1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500 (June)


The 1995 Miller Genuine Draft 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on June 4, 1995, at Dover Downs International Speedway in Dover, Delaware.
Souvenir programs of this race sold for a price of $10.00 per copy and featured the then-favored driver Rusty Wallace. This race would see the final race victory from a Petty family member: Kyle Petty, son of Richard Petty and grandson of Lee Petty.

Background

, now called Dover International Speedway, is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway. The NASCAR race makes use of the track's standard configuration, a four-turn short track oval that is long. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, and both the front stretch and the backstretch are banked at nine degrees.

Race report

would defeat Bobby Labonte by nearly a quarter of a second after racing for more than four hours in front of an unspecified live audience; leading Pontiac into its first victory since Penske Racing South switched to Ford vehicles. Ted Musgrave would've won this race had he not run out of gas on the backstretch on the lap he made his final pit stop. He was flying at the end when he ran down Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty from a long way back, but he just could not get by Bobby. He would have an awful season prior to this event and used it to springboard a comeback.
After the race, Petty had to be put on oxygen due to the double pneumonia that he had at the time. His victory also came at a time where Pontiac was underfunding their NASCAR teams in advance of their permanent withdrawal from NASCAR after the 2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. 1994 and 1995 were critical years for drivers using the Pontiac manufacturer as first-rate equipment started to become harder to come by.
While future superstar Jeff Gordon would clinch the pole position driving up to during solo qualifying runs, the average pace of the race was. The fan favorite, Rusty Wallace, started in an agonizing 16th place and would make an improvement of seven positions to finish in ninth place on lap 499. Almost 8% of the race was run under caution and the average green flag run was a mere 77 laps. Petty's final race in the NASCAR Cup Series would eventually signal an end to the dominance that the Petty family had in NASCAR and would cement the dominance of the Earnhardt family over the then-current NASCAR scene.
Ward Burton started on the front row and had a strong run early, leading all but one of the first 44 laps. He was still running around the top 10 when the suspension failed in his car and he slapped the turn 4 wall. No caution came out, but Burton was done for the day.
There were 20 difference changes in the first-place position of this race; with Petty holding the lead for 82 laps at one point during the event. There were 500 laps in this event which took place on a paved oval track. All of the 42 drivers on the racing grid were male and American-born. Bobby Hillin, Jr. would become the last-place finisher of this race on lap 2 along with Elton Sawyer, Dale Jarrett, and John Andretti. This was the very first race at Dover after the track was repaved, converting from black asphalt to its now famous white concrete. The switch was accompanied by a brief push to change the track's famous nickname from the "Monster Mile" to "White Lightning" but a 19-car crash on Lap 2 showed the monster still had plenty of bite in it despite its new look.
This event was known as The Big One at Dover. Kyle Petty walked away $77,665 richer while Hillin, Jr. walked away with only $12,780 more to his name. The overall winnings for this racing event were $1,031,965.

Qualifying

Failed to qualify: Doug French, Loy Allen, Jr.

Finishing order

Section reference:
  1. Kyle Petty
  2. Bobby Labonte
  3. Ted Musgrave
  4. Hut Stricklin
  5. Dale Earnhardt
  6. Jeff Gordon
  7. Sterling Marlin
  8. Michael Waltrip
  9. Rusty Wallace
  10. Joe Nemechek
  11. Ken Schrader
  12. Derrike Cope
  13. Rick Mast
  14. Mike Wallace
  15. Bill Elliott
  16. Steve Grissom
  17. Jeremy Mayfield
  18. Kenny Wallace
  19. Robert Pressley
  20. Darrell Waltrip
  21. Brett Bodine
  22. Ricky Craven
  23. Randy LaJoie
  24. Bobby Hamilton
  25. Jeff Burton
  26. Morgan Shepherd
  27. Geoff Bodine
  28. Greg Sacks
  29. Jimmy Spencer
  30. Todd Bodine
  31. Ricky Rudd
  32. Dick Trickle
  33. Chuck Bown
  34. Lake Speed
  35. Mark Martin
  36. Dave Marcis
  37. Terry Labonte
  38. Ward Burton
  39. John Andretti
  40. Dale Jarrett
  41. Elton Sawyer
  42. Bobby Hillin, Jr.

    Timeline

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