1984 Busch 500 - NASCAR Race
| Name of Race: | 1984 Busch 500 |
| Name of Track: | Bristol Motor Speedway |
| Date: | August 25th |
Bristol Motor Speedway could very easily have opened in 1961 under a different name. The first proposed site for the speedway was in Piney Flats but, according to Carl Moore, who built the track along with Larry Carrier and R.G. Pope, the idea met local opposition. So the track that could have been called Piney Flats International Speedway, was built five miles down the road on Highway 11-E in Bristol.
A Smaller Charlotte Motor SpeedwayThe land, upon which Bristol Motor Speedway is built, used to be a dairy farm. Larry Carrier and Carl Moore traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 to watch a race and it was then that they decided to build a speedway in northeast Tennessee. However, they wanted a smaller model of CMS, something with a more intimate setting and opted to erect a half-mile facility instead of mirroring the 1.5-mile track in Charlotte.
Work began on what was then called Bristol International Speedway in 1960 and it took approximately one year to finish. Carrier, Moore and Pope scratched many ideas for the track on envelopes and brown paper bags.
Purchase of the land on which Bristol Motor Speedway now sits, as well as initial construction of the track, cost approximately $600,000. The entire layout for Bristol Motor Speedway covered 100 acres and provided parking for more than 12,000 cars. The track itself was a perfect half-mile, measuring 60 feet wide on the straightaways, 75 feet wide in the turns and the turns were banked at 22 degrees.
See Wikipedia for more info.
1984 Busch 500 NASCAR Race Results
Below are the race results for 1984 Busch 500, in order of finishing place.
| Fin | Driver | Num | Start | Money | Laps | Pts | Status | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terry Labonte | 44 | 6 | $28,480 | 500 | 0 | running | Piedmont Airlines |
| 2 | Bobby Allison | 22 | 15 | $22,475 | 500 | 0 | running | Miller High Life |
| 3 | Dick Brooks | 90 | 26 | $11,930 | 498 | 0 | running | Chameleon Sunglasses |
| 4 | Dave Marcis | 75 | 11 | $11,300 | 494 | 0 | running | RahMoc Enterprises |
| 5 | Harry Gant | 33 | 2 | $6,910 | 494 | 0 | running | Skoal Bandit |
| 6 | Bill Elliott | 9 | 3 | $8,200 | 491 | 0 | running | Coors |
| 7 | Mike Alexander | 71 | 14 | $5,150 | 485 | 0 | running | Action Vans |
| 8 | Sterling Marlin | 95 | 22 | $3,250 | 484 | 0 | running | Sadler Racing |
| 9 | Greg Sacks | 51 | 13 | $2,550 | 480 | 0 | running | Sacks & Sons |
| 10 | Dale Earnhardt | 3 | 9 | $7,800 | 478 | 0 | running | Wrangler Jeans |
| 11 | Tommy Gale | 64 | 30 | $4,280 | 475 | 0 | running | Sunny King Ford & Honda |
| 13 | Buddy Arrington | 67 | 25 | $3,860 | 468 | 0 | running | Arrington Racing |
| 14 | Ron Bouchard | 47 | 17 | $3,650 | 464 | 0 | running | Race Hill Farm |
| 15 | Clark Dwyer | 6 | 29 | $3,940 | 459 | 0 | running | U.S. Racing |
| 16 | Ricky Rudd | 15 | 7 | $7,850 | 442 | 0 | rear end | Wrangler Jeans |
| 17 | Richard Petty | 43 | 19 | $3,180 | 440 | 0 | running | STP |
| 18 | Trevor Boys | 48 | 28 | $2,840 | 439 | 0 | running | Hylton-McCaig |
| 19 | Morgan Shepherd | 17 | 10 | $2,780 | 437 | 0 | running | Hesco Exhaust Systems |
| 20 | Rusty Wallace | 88 | 18 | $3,020 | 436 | 0 | running | Gatorade |
| 21 | Darrell Waltrip | 11 | 5 | $8,730 | 413 | 0 | running | Budweiser |
| 22 | Geoffrey Bodine | 5 | 1 | $7,710 | 395 | 0 | rear end | Northwestern Security Life |
| 23 | Neil Bonnett | 12 | 4 | $1,650 | 368 | 0 | crash | Budweiser |
| 24 | Kyle Petty | 7 | 24 | $8,470 | 318 | 0 | running | 7-Eleven |
| 25 | Tim Richmond | 27 | 2 | $6,750 | 274 | 0 | crash | Old Milwaukee |
| 26 | Phil Parsons | 66 | 23 | $930 | 253 | 0 | crash | Skoal Bandit |
| 27 | Ronnie Thomas | 41 | 21 | $1,910 | 237 | 0 | ignition | Motorsports Design |
| 28 | Tommy Ellis | 4 | 8 | $890 | 224 | 0 | brakes | Morrell Datsun |
| 29 | Joe Ruttman | 98 | 15 | $1,870 | 113 | 0 | crash | Levi Garrett |


