The 1986 Goodwrench 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on March 2, 1986, at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina. A souvenir program of this race was handed out to the spectators at a cost of $5 USD per copy. A companion race known as the ProTecta Truck Bed Liner 200 was done the previous day while a pit crew challenge was done the morning before the companion race. Pit crew members had to put tires and fuel on the vehicle in the fastest time possible in order to win a championship. This race was of the few competitive races that Richard Petty had later in his career.
Race report
It took four hours and nine minutes to resolve 492 laps of racing on a paved track spanning. The race started at noon and ended approximately at 4:09 P.M.. Terry Labonte defeated Harry Gant by a time of 0.63 seconds in front of 47,500 live spectators with his 1986 Oldsmobile Delta 88 machine; becoming the first front-wheel drive vehicle to win a NASCAR Cup Series racing event. His win was made possible thanks to co-crew chiefs Steve Hmiel, Bob Labonte and Peter Wright. It would also be the first Cup win for something other than a Ford or Chevy since Richard Petty's Pontiac went to victory lane in the July 4, 1984, Firecracker 400 at Daytona. This would count as the first win for an Oldsmobile since Buddy Baker at the 1980 Talladega race. Labonte would earn $44,550 in prize winnings for this race. Nine cautions slowed the race for 50 laps; the average speed of the race was. Labonte would earn the pole position with a qualifying speed of. Kirk Bryant and Newsom tangled. Hillin got lost in the smoke and plowed into Newsom during the first 50 laps of the race. Only Kirk Bryant managed to finish the race in 18th place while Hillin and Newsom were knocked out of the race due to inflicting terminal damage to their vehicles. Qualifying time for this race ranged from 25 seconds to 27 seconds. Drivers who failed to qualify for the race were Brad Heath, Mike Potter and Jerry Holden. Out of the 40-driver grid; Trevor Boys was the only Canadian driver in an otherwise all-American grid. Rick Newsom would acquire the last-place finish due to a crash on lap 39. Earle Canavan would retire from NASCAR after this race; but not before making two abortive attempts at re-igniting his top-level stock car racing career at the 1986 Valleydale 500 and at the 1986 First Union 400. Darrell Waltrip would also take the points lead away from Geoff Bodine after this race. The increased fuel efficiency of the Oldsmobile vehicle driven by Labonte allowed him to spend less time on pit road due to the fact that his car was an apparently a car that predominantly used its rear wheels rather than its front wheels. Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.
