|| *Comments on the 1986 Atlanta Journal 500:* View the most recent comment <#18> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Matt posted: 02.09.2006 - 3:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Earnhardt clinched his second Winston Cup title in dominating fashion. 2. myself posted: 02.16.2007 - 3:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cale's last race for Harry Ranier. Fittingly, his engine blew. They had a pretty good run together. I never could figure out how they couldn't manage to win at least one race in 86'. 3. Steve posted: 03.15.2007 - 9:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Alan Kulwicki had a tough break near Lap 250. He was coming to pit road when he realized he was still going too fast. He turned back onto the track and the car started oversteering badly. It appeared he would have a harmless spin, but the Turn 4 banking was just too steep to prevent the car from bumping the inside wall, and damaging the Quincy's Ford. Well, Alan had good luck that day. Under the caution flag, Michael Waltrip (his main Rookie of the Year rival), who either had a steering problem or was going too fast, spun into his pit stall. He hit the pit wall and got as much damage as Kulwicki did. Alan won Winston Cup rookie of the year for 1986. Bobby Allison: 675th career start (16th) Tom Bigelow: only Winston Cup start (40th) Neil Bonnett: 275th career start (6th) Richard Childress: 20th Winston Cup win as an owner Dale Earnhardt: became the first driver to win the Winston Cup in the big '70s-style cars and in the downsized cars, also his 20th career win Mike Laws: best Winston Cup finish (24th); only finish Sterling Marlin: 75th Winston Cup start (32nd) Richard Petty: best finish since his famous 200th win (2nd) Jeff Swindell: Winston Cup debut (31st) 4. Destiny posted: 08.29.2007 - 5:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First replacement are brothers switching 55 car including Benny and Phil Parsons. Benny leaves in 1986 and Phil replace his brother in 1987. Benny had his Folger's coffe sponsor while subbing with ill Tim Richmond. 5. RaceFanX posted: 01.20.2008 - 3:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Making a rare Cup appearence, ASA champion Mark Martin qualified 2nd for this race. Although he blew the engine and had to settle for 26th, the Batesville, AR driver still showed a little flash of the success that was to come... 6. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.24.2008 - 2:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Earnhardt championship count: 2 7. Ryan posted: 12.11.2008 - 4:29 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Dale laps the whole field at a 1.5 mile track, wow, amazing! 8. SK posted: 04.05.2011 - 2:06 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) the first of only two times that earnhardt and petty finished 1-2. 9. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 07.11.2014 - 11:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 15-17: #38,64 spin turn 4 Caution 2: Lap 190-193: #35 accident turn 4 10. RaceFanX posted: 03.06.2016 - 1:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sterling Marlin ends his season early with a blown engine just before the 2/3rd mark of this race. Marlin missed the prior race at Rockingham but would not miss another Cup race after this one for more than 11 years after this one until he DNQed at Atlanta in the spring of 1998. 11. Sandy posted: 03.03.2019 - 11:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Grant adcox's only DNQ that was not Daytona or Talladega 12. TheDewCrew posted: 03.13.2020 - 8:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "When you go out to kick ass, kick ass." -Dale Earnhardt 13. SweetRich posted: 03.14.2020 - 10:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators for the race were Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber. The sole pit road reporter was Jack Arute. 14. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 07.26.2020 - 6:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ESPN broadcast this race. 15. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 07.28.2020 - 3:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Dale Earnhardt officially clinched the 1986 Winston Cup title with a dominating performance, leading 162 of 328 laps and lapping the field for his fifth win of the season. Earnhardt was on cruise control for much of the afternoon after title-rival Darrell Waltrip blew his engine early in the running, gifting the title to Earnhardt. Richard Petty scored his best finish of the 1986 season in second, 1 lap down. Petty managed to stretch his fuel to the limit, using a splash-and-go stop with less than 20 laps left to put himself up into third. When Neil Bonnett ran out of fuel on the final lap, Petty pounced to grab second-place. Bill Elliott led 48 laps from the pole in the early running but would fall well off the pace on the subsequent long-run. Elliott would end up finishing a lap down in third. Tim Richmond scored his first top-5 finish since Richmond, leading 29 laps during a cycle of green-flag pitstops and finishing a lap down in fourth. Buddy Baker's strong fall run continued with a fourth-consecutive top-5 finish, coming home a lap down in fifth. Neil Bonnett managed another strong run as he finished a lap down in sixth. Bonnett led a lap under green-flag pitstops and was running in second on the final lap when he ran out of fuel, falling down the running order. Kyle Petty recovered from another brutally poor qualifying effort to finish 2 laps down in seventh, his last top-10 run of the season. Terry Labonte finally managed to get his Oldsmobile running competitively, as he ran with the leaders throughout the day and finished 2 laps down in eighth. Joe Ruttman narrowly avoided an accident on pit road with Harry Gant to finish ninth, 2 laps off the pace. Phil Parsons' final start of the season saw him nab his second-straight top-10 finish as he came home 2 laps down in tenth. Parsons qualified in thirty-ninth and was considered a non-factor prior to the race, only to charge through the field in a spirited run. For just the fifth time in 1986, Benny Parsons managed to finish a race, coming home 3 laps down in eleventh. Parsons ran up front all day long, dropping out of the top-10 late in the running due to a late pit stop. Tommy Ellis qualified dead-last but managed to recover to finish 3 laps down in twelfth. This was the final start for Ellis of 1986, and his final start as a series regular. Ellis returned to full-time Busch Series competition for 1987. Rusty Wallace ran in and around the top-10 throughout the afternoon but just wasn't able to close out the afternoon. Wallace finished 4 laps off the pace in thirteenth. Rick Wilson scored his first top-20 finish since the Talladega 500, finished 4 laps down in fourteenth. In the midst of a fierce battle for ninth in points with Harry Gant and Kyle Petty, Bobby Hillin Jr. ran a safe race, coming home 4 laps down in fifteenth. Thanks to Gant's troubles, Hillin moved within striking distance of Gant with 1 race to go. The bleeding would not stop for Bobby Allison, as he finished inside the top-20 for just the second time since Dover. Allison came home 4 laps down in sixteenth after running within the top-10 throughout the afternoon before fading late. Ken Schrader continued the consistent pace that had been customary for him throughout the season, as he finished 5 laps down in seventeenth. Alan Kulwicki came into this race with a healthy lead over Michael Waltrip in the ROTY standings. But disaster struck for Kulwicki when he spun while trying to reach pit road, hitting the inside wall pretty hard. Kulwicki toughed it out, finishing 7 laps down in eighteenth. As for the ROTY standings, Kulwicki would end up clinching the ROTY award as Waltrip had similar issues on pit road. Ken Ragan's final start of 1986 saw him team up with James Hylton's #48 team for the second time that year. Ragan would do very well in the car, finishing 9 laps down in nineteenth. Michael Waltrip had a chance to possibly take control of the ROTY points standings after Kulwicki crashed. But Waltrip would suffer a similar fate, as he spun while entering the pits and impacted the pit wall, damaging the front of his car pretty badly. Waltrip limped home to a twentieth-place finish, 12 laps off the leader. Buddy Arrington ran a solid race for his equipment, finishing 15 laps down in twenty-first. Arrington had a strong chance at this point to finish in the top-20 in points thanks to his solid string of top-20 finishes. Randy Baker's second start of the year saw him net his best finish in twenty-second, 18 laps down. Eddie Bierschwale managed to stay out of trouble for the second race in a row. His #17 Chevy was still incredibly slow, as he finished 19 laps down in twenty-third. Mike Laws scored his best career finish in his second and final career start, finishing 22 laps down in twenty-fourth after an early spin. Ricky Rudd struggled throughout the weekend with speed, eventually finishing 27 laps down in twenty-fifth after a mechanical problem struck him early in the running. ASA Champion Mark Martin shocked the Winston Cup regulars when he qualified on the outside of the front row. Martin would not stay up there long as he fell through the field after the green flag flew, eventually dropping out with engine issues after 290 laps. Morgan Shepherd led a lap during a cycle of pit stops before dropping out with a blown engine after 287 laps. Ever since joining RahMoc Enterprises full-time at Richmond, Shepherd had finished just one race. Harry Gant was probably the only driver who could've challenged Earnhardt, leading 73 laps and running inside the top-5 throughout the afternoon. An engine failure after 285 laps would keep Gant from claiming his first win of the season. A burnt clutch after 280 laps would sideline Jimmy Means, who had been having a great day running inside the top-25. Connie Saylor suffered an early spin, then was involved in a strange pit road mishap. Saylor blew a tire during a long green-flag run, crawling into the pits where he stopped short of his stall. As his crew inspected the car, they found that they couldn't lift the car off the ground to change the tire, and needed the assistance of Cale Yarborough's crew to do so. After the blown tire was removed, the team found that the lug studs had broken, forcing them to retire the car after 233 laps. Sprint car racer Jeff Swindell made his NASCAR debut in this race, driving the DiGard #10. Swindell qualified the car 11th but would succumb to a broken window that put him out of the race after 227 laps. Sterling Marlin made his final start of the year and final start for Hoss Ellington, the owner who had given him his big break in NASCAR. Marlin made it 211 laps before his engine blew, ending his year on a sour note. Dave Marcis was running well, despite a poor qualifying effort, before a broken piston put him behind the wall after 203 laps. Cale Yarborough's final start for Harry Ranier's team ended prematurely with a blown engine after 196 laps. Yarborough had won two Daytona 500's with Ranier and a handful of races. But 1986 had seen him go winless, the first time that had happened since 1972. Bobby Gerhart's first start at Atlanta was a forgetful one, as Gerhart struggled to keep up to speed and eventually dropped out with engine troubles after 168 laps. David Sosebee's second start of the year went much like the first: He was brutally slow, got in the way of faster cars, and eventually retired from the race, this time due to a broken wheel bearing after 157 laps. Rodney Combs made his final start of the season, yet again qualifying well and running inside the top-15. High oil pressure would force him to retire after 133 laps. Geoff Bodine's race was a microcosm of his 1986 season. He qualified up front, led 12 laps early, then dropped out with a blown engine after 95 laps. Pretty much every race during 1986 had gone like that for him. Darrell Waltrip had one mission: Don't lose to Earnhardt. Determined to extend the season to Riverside, Waltrip charged to the front early on, grabbing the lead for 2 laps to get those juicy bonus points. But after making his first pitstop, Waltrip suddenly slowed on track. Disaster had struck; his engine expired after just 83 laps, ending his championship hopes in the blink of an eye. USAC star Tom Bigelow made the first and only Winston Cup start of his career, driving the #99 Chevy for Ball Racing. Bigelow would struggle with his heavy stock car eventually retiring with engine failure after 58 laps. H.B. Bailey's final start of the year was uneventful, as he fell out of the race with a blown engine after just 49 laps. Ron Bouchard made his final start for Mike Curb's team amid controversy, as the two were now outwardly at odds with each other. Bouchard had a fast car, charging into the top-10 in the opening laps before his engine blew on lap 40, putting him out of the running. 16. RaceFanX posted: 07.28.2020 - 3:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mixed day for NASAR's seven-time champions. Dale Earnhardt finishes first and Richard Petty finishes second but 11-year-old Jimmie Johnson wasn't on the grid since he was still racing dirt bikes at this point. Joking aside, with Bill Elliott in third it's not often you see a race in any series with 15 championship titles among the podium finishers alone. 17. Mile501 posted: 07.28.2020 - 3:50 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty only finished 1-2 twice, in this race and the following spring at Bristol. Those were also Petty's final two 2nd-place finishes. 18. RaceFanX posted: 07.31.2020 - 3:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #02 Mark Martin- Miller American / Hribar Truck & Equipment ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: