The 1976 Riverside 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on June 13, 1976, at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California. The California 150 for sportsman cars was run prior to this race. The winner was Ivan Baldwin followed by Dan Clark and Jim Sanderson. Most of the vehicles that raced in this event had Chevrolet as their manufacturer. Roy Smith was the only Canadian competitor out of the 35-driver grid; the rest of them were American-born males. This was the first Riverside race whose distance was measured in kilometers instead of miles. From the driver's standpoint, it sure beat the 400-and-500 mile marathons that they had endured for so many years.
Background
Riverside International Raceway was a race track or road course in Moreno Valley, California. The track was in operation from September 22, 1957, to July 2, 1989. The original course design proved to be dangerous, and it was partially reconfigured in 1969.
Race report
The five drivers that dominated the 1976 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season were David Pearson, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, Benny Parsons and Bobby Allison. Pearson's qualifying speed of would earn him the pole position while the average speed of the actual race was. Richard Petty would become proficient on turn 6 throughout the race; despite ending the race outside of the "top five." Junie Donlavey's #90 Truxmore Ford team and driver Dick Brooks missed this race because they were in France competing in the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans the same weekend. The team became the first, and only, Winston Cup team ever to enter the 24-hour classic but Brooks, retired NASCAR racer Dick Hutcherson, and French local Marcel Mignot were sidelined during the first half of the race by a gearbox failure. Hershel McGriff also missed this race to enter his NASCAR Winston West team at Le Mans partnered with his son Doug McGriff. His Olympia Beer Dodge Charger blew an engine right after the start of the race. David Pearson managed to defeat Bobby Allison by a time of 1.6 seconds in front of 29,500 people. The race took two hours and twenty minutes to complete; with the event's only caution flag lasting for a duration of four laps. The victor would take home $15,150 in winnings while last-place paid a meager $665. Ron Esau would acquire the last-place finish due to a clutch problem on lap 6 out of the 95 that made up the regulation length of the course. Safe driving habits and remarkable efforts with keeping the oil products away from the track helped to keep most of the race under the green flag. John Dineen and Ernie Stierly would make their NASCAR Cup Series debut at this racing event. Final NASCAR appearances by Jim Danielson, Bill Polich, and Don Reynolds were also memorable moments from this racing event. Notable crew chiefs on attendance for this race included Richard Elder, Jake Elder, Dale Inman, Travis Carter, Bud Moore and Len Wood. A little-known fact was that Darrell Waltrip was listed down as a resident of Daytona Beach, Florida for the purpose of tracking the starting grid instead of using his hometown of Owensboro, Kentucky. A race that Waltrip would end up winning later in his career would have him as listed as a resident Franklin, Tennessee - which is located exactly to the south of Owensboro.
