up being just a one-off effort.[3]
Richard Petty was another contender who fell by the wayside in this one.[3] He was running fourth in this race when a rear end failure sent the #43 STP Buick to the sidelines done for a 19th-place finish.[3] Elmo comes out of retirement in a one-off for Lake Speed.[3] Neil Bonnett was ahead by two laps over the entire field when he failed to finish the race after leading 404 laps; quite possibly the most number of laps led in NASCAR history while getting a DNF.[3] In today's NASCAR, it is impossible for someone to finish 20 laps down but in 10th place.[3]
All 32 drivers on the racing grid were American-born males.[3]Benny Parsons would acquire a last-place finish on the first lap due to a crash with Dave Marcis.[3][2] The lowest finishing driver to finish the race was Cecil Gordon; who was 42 laps behind the lead lap.[3][2] The tenth-place driver would finish 20 laps down from the lead lap drivers. In today's NASCAR, he would have finished more towards the middle of the pack. There was a "communications meltdown" on lap 480 which put the race in jeopardy. Ridley's win was considered controversial because Allison claimed to have "won the race"; according to NASCAR team owner Harry Ranier.[citation needed]
