|| *Comments on the 1986 Oakwood Homes 500:* View the most recent comment <#10> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Jason posted: 04.26.2007 - 1:00 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Earnhardt loses 2 laps early due to 2 separate tire issues, and comes back to win. 2. jr88fan posted: 09.21.2008 - 1:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last time #21 wasn't a ford. 3. Ryan posted: 12.11.2008 - 4:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Earnhardt had a history of making his laps up at Charlotte and coming back to win. 4. rob posted: 09.24.2009 - 6:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) earnhardt and richmond battled side by side for many laps for the point before tim's car retired. 5. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 11.02.2014 - 2:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 11-15: debris Caution 2: Lap 61-66: #1 accident turn 2 Caution 3: Lap 80-83: #48 spin frontstretch Caution 4: Lap 85-99: #0,7,14,17,23,26,28,44,52,75,81,91 accident backstretch Caution 5: Lap 120-127: #8,9 accident frontstretch Caution 6: Lap 153-158: oil on track 6. The Great Dave posted: 02.15.2017 - 1:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor Update (Race is on youtube now) #14 Copenhagen / Gilmore #17 KMart / Wynn's / TRW #87 B&B Racing / Tillman Source: Video of race on youtube. 7. Aussie fan x posted: 10.18.2017 - 8:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great battle between Richmond and Ernhardt. Only ended when Dale made a mistake in turns 1&2 8. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 07.19.2020 - 11:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jefferson Pilot broadcast this race. Mike Hogewood and Jerry Punch were in the booth with Glenn Jarrett and Rich Brenner in the pits. 9. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 07.20.2020 - 1:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Correction: Eli Gold and Glenn Jarrett were the pit reporters. Rich Brenner was in the pits for the previous day's Busch Series race. 10. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 07.20.2020 - 10:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Earnhardt fought back from falling two laps down and led 80 laps en route to his crucial fourth win of the season, pulling 159 points clear of Darrell Waltrip in the Winston Cup points standings. Earnhardt fell a lap down after a slow green-flag pitstop, then had to make another pitstop due to a vibration. Now two laps down, Earnhardt clawed his way back to the lead lap, and after a grinding side-by-side battle with Tim Richmond, pulled away at the end to win. Harry Gant had one hell of a day, nearly spinning out twice due to a dangerously loose racecar and battling with overheating issues all race long. Gant led 34 laps and managed to close the gap to about 2 seconds to race leader Earnhardt but would have to settle for second. Still, a solid day considering all of his issues. Neil Bonnett had been on a role since Richmond, finishing inside the top-10 in all but one race. His third-place run here, one lap off the pace, along with 2 laps led, was mighty impressive considering how poorly he had run in the spring race. Another race, another quiet run for Ricky Rudd. The driver of the #15 ran inside the top-10 throughout the day and capitalized on attrition to finish a strong fourth, 1 lap down. Buddy Baker's second straight top-5 finish saw him run with the leaders all day and come home a lap down in fifth, even challenging Geoff Bodine for the lead at on point. Geoff Bodine once again had a car that could have won, leading 80 laps throughout the race. But poor pit strategy would yet again keep Bodine from victory lane, as the #5 came home a lap down in sixth. After qualifying on the third row, Bill Elliott ran inside the top-10 until a brush with the wall knocked him out of the running. He would later suffer damage in a crash with Bobby Hillin, yet fought back to score a top-10 in seventh, just 1 lap down. Rusty Wallace had a solid day, running inside the top-10 throughout the afternoon and finishing 2 laps down in eighth. Darrell Waltrip struggled with handling all day long, losing 2 laps due to extended pitstops to make adjustments. Despite leading for a lap (which gave him crucial bonus points), his ninth-place finish erased much of the ground he had made up over the summer on Earnhardt's points lead. The penultimate start of the year for Phil Parsons saw the young driver score a much-deserved top-10 finish in tenth, 3 laps down. Parsons kept out of trouble and was rewarded in his penultimate start of the 1986 season. Dave Marcis came oh so close to a fourth-straight top-10 finish, leading 3 laps under caution. But he just didn't have the speed to catch Phil Parsons at the end, finishing 4 laps down in eleventh. Busch Grand National Series points leader Larry Pearson made the second start of his Winston Cup career in this race. Pearson had a much better experience than his first start, coming home with a then career-best twelfth, 5 laps down. Kyle Petty fought back from a dismal qualifying effort (41st? Lord have mercy...) and damage sustained in the "Big One" on lap 85 to finish a solid thirteenth, 5 laps off the pace. Alan Kulwicki officially put his name on the map with this race, qualifying a solid seventh, taking the lead on a restart, and keeping the lead for 6 laps. While he would ultimately fall 5 laps down to fourteenth, the short-track specialist Kulwicki had his best overall performance of his rookie season on a superspeedway. Terry Labonte continued to struggle with Hagan Racing's Oldsmobiles, as he suffered damage in the "Big One" and never recovered, finishing 7 laps down in fifteenth. Rodney Combs scored his best result of the 1986 season in sixteenth, 7 laps down. It would be the last time that a car fielded by Robert Harrington would finish inside the top-20. Connie Saylor's best result of 1986 came behind the wheel of Elmo Langley's largely uncompetitive #64 Ford, as Saylor piloted the car to a seventeenth-place finish, 9 laps down. While usually decked in red and white, the #64 sported a new white and green look for this race. Jimmy Means had managed to score a new sponsor for this race in Voyles Auto Salvage, a local company. The added sponsorship dollars paid off, as Means came home a fantastic eighteenth (Fantastic for a small team in the 1980s, that is), though he was still 9 laps off the pace. Michael Waltrip's chances for winning Rookie of the Year were becoming slimmer and slimmer, as he suffered damage in the "Big One" and struggled the rest of the way to finish 10 laps down in nineteenth. J.D. McDuffie's final top-20 finish of the season saw him keep Tom Winkle's #70 Pontiac out of harm's way to finish 12 laps down in twentieth. Guess who's back? After splitting up after the Southern 500, Ron Bouchard, Mike Curb, and Valvoline reunited for three more races to close out the season. Clearly they had no interest in making the best of these races, as the #98 Pontiac was brutally slow, crawling home to twenty-first, 12 laps off the pace. Buddy Arrington will receive the "Snail Award" for this race, as his #67 was 14 laps down at the finish despite no issues. Arrington still managed to score a twenty-second-place finish thanks to the high attrition. The first of a two-race partnership between James Hylton and Ken Ragan saw the latter finish down in twenty-third after an early spin derailed his race. Ragan was 15 laps down at the finish, as his handling was ruined by the spin. Eddie Bierschwale battled mechanical issues throughout the afternoon, coming home 19 laps down in twenty-fourth. Joe Ruttman ran well early despite a dismal qualifying effort, but severe damage suffered in the "Big One" ended any chance of a good finish. After many laps in the pits to repair his battered Buick, Ruttman returned to the track, limping home in twenty-fifth, 31 laps down. Bobby Hillin Jr. was running well until he made contact with Bill Elliott, sending both into the wall. While Hillin was able to continue, he stalled on pit road and would never recover, the damage crippling his aerodynamics. He ultimately finished in twenty-sixth, 58 laps down. Tim Richmond had the car to beat. With 123 laps led, he looked certain to claim his seventh win of the season until disaster struck. With 68 laps to go, Richmond suddenly pealed into the pits with a cracked valve. The DNF erased placed him into a hole in the points battle that he would not recover from. Ken Schrader had an uneventful day until a blown engine ended his race after 248 laps. Rick Wilson was running inside the top-10 when he blew his motor on lap 181. Shame, as he was giving the Jefferson Pilot audience quite the show with his in-car camera. After leading 5 laps under caution early on, Benny Parsons would drop out of the race after 169 laps due to an unsolvable vibration. Tommy Ellis struggled all day to keep on the pace, eventually dropping out with a blown engine after 159 laps. Morgan Shepherd had yet another solid run going with the RahMoc #75, but he was sidelined after suffering critical damage in the "Big One", eventually dropping out due to the damage after 154 laps. Shepherd actually started the wreck when he drifted up into the side of Geoff Bodine, turning himself head-on into the outside wall. Sterling Marlin usually did well on the superspeedways, but an early encounter with the wall caused him to fall well off the pace. A tire rub caused by the damage, plus a cut oil line, caused him to drop out after 139 laps. David Sosebee, son of NASCAR pioneer Gober Sosebee, made his first Winston Cup start since 1979. It didn't go very well, as Sosebee suffered cosmetic damage in the "Big One" and would eventually retire after 110 laps. For the second straight week, Richard Petty struggled with overheating issues. But unlike North Wilkesboro, where he managed a top-5 finish, Petty was forced to retire here after just 89 laps. Returning to the site of his final win one year earlier, Cale Yarborough fell down the running order until he was eliminated in the "Big One" on lap 85. Another victim of the "Big One", A.J. Foyt suffered very little damage in the wreck but decided to retire anyway to preserve his equipment for future races. This would end up being his final start of 1986. Chet Fillip suffered the worst damage in the "Big One", shattering his knee when his #81 Ford plowed into the crash. Fillip would be sidelined for the rest of the season, ending his Rookie campaign with disappointment. Delma Cowart's fourth and final start of the season ended in a shower of sparks when he was collected in the "Big One". Brad Teague spent over half the race in the pits with mechanical issues. After briefly returning to the track, the Busch Series regular would retire with a broken valve, having completed just 64 laps. Bobby Allison had managed to hold onto fourth in points for much of the season, but began to freefall in points after a vicious crash into the wall on lap 34 ended his day before it even began. Randy Baker, brother of Buddy, made his first start of the year driving a car prepared by father Buck. Randy made it just 18 laps before his fragile engine expired. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: