1983 Mason-Dixon 500 - NASCAR Race
| Name of Race: | 1983 Mason-Dixon 500 |
| Name of Track: | Dover International Speedway |
| Date: | May 15th |
Dover International Speedway
Dover International Speedway is a NASCAR race track located near Dover, Delaware.
The Monster MileDover International Speedway is unusual in several respects. It is a concrete track; most NASCAR tracks are asphalt. It is co-located with a horse racing track, Dover Downs, and in fact is sometimes also referred to by this name. It is also exactly one mile long; technically this means that it is neither a superspeedway nor a short track.
The speedway is also notoriously hard on cars, and its standard nickname is The Monster Mile. The horse track is part of an extensive entertainment complex including other forms of gambling; at one time both it and the speedway were owned by the publicly-traded Dover Downs Entertainment, but they have since been split into two separate enterprises, partly at the encouragement of NASCAR.
500 Miles Is Too LongAt one time the NASCAR Cup races held here were 500 miles long until a NASCAR rules change limited 500 mile races to being held only at tracks over a mile in length; the current Nextel Cup races here are 400 miles long.
Dover also hosted Indy Racing League races in 1998 and 1999 won by Scott Sharp and Greg Ray.
Dover International Speedway OwnershipIn February 2002, Dover Downs Entertainmnet changed its name to Dover Motorsports following the spin-off of its gaming operations to its existing shareholders. As a result, the name of the track was changed from Dover Downs International Speedway to Dover International Speedway.
Dover Motorsports (formerly Dover Downs Entertainment) which owns Dover International Speedway also owns several other racing facilities, including Nashville Superspeedway. It has been suggested that one of the two current Cup races held there could be shifted to Nashville but this seems unlikely as both current Cup races at Dover are easily sold out.
The Dover ownership is one of only three publicly-held ownership groups of NASCAR tracks, the other two being International Speedway Corporation, controlled by NASCAR's founding France family and owners of the Talladega and Daytona tracks, among others, and Speedway Motorsports, Inc., led by Bruton Smith and H. A. "Humpy" Wheeler, which owns Lowe's Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, among others. Aside from these three ownership groups, NASCAR tracks are privately held by one or a few individuals.
Courtesy of Wikipedia.1983 Mason-Dixon 500 NASCAR Race Results
Below are the race results for 1983 Mason-Dixon 500, in order of finishing place.
| Fin | Driver | Num | Start | Money | Laps | Pts | Status | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bobby Allison | 22 | 10 | $28,500 | 500 | 0 | running | Miller High Life |
| 2 | Darrell Waltrip | 11 | 4 | $20,425 | 500 | 0 | running | Pepsi Challenger |
| 3 | Joe Ruttman | 98 | 1 | $13,565 | 499 | 0 | running | Levi Garrett |
| 4 | Bill Elliott | 9 | 6 | $8,655 | 498 | 0 | running | Melling Oil Pumps |
| 5 | Buddy Baker | 21 | 19 | $4,550 | 497 | 0 | running | Valvoline |
| 6 | Morgan Shepherd | 2 | 9 | $11,000 | 493 | 0 | running | ACM Equipment Sales |
| 7 | Richard Petty | 43 | 14 | $9,000 | 493 | 0 | running | STP |
| 8 | Dale Earnhardt | 15 | 17 | $10,500 | 491 | 0 | running | Wrangler |
| 9 | Harry Gant | 33 | 16 | $10,200 | 490 | 0 | running | Skoal Bandit |
| 10 | Sterling Marlin | 17 | 26 | $6,260 | 483 | 0 | running | Hesco Exhaust |
| 11 | Kyle Petty | 7 | 15 | $5,060 | 482 | 0 | running | 7-Eleven |
| 13 | Jerry Bowman | 58 | 27 | $2,000 | 468 | 0 | running | Aberdeen Travel Center |
| 15 | Dick Brooks | 90 | 18 | $4,160 | 466 | 0 | running | Chameleon Sunglasses |
| 16 | Dave Marcis | 71 | 20 | $9,100 | 457 | 0 | engine | W.H. Bolin |
| 17 | Jimmy Ingalls | 87 | 31 | $1,600 | 454 | 0 | running | Red Diamond Lines |
| 19 | Buddy Arrington | 67 | 24 | $3,540 | 436 | 0 | running | Direct Connection |
| 20 | John Callis | 96 | 36 | $1,325 | 428 | 0 | running | Gailey Excavating |
| 21 | Cecil Gordon | 24 | 34 | $1,200 | 402 | 0 | engine | Delaware Trans-Am |
| 22 | Cale Yarborough | 28 | 11 | $1,150 | 350 | 0 | heating | Hardee's |
| 24 | Ricky Rudd | 3 | 2 | $3,140 | 277 | 0 | engine | Piedmont Airlines |
| 25 | Ronnie Thomas | 41 | 21 | $1,500 | 251 | 0 | engine | Advance Auto Parts |
| 26 | Ronnie Hopkins | 26 | 23 | $975 | 244 | 0 | crash | Food Country USA |
| 27 | Tommy Gale | 64 | 25 | $2,630 | 235 | 0 | trans | Sunny King Ford & Honda |
| 28 | Neil Bonnett | 75 | 13 | $2,595 | 218 | 0 | water pump | Hodgdon |
| 29 | Benny Parsons | 55 | 12 | $900 | 190 | 0 | engine | Skoal |
| 30 | Tim Richmond | 27 | 3 | $2,636 | 104 | 0 | crash | Old Milwaukee |
| 31 | Terry Labonte | 44 | 5 | $1,850 | 97 | 0 | engine | Budweiser |
| 32 | Trevor Boys | 48 | 22 | $1,840 | 91 | 0 | engine | Palatine Auto Parts |
| 34 | Ron Bouchard | 47 | 7 | $1,820 | 60 | 0 | engine | Race Hill Farm |
| 35 | Geoffrey Bodine | 88 | 8 | $2,810 | 46 | 0 | crash | Gatorade |
