1986 Coca-Cola 600

Race details
Race 11 of 29 in the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1986 Coca-Cola 600 program cover, featuring Terry Labonte. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	May 25, 1986
Official name	27th Annual Coca-Cola 600
Location	Concord, North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.5 mi (2.41 km)
Distance	400 laps, 600 mi (965.606 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 600 mi (965.606 km)
Average speed	140.406 miles per hour (225.962 km/h)
Attendance	158,000
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	32.824
Most laps led
Driver	Cale Yarborough Bill Elliott	Ranier-Lundy Racing Melling Racing
Laps	98
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	Jefferson-Pilot
Announcers	Mike Hogewood, Jerry Punch
Radio in the United States
Radio	WSOC-FM

The 1986 Coca-Cola 600 was the 11th stock car race of the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 27th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, May 25, 1986, before an audience of 158,000 in Concord, North Carolina, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent quad-oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete.^[1]

After a poor start, Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt, crediting crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine, made several changes to the car afterward, making an improvement. As a result, Earnhardt steadily climbed through the field in the final stages of the race, taking the lead when Bill Elliott pitted for fuel with less than 20 laps left in the race, securing the victory. The victory was Earnhardt's 18th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his third victory of the season.^[2][3] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports' Tim Richmond and Ranier-Lundy Racing's Cale Yarborough finished second and third, respectively.

Background

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of Bruton Smith) as track president.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into three rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, May 21, at 4:00 PM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 15 drivers in the round were 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 Thursday, May 22, at 2:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. Positions 16-30 were decided on times in the second round. The third round was held on Friday, May 23, at 12:30 PM EST; if a driver was not able to guarantee a starting spot in the previous two rounds, they had the option to scrub their time again and run in the third round. As with the previous two rounds, each driver had one lap to set a time. Positions 31-40 were determined on times in the third round.^[5] 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; up to two were given.

Geoff Bodine, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, won the pole, setting a time of 32.824 and an average speed of 164.511 miles per hour (264.755 km/h) in the first round.^[6]

Four drivers failed to qualify.^[7]

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 1,767 2 Darrell Waltrip 1,623 (-144) 1 3 Bobby Allison 1,505 (-262) 1 4 Terry Labonte 1,447 (–320) 2 5 Rusty Wallace 1,440 (–327) 1 6 Bill Elliott 1,436 (–331) 2 7 Harry Gant 1,380 (–387) 3 8 Tim Richmond 1,377 (–390) 1 9 Kyle Petty 1,361 (–406) 10 Ricky Rudd 1,344 (–423) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.