1978 World 600

1978 World 600

Race details[1]
Race 12 of 30 in the 1978 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Layout of Charlotte Motor Speedway
Date	May 28, 1978
Official name	World 600
Location	Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord, North Carolina
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.500 mi (2.414 km)
Distance	400 laps, 600 mi (965 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching up to 84.9 °F (29.4 °C); wind speeds up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)
Average speed	138.355 miles per hour (222.661 km/h)
Attendance	125,000[2]
Pole position
Driver	David Pearson	Wood Brothers Racing
Most laps led
Driver	Darrell Waltrip	DiGard Motorsports
Laps	144
Winner
No. 88	Darrell Waltrip	DiGard Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	CBS
Announcers	Ken Squier

The 1978 World 600, the 19th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that was held on May 28, 1978, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.

By 1980, 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.

Summary

Zsa Zsa Gabor served as the celebrity grand marshal; sharing time in the spotlight with NASCAR team owner Robert Yates and Buddy Parrott. There were 40 drivers on the starting grid. A live audience of 125,000 enthusiastic NASCAR fans would see a total of 43 changes in the first-place position along with 32 laps under a caution flag. The entire race from green flag to checkered flag lasted for four hours and twenty minutes.

During the first 100 laps of this 400-lap extravaganza, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, and Donnie Allison were fighting it out for the lead. The final laps would become a constant battle between Donnie Allison, Darrell Waltrip, and Benny Parsons for the first-place finish. Waltrip would eventually defeat Donnie Allison by a time of two seconds on a stopwatch in his 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo vehicle. Joining him on victory lane would be his wife Stevie. As a couple, they embraced each other to the admiring fans; who were unaware that Darrell Waltrip would become a championship performer during the 1980s. Jerry Jolly would acquire the last-place finish in the race due to problems with his suspension on lap 20. The lowest driver to actually finish the race was D.K. Ulrich.^[2]

After the race, Cale Yarborough would only be 30 points behind Benny Parsons in the overall championship standings. The number of points for Dale Earnhardt and Ron Hutcherson were never recorded into the NASCAR data banks for future storage.^[2] The entire prize purse for this race was $310,491 ($1,128,381.32 when adjusted for inflation); Waltrip received a then-incredible amount of $48,608 to take home to his family ($176,650.40 when adjusted for inflation) while Jerry Jolly had to take home a meager $1,090 ($3,961.26 when adjusted for inflation).^[3] Roland Wlodyka would end his professional driving career with the NASCAR Cup Series after the end of this racing event.^[4]

Racial controversy

Willy T. Ribbs was expected to be at this NASCAR Cup Series event, being a popular African-American race car driver of the time. After failing to appear at two special practice sessions, he was sacked and replaced with then-obscure driver Dale Earnhardt; who back then specialized in short track racing and was not yet a serious championship contender.^[5] A lot of traditionalists chided the opportunities that Ribbs received; getting into the higher levels of NASCAR simply because he was black.^[6]

Finishing order

1. Darrell Waltrip
2. Donnie Allison
3. Bobby Allison
4. Cale Yarborough
5. David Pearson
6. Benny Parsons
7. Buddy Baker
8. Richard Petty
9. Sterling Marlin
10. Bruce Hill
11. Grant Adcox
12. Morgan Shepherd
13. Dick May
14. Bill Elliott
15. Buddy Arrington
16. John Utsman
17. Dale Earnhardt
18. Gary Myers
19. Dick Brooks
20. Richard Childress
21. Roland Wlodyka
22. J.D. McDuffie
23. Frank Warren
24. Tommy Gale
25. Baxter Price
26. Skip Manning
27. Jim Vandiver*
28. Ricky Rudd
29. D.K. Ulrich
30. Ronnie Thomas*
31. Tighe Scott*
32. Dave Marcis*
33. Lennie Pond*
34. Connie Saylor*
35. Neil Bonnett*
36. Harry Gant*
37. Jimmy Means*
38. Al Holbert*
39. Ron Hutcherson*
40. Jerry Jolly*

* Driver failed to finish race

Timeline

• Start of race: David Pearson had the advantage over all the other drivers as the green flag was waved
• Lap 20: Problems with the vehicle's suspension forced Jerry Jolly into becoming the last-place finisher
• Lap 112: Ron Hutcherson had a terminal crash
• Lap 113: Al Holbert had a terminal crash
• Lap 129: The vehicle's throttle was dying, Jimmy Means had to exit the event early
• Lap 140: Harry Gant managed to overheat his racing vehicle after racing at high speeds
• Lap 157: Neil Bonnett overheated his vehicle's engine and had to leave the race
• Lap 184: Connie Saylor actually overheated his engine after racing for so long
• Lap 195: Lennie Pond had a terminal crash
• Lap 198: The vehicle's engine couldn't stand any more high speed racing, forcing Dave Marcis out of the race
• Lap 240: Tighe Scott had a rough time with his vehicle's engine and had to accept a 31st-place finish
• Lap 318: The steering on Ronnie Thomas's vehicle wasn't raceworthy anymore, ending his day on the track
• Lap 343: Engine problems forced Jim Vandiver to be the final DNF of the race
• Finish: Darrell Waltrip was officially declared the winner of the event

Standings after the race

Pos	Driver	Points[2]	Differential
1	Benny Parsons	1862	0
2	Cale Yarborough	1832	-30
3	Dave Marcis	1738	-124
4	Darrell Waltrip	1683	-179
5	Bobby Allison	1665	-197
6	Lennie Pond	1562	-300
7	Richard Petty	1537	-325
8	Buddy Arrington	1527	-335
9	Skip Manning	1455	-407
10	Richard Childress	1444	-418

References

1. Weather information for the 1978 World 600 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
2. 1978 World 600 racing information at Racing Reference
3. 1978 World 600 racing information at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
4. 1978 World 600 racing information at Race Database
5. The Decision That Would Change the 1978 World 600 at How Stuff Works
6. Racing While Black at Google Books