The NASCAR Winston Cup Series was also plagued with top teams running big engines and finishing in third place to avoid inspection around the early-1980s.
Background
In 1953, Richmond International Raceway began hosting the Grand National Series with Lee Petty winning that first race in Richmond.[3] The original track was paved in 1968.[4] In 1988, the track was re-designed into its present D-shaped configuration
The name for the raceway complex was "Strawberry Hill" until the Virginia State Fairgrounds site was bought out in 1999 and renamed the "Richmond International Raceway".
Race report
There were 35 American-born male drivers on the grid. Darrell Waltrip defeated Bobby Allison by 1.2 seconds in front of 17,000 people.[2][5] Nine caution flags for 72 laps along with 19 different lead changes resulted in a race that lasted three hours and twelve minutes. Millikan flipped over the guardrail in Turn 3 after two other cars in front of him got together; he would eventually bow out of the race at lap 101.[2][5]
While Waltrip would earn the pole position with a qualifying speed of 93.695 miles per hour (150.787 km/h) in his #88 Chevrolet Malibu vehicle, the average speed of the actual race was 67.703 miles per hour (108.957 km/h)[5]Baxter Price achieved the last-place finish of the race due to a crash on lap 45 out of the 400 laps that day.[2][5]Richard Childress (racing for himself at Richard Childress Racing) would be the last driver to actually finish the race.[2][5] He would drive an Oldsmobile as opposed to the Chevrolet vehicles that he would own today.[2][5]
Bill Hollar ends up sidelined by a mechanical gremlin as he makes his final NASCAR Winston Cup start.[2][5] He'd attempt a few races later in the 1980s but didn't qualify for any of them.[6]
