Atlanta 500

Atlanta 500

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Venue	Atlanta Motor Speedway
Corporate sponsor	The Coca-Cola Company (1981–1985) Motorcraft (1986-1993) Purolator Courier (1994–1996) PrimeStar (1997–1998) Cracker Barrel (1999-2001) MBNA (2002) Bass Pro Shops/MBNA (2003) Golden Corral (2004–2006) Kobalt (2007–2010)
First race	1960
Last race	2010
Distance	500.5 miles (805.476 km)
Laps	325
Previous names	Atlanta 500 (1960–1980) Coca-Cola 500 (1981–1985) Motorcraft 500 (1986) Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 (1987–1993) Purolator 500 (1994–1996) Primestar 500 (1997–1998) Cracker Barrel 500 (1999) Cracker Barrel Old Country Store 500 (2000–2001) MBNA America 500 (2002) Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 (2003) Golden Corral 500 (2004–2006) Kobalt Tools 500 (2007–2010)

The Atlanta 500 was a NASCAR Sprint Cup stock car race that was run each March at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia from 1960 to 2010. The race was the first of two races held at the Atlanta track every season, with the AdvoCare 500, originally the Dixie 500, being the second and run at various times (originally November, later October and currently Labor Day Weekend).

The race was 500.5 miles (805.5 km) in length. In August 2010, Atlanta Motor Speedway announced that they would no longer run the spring race, instead choosing to focus on the Labor Day weekend race at the track beginning in 2011. The end of the Atlanta 500 permitted the addition of a race at Kentucky Speedway starting in 2011.

Notable races

• 1960: The first race at Atlanta International Raceway (now Atlanta Motor Speedway) was won by Bobby Johns in a 1960 Pontiac.
• 1961: Bob Burdick led 44 laps to his only career Grand National win. Polesitter Marvin Panch led 127 laps but faded to sixth, while Fred Lorenzen led 87 laps but fell out with engine failure. Rookie Bobby Allison finished 37th.
• 1964: Lorenzen led the last 168 laps and 206 in all to a two-lap win amid an epidemic of tire failures and resultant crashes; Paul Goldsmith led the first 54 laps but blew a tire, smashed the guardrail, and flipped over.
• 1966: Jim Hurtubise led the final 58 laps to his only career Grand National win.
• 1971: A.J. Foyt outdueled Richard Petty for his fifth career win.
• 1972: Bobby Allison posted the first win for Chevrolet on a superspeedway since the 1960s, as he held off a strong challenge from Foyt and Bobby Isaac.
• 1974: Cale Yarborough grabbed the lead when David Pearson pitted under green and was trapped by an ill-timed yellow; the race was shortened to 450 miles (720 km) due to the energy crisis.
• 1975: After winning the Dixie 500 four times, Richard Petty edged Buddy Baker for his first Atlanta 500 win.
• 1976: Pearson lost a lap early and spent 225 laps getting it back before winning. Yarborough lost four laps on a green-flag stop and got three of them back to finish third.
• 1977: Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Cale Yarborough finished 1-2-3 as they combined to lead all 328 laps. Yarborough finished third after his brakes wore out and at times he had to be stopped by Richard Childress' car on pit road. Only two yellows flew.
• 1979: Buddy Baker caught a late yellow, got four tires, and won in a late sprint, his first win since 1976.
• 1980: Sophomore Dale Earnhardt took the lead with 30 to go after Cale Yarborough broke while chasing down Bobby Allison. USAC stock car racer Rusty Wallace finished a strong second. Donnie Allison crashed out of the lead with sophomore Terry Labonte in what became his final race for car owner Hoss Ellington.
• 1981: Yarborough posted his first win for car owner M.C. Anderson, but the story of the race was a loud protest by Bobby Allison over NASCAR-mandated reduction of the spoiler of his 1981 Pontiac Lemans to reduce the car's aerodynamic efficiency. Car owner Harry Ranier threatened to boycott the race but got no support in the garage area and relented to the rule change.
• 1982: After Dale Earnhardt fell out rain hit the race and Darrell Waltrip edged Richard Petty to the race-ending yellow.
• 1983: Cale Yarborough drove a backup car to victory for the second time in 1983. He'd wrecked his primary Ranier Chevy a week earlier in Rockingham and used a car that had been a show car.
• 1984: Benny Parsons posted his final win.
• 1986: Morgan Shepherd outran Dale Earnhardt for his first win in five years and the first of three wins at Atlanta.
• 1987: Dale Earnhardt fell out late and Ricky Rudd edged Parsons and Rusty Wallace for his first win on an oval bigger than one mile (1.6 km).
• 1989: Darrell Waltrip came back from nearly a lap down to win; on a mid-race yellow Waltrip was slowed by the pace car picking up the wrong leader during pitstops and was trapped barely on the lead lap. The mishap led to the implementation of a rule closing pit road when the yellow comes out; the rule was designed to stop cars from pitting before taking the yellow, which was blamed for scoring mistakes in the days of manual lap scoring.
• 1992: Bill Elliott won in unlikely fashion as a yellow trapped the entire field behind him a lap down during green flag stops in the final 30 laps.
• 1995: Jeff Gordon posted his second win of 1995 on his way to his first title.
• 1997: Dale Jarrett dominated in a race where Steve Grissom tore open a concrete wall, flipped over, and his fuel cell hit the outside wall and erupted in flame.
• 1998: Bobby Labonte took the win in a race delayed to Monday by rain and in a weekend that saw numerous driver injuries, notably Mike Skinner and Derrike Cope.
• 2000: Dale Earnhardt edged Labonte by inches after Skinner dominated the race but blew up.
• 2001: Kevin Harvick edged Gordon by inches in his first win for RCR after Earnhardt's death. Although he was assigned a different number, Harvick used the same car and team Earnhardt won with the previous year.
• 2002: Tony Stewart posted his first 500-mile (800 km) win.
• 2005: Carl Edwards slithered past Jimmie Johnson on the final lap to score his first career win and also sweeps the weekend at Atlanta.
• 2006: Bill Lester becomes the first African-American driver to race in a NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event since Willy T. Ribbs in 1986. Kasey Kahne would later on win this race and becomes the first of many wins for Kasey Kahne in 2006.
• 2007: It was the last race that the "old" racecar was run consecutively. The Car of Tomorrow would debut next week at Bristol. Also it was Mark Martin's last consecutive race that he had participated in since 1991.
• 2008: Kyle Busch won, giving Toyota their first win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It was the first time a foreign auto maker won since Jaguar in 1954. It was also Kyle's first win under the Joe Gibbs Racing banner.
• 2009: Kurt Busch dominated the race after a pit crew mistake by one of Marcos Ambrose's crewman trapped most of the cars that could challenge him a lap down.
• 2010: A scary flight by Brad Keselowski was a top story; Keselowski was spun out by the lapped car of Carl Edwards and nearly struck the fencing past the start-finish line in the final laps. This was also the last spring race at Atlanta until the track's surviving summer-autumn race was moved to March in 2015.

Past winners

Year	Date	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Race Distance		Race Time	Average Speed (mph)	Report
					Laps	Miles (km)
1960	October 30	Bobby Johns	Cotton Owens	Pontiac	334	501 (806.281)	4:36:44	108.408	Report
1961	March 26	Bob Burdick	Roy Burdick	Pontiac	334	501 (806.281)	4:02:05	124.172	Report
1962	June 10	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody	Ford	219*	328.5 (528.669)	3:13:16	101.983	Report
1963	March 17	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:50:12	130.582	Report
1964	April 5	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:46:05	134.137	Report
1965	April 11	Marvin Panch	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:52:17	129.41	Report
1966	March 27	Jim Hurtubise	Norm Nelson	Plymouth	334	501 (806.281)	3:49:02	131.247	Report
1967	April 2	Cale Yarborough	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	334	501 (806.281)	3:49:03	131.238	Report
1968	March 31	Cale Yarborough	Wood Brothers Racing	Mercury	334	501 (806.281)	3:59:24	125.564	Report
1969	March 30	Cale Yarborough	Wood Brothers Racing	Mercury	334	501 (806.281)	3:46:10	132.191	Report
1970	March 29	Bobby Allison	Mario Rossi	Dodge	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:34:38	139.554	Report
1971	April 4	A.J. Foyt	Wood Brothers Racing	Mercury	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:42:16	131.375	Report
1972	March 26	Bobby Allison	Richard Howard	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:53:37	128.214	Report
1973	April 1	David Pearson	Wood Brothers Racing	Mercury	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:34:52	139.351	Report
1974	March 24	Cale Yarborough	Richard Howard	Chevrolet	296*	450.512 (725.028)	3:01:26	136.91	Report
1975	March 23	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Dodge	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:44:06	133.496	Report
1976	March 21	David Pearson	Wood Brothers Racing	Mercury	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:52:16	128.904	Report
1977	March 20	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Dodge	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:27:51	144.093	Report
1978	March 19	Bobby Allison	Bud Moore Engineering	Ford	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:30:10	142.52	Report
1979	March 18	Buddy Baker	Ranier-Lundy	Oldsmobile	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:41:47	135.136	Report
1980	March 16	Dale Earnhardt	Rod Osterlund Racing	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:42:32	134.808	Report
1981	March 15	Cale Yarborough	M.C. Anderson Racing	Buick	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:44:10	133.619	Report
1982	March 21	Darrell Waltrip	Junior Johnson & Associates	Buick	287*	436.82 (702.993)	3:29:58	124.824	Report
1983	March 27	Cale Yarborough	Ranier-Lundy	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	4:01:27	124.055	Report
1984	March 18	Benny Parsons	Johnny Hayes	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:26:39	144.945	Report
1985	March 17	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing	Ford	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:33:32	140.273	Report
1986	March 16	Morgan Shepherd	Race Hill Farm Team	Buick	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:46:41	132.126	Report
1987	March 15	Ricky Rudd	Bud Moore Engineering	Ford	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:44:02	133.689	Report
1988	March 20	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:37:42	137.588	Report
1989	March 19	Darrell Waltrip	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:34:26	139.684	Report
1990	March 18	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:10:58	156.849	Report
1991	March 17/18*	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:33:14	140.47	Report
1992	March 15	Bill Elliott	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:22:44	147.746	Report
1993	March 20*	Morgan Shepherd	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:17:26	150.442	Report
1994	March 13	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:24:58	146.136	Report
1995	March 12	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:19:32	150.115	Report
1996	March 10	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:05:42	161.298	Report
1997*	March 9	Dale Jarrett	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	328	499.216 (803.41)	3:45:40	132.731	Report
1998	March 9*	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing	Pontiac	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:35:16	139.501	Report
1999	March 14	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:29:35	143.284	Report
2000	March 12	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:47:55	131.759	Report
2001	March 11	Kevin Harvick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:29:36	143.273	Report
2002	March 10	Tony Stewart	Joe Gibbs Racing	Pontiac	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:22:18	148.443	Report
2003	March 9	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing	Chevrolet	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:25:37	146.048	Report
2004	March 14	Dale Earnhardt, Jr.	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.	Chevrolet	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:09:15	158.679	Report
2005	March 20	Carl Edwards	Roush Racing	Ford	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:29:18	143.478	Report
2006	March 20*	Kasey Kahne	Evernham Motorsports	Dodge	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:28:24	144.098	Report
2007	March 18	Jimmie Johnson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:16:23	152.915	Report
2008	March 9	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	325	500.5 (805.476)	3:33:01	140.975	Report
2009	March 8	Kurt Busch	Penske Racing	Dodge	330*	508.2 (817.868)	3:59:01	127.573	Report
2010	March 7	Kurt Busch	Penske Racing	Dodge	341*	525.14 (845.13)	3:59:59	131.294	Report

• 1962 & 1982: Race shortened due to rain.
• 1974: Race shortened due to energy crisis.
• 1991: Race started on Sunday but was finished on Monday due to rain.
• 1993: Race postponed one week due to snow from Blizzard of '93.
• 1997: Last race on an old layout.
• 1998 & 2006: Race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to rain.
• 2009 & 2010: Race extended due to a green–white–checker finish. 2010 race took 2 attempts.

Multiple winners (drivers)

# Wins	Driver	Years Won
6	Cale Yarborough	1967, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1981, 1983
5	Dale Earnhardt	1980, 1988, 1990, 1996, 2000
3	Fred Lorenzen	1962, 1963, 1964
	Bobby Allison	1970, 1972, 1978
2	David Pearson	1973, 1976
	Richard Petty	1975, 1977
	Darrell Waltrip	1982, 1989
	Bill Elliott	1985, 1992
	Morgan Shepherd	1986, 1993
	Jeff Gordon	1995, 1999
	Bobby Labonte	1998, 2003
	Kurt Busch	2009, 2010

Manufacturers wins

# Wins	Manufacturer	Years Won
17	Chevrolet	1972, 1974, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007
13	Ford	1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1978, 1985, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1997, 2005
6	Dodge	1970, 1975, 1977, 2006, 2009, 2010
5	Mercury	1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976
4	Pontiac	1960, 1961, 1998, 2002
3	Buick	1981, 1982, 1986
1	Plymouth	1966
	Oldsmobile	1979
	Toyota	2008

Television broadcasters

Year	Network	Lap-by-lap	Color commentator(s)
1964	CBS
1969	ABC	Bill Flemming	Chris Economaki
1971
1972		Keith Jackson
1973
1975			Jackie Stewart
1976			Chris Economaki
1977
1978		Al Michaels	Jackie Stewart
1979			Chris Economaki
1980			Jackie Stewart
1981		Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki
1982			Jackie Stewart
1983
1984			Sam Posey
1985
1986		Jim Lampley
1987
1988		Keith Jackson	Jerry Punch
1989		Paul Page	Benny Parsons Bobby Unser
1990
1991
1992
1993	TNN	Mike Joy	Buddy Baker Neil Bonnett
1994	ABC	Bob Jenkins	Benny Parsons
1995
1996
1997
1998	ESPN ABC		Benny Parsons(ESPN/ABC) Ned Jarrett(ESPN)
1999	ABC		Benny Parsons
2000			Benny Parsons Ray Evernham
2001	Fox	Mike Joy	Darrell Waltrip Larry McReynolds
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006	Fox FX*
2007	Fox
2008
2009
2010

Notes

• 2006* - Race rained out, so it moved to FX (as well as some Fox affiliates) for Monday.
• The 1991 race was rained out after 51 laps on Sunday, ran the next day, but ABC decided not to televise the remainder of the race. No other network bothered to show the remainder of the race, leaving the race untelevised. To date it is the last untelevised Cup race.
• ABC was originally scheduled to televise the 1993 race on March 14, but the Storm of the Century had it postponed a week. ABC bailed out, so a frozen TNN crew stepped in to show the race, in trade they gave up the Busch Series race they were going to show on that weekend to ESPN.
• The 1998 race was initially going to be broadcast on ABC before being postponed from March 8. Also Ned Jarrett stepped in to call the race with Bob Jenkins and Benny Parsons on Monday after the race had been postponed from Sunday.