1977 Mason-Dixon 500 - NASCAR Race

Name of Race:	1977 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 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.

1977 Mason-Dixon 500 NASCAR Race Results

Below are the race results for 1977 Mason-Dixon 500, in order of finishing place.

Fin	Driver	Num	Start	Money	Laps	Status	Sponsor
1	Cale Yarborough	11	6	$17,175	500	running	Holly Farms
2	David Pearson	21	4	$9,600	500	running	Purolator
3	Richard Petty	43	1	$9,830	499	running	STP
4	Darrell Waltrip	88	3	$7,870	496	running	Gatorade
5	Dick Brooks	90	8	$5,250	496	running	Truxmore
6	Benny Parsons	72	2	$6,590	495	running	1st National City Travelers Checks
7	Lennie Pond	54	11	$4,000	494	running	Ronnie Elder
8	Bobby Allison	12	5	$3,280	493	running	1st National City Travelers Checks
9	Buddy Baker	15	7	$5,620	490	running	Norris Industries
10	Morgan Shepherd	84	10	$1,700	486	running	Ridge Plumbing
11	Buddy Arrington	67	24	$3,120	482	running	Hickory Garage
12	Cecil Gordon	24	25	$2,960	480	running	Transmissions Unlimited
17	Skip Manning	92	9	$3,135	469	running	1st National City Travelers Checks
18	Tommy Gale	64	23	$1,900	454	running	Sunny King
19	Ferrel Harris	25	33	$1,640	449	running	Don Robertson
21	Richard Childress	3	19	$1,420	389	water pump	Kansas Jack
23	Earle Canavan	1	28	$725	313	trans	Earle Canavan
25	Earl Brooks	33	34	$675	274	engine	Smith Auto Parts
27	Ricky Rudd	22	20	$1,125	190	oil pump	Al Rudd Auto Parts
31	Elmo Langley	95	36	$540	119	engine	Miller Roofing
32	Henley Gray	19	31	$1,030	97	suspension	Belden Asphalt
33	James Hylton	48	13	$1,020	82	engine	Hylton Engineering
34	Dean Dalton	7	27	$510	40	clutch	Dean Dalton
35	Bruce Hill	47	17	$500	34	engine	t. edwards