1987 Goody's 500

The 1987 Goody's 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that occurred on September 27, 1987, at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia.

Background

Martinsville Speedway is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races.^[3] The standard track at Martinsville Speedway is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.526 miles (0.847 km) long.^[4] The track's turns are banked at eleven degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at zero degrees. The back stretch also has a zero degree banking.^[4]

Summary

There were 31 American-born drivers on the starting grid; Buddy Baker was credited with the last-place finish due to an issue with his brakes on lap 39 (of 500).^[2] Bonnett would break his wrists during this race but kept on racing as nobody was eliminated from the race yet during lap 40. Most of the drivers who failed to finish the race had problems with either crashing into other drivers, their engine, or with overheating.^[5] Former NASCAR driver Bryan Baker attempted to qualify for the field but failed to make it; this race would have been his Winston Cup Series debut had he qualified. His only professional stock car racing event came at the 1986 Delaware 500.

During the closing laps of the race, a closely packed racing trio (consisting of Earnhardt, Labonte and Waltrip) would constantly bang on each other for the chance to finish the race as the winner.^[6] Those three drivers raced in a similar manner to current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson.^[6] Geoffrey Bodine would clinch the pole position for this race with an incredible qualifying run of 91.218 miles per hour (146.801 km/h).^[2] Darrell Waltrip managed to "intimidate" Dale Earnhardt by being nearly two seconds faster than him.^[2] Waltrip became a father just ten days prior to the race with the birth of his oldest daughter Jessica Leigh. This is similar to current drivers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon winning races after the births of their respective daughters (Genevieve Marie for Johnson and Ella Sofia for Jeff Gordon).

Other notable drivers in this race were Terry Labonte, Neil Bonnett, Alan Kulwicki, Bill Elliott and Michael Waltrip.^[2] Forty-four thousand fans would see almost three and a half hours of racing with eight caution flags being handed out for a staggering 35 laps.^[2] Darrell Waltrip's oldest daughter Jessica would be born just 10 days prior to this race.^[7] Both Richard Petty and his son Kyle participated in this racing event.^[2] Waltrip would earn $43,830 out of the prize purse ($91,447.30 when adjusted for inflation) while last-place finisher Baker would acquire a meager $1,160 ($2,420.23 when adjusted for inflation).^[5]

Finishing order

* Driver failed to finish race

Standings after the race

References