|| *Comments on the 1978 NAPA National 500:* View the most recent comment <#12> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. mcmurrayfan posted: 06.14.2006 - 4:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cup debut for Glenn Jarrett, the brother of Dale Jarrett. 2. Destiny posted: 06.20.2007 - 7:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) bonus, Glenn was the son of Ned Jarrett. His debut went fantasic. 3. MegaRacer posted: 06.30.2007 - 3:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) AND...the driving debut of Butch Mock in his own car (along with Bob Rahilly). He would drive two more career races before sticking to just owning the 75 car. 4. Anonymous posted: 05.27.2010 - 7:24 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) David Pearson's 12th pole in a row at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 5. b4il3y posted: 01.11.2013 - 2:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) except petty 6. KW posted: 03.02.2016 - 4:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bobby Allison swept the weekend as he also won the World Service Life 300 Sportsman race. Bobby won driving his own Matador, Dale Earnhardt was second followed by Dave Marcis, Darrell Waltrip and Dick Brooks. 7. The Great Dave posted: 01.16.2017 - 12:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In his Fourth Start, Terry Labonte manages to finish outside the top-10 for the first time, thanks to a blown engine. 8. RaceFanX posted: 06.05.2018 - 1:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Skip Manning returns to the Winston Cup ranks for the first time in seven races after losing his ride in Billy Hagen's #92 to Terry Labonte. Manning did a one-off here in Robert Gee's #8 Autowize Chevrolet but a blown engine very early on sent him to the sidelines and resulted in a bad finish. 9. Ivan Balakhonov posted: 08.24.2018 - 3:34 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Bobby Allison's 50th career victory. Cautions (according to Southern Motor Racing): 5-7 - #05 spin T2 (3 laps) 106-111 - #28 crash backstretch (6 laps) 131-135 - #00, #41 crash (5 laps) 188-194 - #72, #75, #92 crash frontstretch (7 laps) 10. Ivan Balakhonov posted: 08.24.2018 - 4:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) By the way, #96 Ford was qualified and driven by Dale Earnhardt. Baxter Price only started the race to preserve Dale's status as a rookie for 1979 (otherwise in Atlanta Earnhardt would exceed the limit of 5 races per season). 11. Anonymous posted: 08.01.2020 - 7:42 am Rate this comment: (4) (0) A scandal broke out during prerace ceremonies for this race. As one of his (in)famous promotional stunts, Humpy Wheeler and NAPA created a bonus money program for the race. Drivers would receive $5,000 for finishing on the same lap as the winner, $4,000 for finishing one lap down, and so on down to $1,000 for finishing four laps back. The program was heavily promoted as "an unprecedented $200,000 incentive bonus" making it seem as though the 40 drivers would receive $5,000 for simply starting the event. To be eligible for the bonus, drivers had to participate in a prerace driver introduction ceremony where they would be handed prop $5,000 checks. Five independent drivers protested and refused to participate in the ceremony. They were James Hylton (the organizer of the protest), J.D. McDuffie, Frank Warren, Ed Negre, and Buddy Arrington. The drivers knew they had virtually no chance to win the money, and refused to take part in what they considered to be a degrading ceremony. Hylton argued that the bonus program was just giving more money to the top teams while once again leaving the independents to fight for themselves. He used the scandal to call attention to the dire financial situation of most of the independent drivers. NASCAR was the only major sport in America without any sort of benefits for its participants, a problem Hylton had rallied against as far back as 1971. Hylton and the other four drivers demanded bigger purses, a guaranteed start program for full time teams, and a pension plan for drivers who had participated in NASCAR for at least 10 full seasons. Bobby Allison came to their defense, saying that accepting the checks would make them "look like dummies" and called the situation for independent drivers in the sport "grim". During the closing laps he allowed his brother Donnie to pass him and get back on the lead lap specifically to cost NAPA an extra $1,000. The program ended up paying out $26,000. Wheeler was absolutely furious and began a crusade in the press against what he dubbed "The Charlotte Five". He announced that any driver who refused to participate in any prerace festivities in the future would be banned from starting any future race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The war of words between Hylton and Wheeler continued back and forth in the press for several weeks and was one of the biggest scandals of the year. 12. rateus posted: 02.13.2021 - 8:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ferrel Harris qualified for Frank Warren. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: