1995 Goodwrench 500

Race details
Race 2 of 31 in the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1995 Goodwrench 500 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	February 26, 1995
Official name	30th Annual Goodwrench 500
Location	Rockingham, North Carolina, North Carolina Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.017 mi (1.637 km)
Distance	492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km)
Scheduled Distance	492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km)
Average speed	125.305 miles per hour (201.659 km/h)
Attendance	59,000
Pole position
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	23.228
Most laps led
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	329
Winner
No. 24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	TNN
Announcers	Mike Joy, Buddy Baker, Dick Berggren
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1995 Goodwrench 500 was the second stock car race of the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 30th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 26, 1995, in Rockingham, North Carolina, at North Carolina Motor Speedway, a 1.017 miles (1.637 km) permanent high-banked racetrack. The race took the scheduled 393 laps to complete. At race's end, Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon would manage to dominate a majority of the race to take his third career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. ^{[1] [2]} To fill out the top three, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Bobby Labonte and Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

North Carolina Speedway was opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School. ^[3]

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, February 24, at 2:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, February 25, at 11:30 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-38 would be decided on time, ^[4] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to four provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.

Jeff Gordon, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 23.228 and an average speed of 157.620 miles per hour (253.665 km/h) in the first round. ^[5]

Five drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

References