|| *Comments on the 1978 Champion Spark Plug 400:* View the most recent comment <#11> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. DTroppens posted: 11.20.2006 - 8:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) DK Ulrich did something he had never done before or ever would again in his career in this race. He led a lap. It was only for one lap, but he accomplished the task. Ulrich had only one top five finish in his entire career. 2. RaceFanX posted: 01.11.2008 - 2:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last win together for the dreaded combination of David Pearson and the Wood Brothers 3. Sébastien posted: 07.29.2008 - 9:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Petty drove his first Chevrolet gn racecar in this race. 4. Sébastien posted: 07.29.2008 - 9:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) two #8 cars in this race !?? The Ed Negre car had a digit occulted. Kinda weird. 5. Anonymous posted: 07.29.2008 - 10:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) BOTH cars had a single digit masked, one the opposite of the other car. 6. Sébastien posted: 07.28.2009 - 12:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) anonymous (admin ? ;P) you are correct, never tough officials would tolerate something like this ! btw Rudd #22 sponsor was just a tiny sticker on the trunk of his gold & black car. Marcis #2, Baker #27, Price #45 & Negre #8 were unsponsored indeed. 7. Dan posted: 04.29.2012 - 6:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) After a string of poor finishes, Skip Manning is fired by Billy Hagan. His replacement for this race is west coast veteran Mel Larson, who doesn't fare much better than Manning, going out early with electrical issues. 8. zuel660 posted: 06.25.2015 - 1:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Must've been a great final 10 laps of the race!! 9. RaceFanX posted: 07.30.2017 - 11:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The King's big switch from Dodge to Chevrolet didn't come in a car built by Petty Enterprises. Petty's first outing for the Bowtie brand came in a car the team had bought used from journeyman Cecil "Flash" Gordon. 10. Ivan Balakhonov posted: 08.21.2018 - 7:23 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Again, the race with a confusing finish. It all began on lap 167 when tire failure brought Cale Yarborough to the pit lane. His unscheduled pit stop almost put him a lap down. One of the drivers didn't realize it until it was too late. Then we have a crash on lap 195. Richard Petty hit the wall after he cut a tire and, apparently, seriously damaged it. Darrell Waltrip, who led the race at that point, Pearson and Yarborough came for the splash, Dave Marcis stayed on track. His car was sputtering, running low on fuel, but he was sure the race wouldn't restart. I quote Marcis: "There was no way the race should have been restarted. When Petty hit that guard rail, he uprooted three posts, and the posts were still missing when the green flag came out. It wasn't safe." The strange thing that Darrell listed as the leader on laps 198 and 199, though in fact Marcis was up front. He was being pushed by D.K. Ulrich and Neil Bonnett but this was permitted by NASCAR rules (exception was made only for the final lap of the race). Still it didn't matter much since the restart was given on the final lap and Marcis wasn't able to gain speed. Pearson drove masterfully on that final lap, and there was nothing Waltrip could do despite of having a 6-car lead in Turn 1. But he also decided not to fight Cale off! After the race he said he was sure Yarborough was a lap behind. Waltrip: "I'm a little unhappy because my crew didn't tell me that he was in the same lap. There was no way I could beat Pearson, but I thought I had second place sewed up." 11. Gray Gaulding's Distant Cousin posted: 11.09.2018 - 10:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Petty injured his ribs in this race IIRC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: