Notable Races
- 1971: Controversy dogged Richard Petty's win as he lost his gas cap (dry-brake fuel couplers were not mandated until 1974) during the race but was not black flagged; there had been incidents of drivers flagged to get gas caps under green.
- 1973: David Pearson won his first short track race since 1971, driving the Wood Brothers Mercury.
- 1976: Darrell Waltrip took the win, the first for the DiGard Motorsports Chevrolet under Gatorade sponsorship.
- 1979: Richard Petty posted his first win in a Chevrolet and first short track win since 1975.
- 1981: Morgan Shepherd stunned the field with his first career Winston Cup win.
- 1982: After nearly a dozen second-place finishes, Harry Gant pulled down his first win.
- 1984: Geoff Bodine edged Ron Bouchard for the win, the first for Bodine and the first for Hendrick Motorsports; it was also the first for crew chief Harry Hyde since 1977.
- 1986: Ricky Rudd won a race where wrecks and blown engines put the entire field behind him at least one lap down.
- 1989: Darrell Waltrip won, the final win for Chevrolet's bubble-glassed Monte Carlo racecar; the Monte Carlo was replaced by the Lumina.
- 1990: Geoff Bodine posted his first win with Junior Johnson.
- 1997: Jeff Gordon edged Bobby Hamilton for the win, ending a four-race win streak in the Virginia 500 by Rusty Wallace.
- 1998: Bobby Hamilton drove the Morgan-McClure Motorsports Chevrolet to the win; he engaged in several bouts of multilap drag-racing with John Andretti, driving the Petty Enterprises Pontiac that Hamilton had driven the previous three seasons.
- 1999: John Andretti lost a lap after being tagged by Ward Burton; he made up the lap and ran down Jeff Burton; in the final ten laps he and Burton raced nose to nose for several laps before Andretti rallied to the win, his first for Petty Enterprises, the 200th short track win for the team, and the first for the team since 1997.
- 2002: Bobby Labonte posted his first career short track win.
- 2004: Rusty Wallace posted his final Nextel Cup win.
- 2010: Denny Hamlin stormed four-abreast through traffic on a late restart to steal the win.
- 2012: Ryan Newman stormed to the checkered flag because of the wreck that happened before. Clint Bowyer hit both Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon during the first attempt. Ryan held off A.J. Allmendinger on the second attempt to win the Goody's Fast Relief 500.
Read more about this topic: Goody's Fast Relief 500
Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or races:
“Every notable advance in technique or organization has to be paid for, and in most cases the debit is more or less equivalent to the credit. Except of course when it’s more than equivalent, as it has been with universal education, for example, or wireless, or these damned aeroplanes. In which case, of course, your progress is a step backwards and downwards.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“The so called white races are really pinko-grey.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)