The Bank of America 500 is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that is hosted annually at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, United States. The race is held in the middle of October, as part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup and is 500 miles (800 km) long. Prior to 1966, the race was a 400-mile (640 km) event.
Television history
The race was shown on TBS from at least the mid-1980s to 2000. From 2002 to 2006, it was shown on NBC, and from 2007 to 2014, it was on ABC.
The 2002 race was also known for beginning a practice where, if a race broadcast on a network was running long and ran into prime-time hours, the broadcast would not switch to cable. In this case, the race began as scheduled in the early afternoon but was delayed for hours due to weather. NBC did not move the race to TNT, and broadcast the race in its entirety; the race ended early Sunday evening with Jamie McMurray winning in only his second NASCAR Winston Cup start. Since ESPN took over the rights to the race and to most of NBC and TNT's former NASCAR package, that policy has been discontinued. Starting in 2015 the race will move back to NBC, after the network signed a 10-year, $4.4 Billion dollar deal with NASCAR, NBC has the rights for the final 20 races of the season(14 of 20) from the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway and the Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, this event was on ABC for several years as part of ESPN before the departure.
The 2014 race was known for a broadcast policy that drew the ire of fans. Because of the excessive length of the Baylor-TCU ESPN College Football game, the race would be shifted to ESPNEWS. But the station was airing an NBA preseason game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that ran long into overtime. The race broadcast started on Lap 27.
From Sunday to Saturday
Thanks in large part to the ratings boost NBC received from the 2002 race being run in primetime hours, NASCAR made a decision to move the race date from Sunday afternoon to Saturday night beginning in 2003. NBC retained their rights to broadcast the race, unlike in most of the night events aired in their part of the season's contract which normally aired on TNT. With the move, then-Lowe's Motor Speedway became one of only two tracks in NASCAR to have two night dates on the schedule.
In 2005, the start was delayed by the finish to the Notre Dame-Southern California college football game which ran late. While the game was in its final minutes, NBC, the broadcaster of both events, had the race engines start and the pace laps proceed. As the pace car pulled off the track to pit road to start the race, NBC had just switched coverage from the game to the race, and the broadcast began as the field took the green flag.
Since 2010, it has been the only race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup televised by ABC, with the rest being on ESPN.
Past winners
- 1971: The race was shortened due to rain.
- 1999: Race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to rain.
- 2005 & 2007: The race was extended due to a Green-white-checker finish.
Multiple winners (drivers)
Multiple winners (teams)
Manufacturer wins
Notable Races
- 1964: Fred Lorenzen took lead with two laps to go after Richard Petty, who led 188 laps, blew a tire and crashed. Paul Goldsmith led 71 laps before blowing his engine.
- 1965: Lorenzen won for the second straight year after a wild three-abreast battle with Curtis Turner and Dick Hutcherson for first. The race was a tragic affair as a massive crash claimed the life of Harold Kite.
- 1970: Leeroy Yarbrough took what turned out to be his final Grand National win.
- 1971: Bobby Allison in the Holman-Moody Mercury battled Charlie Glotzbach, driving the Chevrolet Monte Carlo fielded by track president Richard Howard. Allison took the lead on Lap 177 and led when rain shortened the race at Lap 238. Leeroy Yarbrough drove a second Howard Chevrolet, reuniting with team manager Junior Johnson, for whom Leeroy had driven earlier that 1971 season.
- 1973: Controversies plagued the weekend. Charlie Glotzbach won the pole in Hoss Ellington's Chevrolet but NASCAR discovered a moveable restrictor plate after qualifying and put Glotzbach to the back of the field. Buddy Baker was pulled out of the race 228 laps in by team owner Nord Krauskopf when NASCAR said it wanted to reinspect the #71 Dodge after the race. David Pearson and Glotzbach crashed 40 laps in, leaving Petty, Cale Yarborough, and Bobby Allison in charge. Yarborough and Petty put Allison three laps down en route to the 1-2 finish. But following the race controversy ensued over the postrace inspection of the top three cars; Allison's Chevy cleared after one hour but six hours after the inspection NASCAR announced the results for Yarborough's #11 would receive further study, and Allison claimed to have seen Petty's team remove the air filter from the car before it could be inspected; track promoter Richard Howard threatened a lawsuit if the race results were changed. Allison claimed the top two finishers were illegal and threatened to sue NASCAR; Petty asserted only three of his engine's eight cylinders were checked; a later meeting between Allison and Bill France, Jr. settled the controversy.
- 1974: The race set an event record for lead changes at 47. David Pearson lost two laps 150 miles in but made up the deficit and surged to the win. The race was marred by ten-car crash in which Marty Robbins suffered serious facial injuries, a two-car crash involving Grant Adcox and Ramo Stott, and a pit fire in Richard Petty's pit.
- 1975: Petty took the win for a season sweep at Charlotte. The 500 was the final race for track under promotion of Richard Howard as Bruton Smith would take control of the speedway the following January.
- 1976: Donnie Allison surprised the field by winning, his first Winston Cup win since 1971 and the first for team owner Hoss Ellington. The engine measured slightly over the 358 cubic inch limit; after lengthy discussion the engine was allowed to cool down and it measured below 358 cubic inches; Ellington quipped, "This one's legal. We left all the cheater stuff at Darlington."
- 1978: Bobby Allison broke out of a competitive race to win handily. The lead changed 40 times. David Pearson won the pole, his 11th straight Charlotte pole.
- 1980: Dale Earnhardt edged Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough and solidified his point lead over Yarborough with three races to go in the season. The win was Earnhardt's fifth of his second career Winston Cup season. The weekend was dominated by controversy between Darrell Waltrip and the DiGard Racing team as Waltrip announced he was leaving the team after the season despite threats of legal action by team owners the Gardner brothers to retain him. Waltrip spun out after breaking a sway bar piece, then fell out with engine failure, angrily demanding afterward he needed to "get away from these Gardners."
- 1981: Darrell Waltrip's late-season victory surge included leading the final 61 laps of the 1981 500. Bobby Allison finished second and after leading the series in August was now trailing by 58 laps. Harry Gant led Lap 3 before his engine erupted in the first turn.
- 1982 Gant broke through to his first superspeedway win as he edged Bill Elliott in a ten-lap showdown after Bobby Allison, who led 280 laps, blew his engine. A ten-car crash erupted when Dale Earnhardt hooked Richard Petty into a spin.
- 1983: The race was marred by controversy involving an outsized engine for race winner Richard Petty as well as suspicion about runner-up Darrell Waltrip; Petty was subsequently fined $35,000 and 104 NASCAR points.
- 1985: Cale Yarborough lost a lap on five separate occasions and made them up all five times for his final NASCAR win.
- 1993: Ernie Irvan led race-record 328 laps for his second win with Robert Yates. NASCAR shaved spoiler size to five inches and raised the front airdam a few inches out of concern for escalating track speeds and believing, following driver lobbying, that reducing downforce would force drivers to slow down for the turns. The change did not reduce speeds.
- 1994: Dale Jarrett stole the win after engine failure eliminated Geoff Bodine and a late crash eliminated Ricky Rudd and Jeff Gordon; the win was Jarrett's final win with Joe Gibbs Racing.
- 1996: Terry Labonte dominated and erased a point gap of over 100 to Jeff Gordon, who fell out with engine failure. The race was marred by a brutal multicar crash involving Ernie Irvan when Irvan spun out and was center-punched by John Andretti.
- 2000: Bobby Labonte broke out of a fierce fight with Dale Earnhardt, Ricky Rudd, and Jeremy Mayfield to grab the win. The weekend was marred by a sudden shortage of tires available from Goodyear, but the race went with no problems with tires. The lead changed 46 times, the first Charlotte race to break 40 lead changes since 1988.
- 2002: Subbing for injured regular Sterling Marlin, Jamie McMurray grabbed his first win in his second career NASCAR start. A major crash erupted in the trioval and brought out a furious response from team owner Richard Childress.
External links
- Crittenden Automotive Library: Mello Yello 500
- NASCAR Banking 500 race page
- NASCAR Commentators Crews and Networks
- Ratings Drop Again, But NASCAR's Chase Hits High on ABC
Interesting Informations
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