1986 Miller High Life 400

Race details
Race 2 of 29 in the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1986 Miller High Life 400 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	February 23, 1986
Official name	32nd Annual Miller High Life 400
Location	Richmond, Virginia, Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.542 mi (0.872 km)
Distance	400 laps, 216.8 mi (348.905 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 216.8 mi (348.905 km)
Average speed	71.078 miles per hour (114.389 km/h)
Attendance	30,000
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	Set by 1986 owner's points
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	299
Winner
No. 7	Kyle Petty	Wood Brothers Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1986 Miller High Life 400 was the second stock car race of the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 32nd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 23, 1986, before an audience of 30,000 in Richmond, Virginia, at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway, a 0.542 miles (0.872 km) D-shaped oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete.^[1]

In what is considered to be one of the most controversial finishes in NASCAR history, Junior Johnson & Associates' Darrell Waltrip and Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt engaged in a battle for the victory. With four laps left, Waltrip made a pass on Earnhardt in the second turn, passing him on the left. However, Waltrip did not fully clear Earnhardt by the third turn. In the third turn, Earnhardt spun out Waltrip, sending the two into a crash that included numerous other cars behind them. As a result, the next driver behind the two who managed to avoid the wreck, Wood Brothers Racing's Kyle Petty, was declared the winner in improbable fashion. The victory was Petty's first career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season. To fill out the top three, King Racing's Joe Ruttman and the aforementioned Earnhardt finished second and third, respectively.^[2][3]

Background

Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is a 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. Known as "America's premier short track", it formerly hosted a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, an IndyCar Series race, and two USAC sprint car races.

Qualifying

Qualifying was scheduled to be split into two rounds, with the first round scheduled to be held on Friday, February 21, at 3:00 PM EST, and the second round scheduled to be held on Saturday, February 22, at 11:30 AM EST. The first round would have set positions 1-20, while the second round would have set positions 21-30 for drivers who had not locked in during the first round.^[4] However, the first round was immediately cancelled due to mist.^[5] The second round was then attempted to be run, but was then also cancelled after 23 cars made runs due to rain.^[6]

As a result of qualifying being cancelled, the starting lineup was set by a rained-out procedure. Positions 1-18 were given based off the current 1986 owner's points, positions 19-20 were given to winners in the 1985 NASCAR Winston Cup Series who had not qualified by owner's points, and positions 21-30 were given to the teams who had both had their entry blanks received by NASCAR and had checked in at the NASCAR on-track check-in hauler the earliest. In addition, one provisional was given out of the maximum two allowable.^[6] As a result of this system, Hendrick Motorsports' Geoff Bodine won the pole.^[7] Four drivers failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Geoff Bodine 332 1 2 Darrell Waltrip 330 (-2) 1 3 Bobby Hillin Jr. 315 (-17) 10 4 Dale Earnhardt 301 (–31) 11 5 Kyle Petty 295 (–37) 5 6 Terry Labonte 293 (–39) 2 7 Rusty Wallace 281 (–51) 2 8 Ron Bouchard 259 (–73) 20 9 Joe Ruttman 254 (–78) 10 Lake Speed 246 (–86) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

Notes

References