1978 Mason-Dixon 500 - NASCAR Race

Name of Race:	1978 Mason-Dixon 500
Name of Track:	Dover International Speedway
Date:	May 21st

Dover International Speedway

Dover International Speedway is a NASCAR race track located near Dover, Delaware.

The Monster Mile

Dover 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 Long

At 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 Ownership

In 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.

1978 Mason-Dixon 500 NASCAR Race Results

Below are the race results for 1978 Mason-Dixon 500, in order of finishing place.

Fin	Driver	Num	Start	Money	Laps	Status	Sponsor
1	David Pearson	21	3	$16,600	500	running	Purolator
2	Cale Yarborough	11	5	$15,100	500	running	1st National City Travelers Checks
3	Lennie Pond	54	4	$8,200	499	running	W.I.N.
4	Benny Parsons	72	2	$8,000	498	running	1st National City Travelers Checks
5	Neil Bonnett	5	10	$6,500	497	running	Armor All
6	Darrell Waltrip	88	7	$6,200	497	running	Gatorade
7	Richard Petty	43	15	$5,700	494	running	STP
8	Bobby Allison	15	9	$5,600	493	running	Norris Industries
9	Dick Brooks	90	13	$3,800	492	running	Truxmore
10	Al Holbert	48	14	$3,430	492	running	Southland Industries
12	Skip Manning	92	16	$2,960	486	running	Stratagraph
13	Buddy Arrington	67	21	$2,765	485	running	Reid Trailer Sales
15	Dave Marcis	2	6	$2,005	480	running	Shoney's
18	Tommy Gale	64	23	$1,900	470	running	Sunny King Ford & Honda
19	Bruce Hill	5	8	$1,000	456	oil pump	Bearfinder
20	Earle Canavan	1	22	$900	448	running	Earle Canavan
23	Buddy Baker	27	1	$1,845	363	engine	M.C. Anderson
25	Cecil Gordon	24	33	$1,275	324	running	Transmissions Unlimited
29	Greg Heller	85	39	$575	250	heating	Triangle Springs
31	Roger Hamby	17	20	$1,040	201	clutch	Hamby-Ellis
32	Ronnie Thomas	25	26	$1,030	75	engine	Louise Smith
33	Richard Childress	3	11	$1,120	64	engine	Kansas Jack
36	Bill Hollar	29	37	$490	14	trans	Bill Hollar
37	Elmo Langley	19	24	$480	5	engine	Henley Gray
40	Dave Dion	28	28	$450	0	engine	Dave Dion