1976 Delaware 500 - NASCAR Race

Name of Race:	1976 Delaware 500
Name of Track:	Dover International Speedway
Date:	September 19th

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.

1976 Delaware 500 NASCAR Race Results

Below are the race results for 1976 Delaware 500, in order of finishing place.

Fin	Driver	Num	Start	Money	Laps	Status	Sponsor
1	Cale Yarborough	11	1	$18,075	500	running	Holly Farms
2	Richard Petty	43	2	$14,990	500	running	STP
3	David Pearson	21	5	$7,620	498	running	Purolator
4	Bobby Allison	2	7	$7,285	496	running	CAM 2
5	Buddy Baker	15	4	$6,525	493	running	Norris Industries
6	Dick Brooks	90	8	$4,555	491	running	Truxmore
9	James Hylton	48	25	$3,295	474	running	Hylton Engineering
10	Buddy Arrington	67	26	$3,135	474	running	Buddy Arrington
12	Skip Manning	92	32	$2,085	471	running	Stratagraph
13	Henley Gray	19	21	$1,460	463	running	Belden Asphalt
14	Dave Marcis	71	6	$4,540	460	engine	K & K Insurance
16	Walter Ballard	45	34	$1,235	454	running	Baxter Price
19	Jack Donohue	7	28	$1,035	444	running	Dean Dalton
20	Richard Childress	3	18	$1,635	442	running	Kansas Jack
21	Tommy Ellis	10	31	$1,335	429	running	Bill Champion
24	Earle Canavan	1	29	$735	396	running	Benihana
25	Tommy Gale	64	30	$1,210	391	running	Elmo Langley
26	Benny Parsons	72	9	$3,710	384	running	1st National City Travelers Checks
28	Bruce Jacobi	63	35	$635	271	heating	Ressler
31	Darrell Waltrip	88	3	$3,675	202	engine	Gatorade
32	Terry Bivins	30	16	$1,065	202	engine	Ballard Racing
33	Janet Guthrie	68	11	$555	167	engine	Kelly Girl
34	Lennie Pond	54	10	$1,070	144	engine	Pepsi-Cola
35	Cecil Gordon	24	12	$1,035	77	engine	Cecil Gordon
36	Bruce Hill	47	17	$1,025	18	engine	Bruce Hill