|| *Comments on the 1986 Sovran Bank 500:* View the most recent comment <#22> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Jake posted: 08.19.2004 - 6:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first time Mikey Waltrip beat his brother in a Winston Cup race. WHOOO!!! 2. Matt posted: 01.28.2006 - 7:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race was Mike Skinner's Cup debut. 3. Matt posted: 03.04.2006 - 3:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race was really a survival of the fittest. Everyone who led except for Ricky Rudd had significant mechanical problems and the only other driver who led a lap that finished was Tim Richmond who finished the race 28 laps down. Buddy Arrington had a top five run going before his engine blew with 30 laps left. This race was also Alan Kulwicki's first top 10 and top 5. 4. Steve posted: 04.06.2006 - 8:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Derrike Cope scored his first career Top 10 finish in the same race that Jody Ridley earns his last career Top 10. A 4th place finish for Alan Kulwicki was surely a sign of things to come. Major drivers that DNF'd: Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Darrell Waltrip, Neil Bonnett, Harry Gant, Dale Earnhardt, and Geoffrey Bodine all due to engine failures, and Richard Petty because of an axle. Morgan Shepherd finished 119 laps down, Tim Richmond 128 laps behind, and Mike Skinner, in his debut, was 156 laps off the lead and still finished 22nd! Try that in today's NA$CAR racing! 5. Jay posted: 04.17.2006 - 6:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race also marked the first blown engine Bill Elliott had in over three years. Given Ford's factory support woes in the early 1980s, this three year run was pretty remarkable. 6. mk17ce99 posted: 09.30.2006 - 2:21 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Alan Kulwicki's first ever top 5 finish. 7. SK posted: 12.07.2007 - 9:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ironically, Mike Skinner finishes his Winston Cup debut one position and three laps behind Dale Earnhardt, the man who became his teammate eleven years later. 8. CenaYoungGun54 posted: 04.05.2009 - 11:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Alan Kulwicki First top 10 and top 5 9. RaceFanX posted: 11.19.2009 - 11:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Modified racer Jerry Cranmer makes his Cup debut and scores his best finish in 13th 10. Evan posted: 01.24.2011 - 7:35 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) this race happened a day or so after the Chernobyl nuclear power disaster in Russia. 11. ericthenau posted: 10.13.2012 - 9:30 pm Rate this comment: (1) (2) Actually, the Chernobyl disaster took place in Ukraine, which at the time was a part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union, Evan. 12. Goernie28 posted: 05.24.2013 - 6:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mike Skinner carried the in-car camera during this race 13. Ryan posted: 06.23.2013 - 9:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) Another bad engine costing Dale a victory 14. SRT posted: 11.17.2013 - 9:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Morgan Shepherd started the race in the #94 but was relieved at some point by Doug Heveron for some reason 15. Premium Doesn't Suck 62 66 94 98 posted: 09.24.2015 - 8:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor updates: #7 7-Eleven/Citgo #9 Coors/Melling Oil Pumps 16. RaceFanX posted: 09.21.2016 - 4:58 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Joe Ruttman finishes a Cup race in second for the third time, and second time in 1986's first 10 races, but he would never break through to get that first Cup win...although he'd go on to be very successful in the NASCAR Truck series. 17. JSPorts posted: 09.21.2016 - 5:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Does anybody know what the record for top 5 finishes without a win is? Because Joe Ruttman could very well hold it. Watching old races, it always seems like he ran up front. On average, a driver should have 1 win for every 5 top 5s. If this was the case for Ruttman, he would have about 4 wins. He was a good Truck racer, too, and at an older age. 18. Sean posted: 09.21.2016 - 8:32 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Zipping through the top 5 finishes driver query on this site really quickly (so I might have easily missed one), here are the top ten: G.C. Spencer - 55 Neil Castles - 51 John Sears - 48 Cecil Gordon - 29 Jimmie Lewallen - 28 Tommy Irwin - 23 Ted Musgrave - 20 Joe Ruttman - 19 Larry Thomas - 18 J.T. Putney - 16 Most of these drivers usually finished several laps down in cars that weren't capable of winning but were very consistent at grinding out finishes. Ruttman isn't leading even among the modern era drivers though (Musgrave and Gordon beat him.) I was surprised Skinner only had 10... 19. Anonymous posted: 04.30.2020 - 7:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The only way Rudd won was an engine failed in Earnhardt's car. 20. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 05.13.2020 - 9:20 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) SETN broadcast this race. Mike Joy and Benny Parsons were in the booth with Dick Berggren in the pits. Something was up with the engines at Martinsville that day: every retirement was due to a mechanical problem of some sort. Ricky Rudd simply outlasted everyone else to claim his first victory of the year. Tim Richmond won the pole for Hendrick Motorsports, making it four consecutive poles for the young team. The #25 would lead the opening laps until Darrell Waltrip booted Richmond out of the way to take the lead. Further back, Kyle Petty, who was given a stop-and-go penalty for jumping the initial start, got into the back of young Mike Skinner, making his Winston Cup debut. Skinner spun down to the entrance of the backstretch pits, bringing out the days first caution. Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, the top-2 in Winston Cup points heading into this race, pulled away from the field on the restart as they battled for the lead. Further back, Bill Elliott slapped the wall off of turn 2, cutting down both of his right-side tires. Elliott was forced to make a green-flag pitstop to change the tires (Gary Nelson, Geoff Bodine's crew chief, actually helped Elliott's crew in a show of sportsmanship). Elliott returned to the track, but just a handful of laps later, his engine blew. This was the first engine failure for Elliott and Melling Racing in three years and was the first of many engine failures that afternoon. A number of drivers opted to stay out under the caution, with Neil Bonnett taking the lead of the race. Tommy Ellis muscled his way past Bonnett and second-place Alan Kulwicki to take the lead after the restart, while Rusty Wallace became the second driver to lose an engine. Ellis put some distance between himself and the rest of the field on the subsequent restart, while Bonnett would fall off the pace. Michael Waltrip's spin brought out another yellow, allowing Ellis to finally pit. Earnhardt and Waltrip resumed their battle for the lead on the restart, once again gapping the rest of the field. Richard Petty became the next victim of the engine bug, his Pontiac going up in smoke after 200 laps. Tim Richmond would also be forced to pit with engine issues, eventually rejoining over 100 laps down. Meanwhile, Waltrip took the lead from Earnhardt and pulled away as Geoff Bodine joined the battle up front. A long stretch of green-flag racing followed, with Waltrip continuing to stretch his advantage over Earnhardt. Green-flag pitstops began around lap 200, with Waltrip actually running out of fuel a lap before he was due to come in. Harry Gant assumed the lead of the race, while Waltrip joined a growing list of drivers to retire with mechanical issues after he developed overheating problems. He was joined in the garage by teammate Neil Bonnett shortly afterward. The engine bug struck again as race leader Harry Gant blew his motor shortly after halfway, bringing out the caution. Ricky Rudd assumed the lead of the race, with Dale Earnhardt hot on his heels. On the restart, Terry Labonte and Geoff Bodine battled fiercely to keep from going a lap down, Labonte nearly spinning out Bodine at one point. Tommy Ellis would blow his motor on the frontstretch to bring out yet another yellow, J.D. McDuffie joining him in the garage with mechanical issues himself. Earnhardt pulled away from the field on the restart, leaving Ricky Rudd to battle with Joe Ruttman for second. Suddenly, Earnhardt detonated his motor, becoming yet another leader to go up in smoke. Big E was shortly joined by Geoff Bodine and Buddy Arrington in the garage area, both having suffered engine failures. With his closest competition in the garage area and no more cautions to stack the field up, Ricky Rudd lapped the field en route to his first win of the season. Because of the high attrition, the top ten was a strange concoction of drivers. Joe Ruttman finished second after dealing with mechanical problems early. Terry Labonte finished third, despite having nearly crashed at one point when his right rear exploded on the frontstretch. Rookie Alan Kulwicki put together an incredible run as he finished a career-best fourth, while Kyle Petty recovered from his early penalty to complete to the top-5. Bobby Hillin Jr., Ken Schrader, and Bobby Allison all had uneventful days as they finished inside the top-10, while west coast racer Derrike Cope stunned the local crowd by finishing 9th. Jody Ridley, driving for the RahMoc team, came home in 10th in what would end up being his final career top-ten finish. 21. A79iroc posted: 01.27.2021 - 9:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dave Marcis drove an Oldsmobile in this race. 22. zuel660 posted: 01.28.2021 - 11:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @21 any pics of that? I didn't think Marcis ran an Olds that year. If he did run one for this race, was it the older G-body notchback Cutlass? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: