Running events at night has become quite commonplace for a number of NASCAR tracks over the last several years. However, true followers of the sport immediately recognize The Night Race as Bristol Motor Speedway's incomparable August Sprint Cup happening.
NASCAR's most popular event celebrates its 30th anniversary with the running of the Sharpie 500 Aug. 23. The 2008 version of The Night Race also just happens to be the 53rd consecutive sellout at The World's Fastest Half-Mile.
With a crowd of 30,000 in the grandstands, Bristol Motor Speedway lit up the .533 oval for the first time on Aug. 26, 1978. At that time, only one other track, Nashville, had hosted a race for the sport's top division at night.
When the green flag dropped on the Volunteer 500 that evening, no one had any idea that the foundation was being laid for what now is widely recognized as NASCAR's most popular event.
Cale Yarborough and his Oldsmobile took the checkered flag that night, the first and only time an Olds won at Bristol. Not only did he win, he did so in overwhelming fashion, beating runner-up Benny Parson to the finish line by nearly a lap.
That was the beginning of what has become a truly unique experience for spectators and drivers alike. Nearly 160,000 fans packed around a bowl-shaped stadium with grandstands towering 21 stories high underneath the stars. Forty-three cars on a .533-mile oval, each aggressively fighting for running room on a 43-foot wide, steeply banked concrete surface.
Over the last three decades The Night Race has been a difficult event for any driver to consistently master. Fifteen drivers have won at night at BMS but only seven are active.
Darrell Waltrip is the king of racing under the lights at Bristol. Seven of Waltrip's record 12 wins at BMS came at night and he is the only driver to win three straight --- 1981 through 1983. Second on the list is Dale Earnhardt who had nine wins at Bristol with four of them coming in the August event. Earnhardt won three in a four-race stretch, including back-to-back wins in 1987 and ‘88.
Only one other driver has consecutive night race wins at BMS -- Matt Kenseth, the winner of the 2005 and 2006 Sharpie 500s.
Other drivers with night race wins at Bristol are Rusty Wallace (three), Terry Labonte, Mark Martin and Yarborough (two each) and Alan Kulwicki, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett, Tony Stewart, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards (one each).
The closest finish under the lights? That honor goes to the infamous 1995 event, won by Terry Labonte. Labonte, who tangled with Dale Earnhardt in the waning moments of the race, eventually nipped him by .100 second. A close second is the 1997 duel that saw Dale Jarrett edge Mark Martin by .102 second.
Other notes from The Night Race: Junior Johnson and Jack Roush each have six wins to lead the way in car owner victories; Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 15 wins under the stars; Jeff Gordon and Mark Martin have three poles apiece in August races to top that category, but Gordon is the only one to be fastest qualifier three straight times (2002-2004).
The sold-out Sharpie 500 takes the green flag Saturday night at 8 p.m.
