1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Season: Earnhardt's Second Title and Richmond's Run

Dale Earnhardt won his second NASCAR Cup championship in 1986 and clinched the title at Atlanta with one race still to run. It was a season of heated finishes and close battles, and the second half belonged to Tim Richmond, whose wins at tracks across the calendar kept the title race open until the end.

Who won the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup championship?

Earnhardt sealed the 1986 title in Atlanta on November 2, leaving only the Riverside finale to run. The title race was closer than it looked, because Waltrip and Richmond were both chasing him in the standings. Alan Kulwicki was named the year's rookie.

Darrell Waltrip finished fourth at Riverside and secured second place in the standings, six points ahead of Tim Richmond. Richmond had won the finale itself, which made the final weeks very tight for the drivers at the top of the table. The points table reflected that closeness.

Kulwicki's rookie title came despite a difficult start. He skipped six races, yet his top-ten finishes were enough to beat Michael Waltrip, who ran a full schedule.

Earnhardt's second title came with a race to spare, while Tim Richmond's summer surge kept the points race alive.

How did the 1986 season open at Daytona?

The Busch Clash, an invitational event for the previous season's pole winners, opened the year on February 9, when Harry Gant drew the pole and only eight drivers ran. The 7-Eleven Twin 125s followed on February 13, with Bill Elliott and Geoff Bodine taking the poles for the two qualifiers.

Geoff Bodine won the 1986 Daytona 500, while Dale Earnhardt ran out of fuel with three laps to go and then blew his engine on the restart. He finished 14th, the first in a long line of Daytona heartbreakers for him.

Earnhardt's fuel problem became one of the defining moments of the race, and it set the tone for a season in which his luck often turned on small mechanical details.

Why was the 1986 Miller High Life 400 at Richmond so controversial?

Kyle Petty won the Miller High Life 400 at Richmond on February 23 for his first career Winston Cup victory. The finish is widely considered one of the most controversial in NASCAR history, and it came after a long fight between Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip.

In the final five laps, Waltrip rode on Earnhardt's back bumper, bumping and rubbing the whole way. With three laps to go Waltrip got a nose underneath Earnhardt exiting turn two, but he did not fully clear him down the backstretch, and Earnhardt spun Waltrip out in turn three.

Both cars crashed hard into the outside guardrail, which collected Joe Ruttman and Geoff Bodine and allowed Kyle Petty to slip by for the win. The incident drew a fine for Earnhardt and earned him the Ironhead nickname.

Petty became NASCAR's first third-generation winner, and the race was later dramatised in the 1990 film Days of Thunder. Terry Labonte also returned to the race after a scare, when a crew member noticed metal interfering with the ignition and the engine refired.

Which drivers won the spring races of 1986?

The spring races of 1986 produced several different winners. Terry Labonte won the Goodwrench 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway on March 2, Morgan Shepherd won the Motorcraft 500 at Atlanta, and Rusty Wallace took the Valleydale 500 at Bristol for his first career win.

Wallace's Bristol victory came in the first win for the Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 model. It was an important milestone for Pontiac, and the Pontiac cars would win again later in the season.

Ricky Rudd won the Sovran Bank 500 at Martinsville, while Alan Kulwicki earned his first career top five in the same race. Those results began to show the depth of the field at the front.

Dale Earnhardt won the TranSouth 500 at Darlington on April 13, and he won the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro later in April. Both wins added to his early points lead.

How did Tim Richmond surge through the summer?

Tim Richmond turned the summer into his own season. He won the Miller High Life 500 at Pocono on June 8, the Firecracker 400 at Daytona on July 4 and the Summer 500 at Pocono after a photo finish, and the sequence showed how quickly he had regained form.

Richmond also won the Southern 500 at Darlington on August 31, his fifth win of 1986. He led a race-high 168 laps there, and he passed Bill Elliott in the closing laps after Elliott clipped the outside wall.

Richmond had also won the Budweiser at The Glen on August 10. It was the first NASCAR race at The Glen since 1965, and it was the fourth win of his season.

Richmond finished the season with a win at Riverside, where he led the field to the final checkered flag on November 16. That finish was enough to keep Waltrip second, with a six-point margin over Richmond.

What happened at Talladega and Michigan in the middle of the year?

The Talladega 500 on July 27 was won by Bobby Hillin Jr., his only career Winston Cup victory. The race set a motorsports record with 26 leaders, a mark that stood until 2008, and the lead changed hands 49 times, a season high.

Hillin's win came in a race packed with changes at the front, and it remains his only career Winston Cup victory. Among the 26 leaders were Richard Petty, Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip and Rodney Combs.

At Michigan, Elliott won the Miller American 400 on June 15, and the race also marked Richard Petty's 1,000th career start in the Cup series. Petty finished 13th after a lap down early in the race.

Elliott later took the Champion Spark Plug 400 at Michigan on August 17, and it was his fourth straight win at the track, the first time any driver had won four straight races at one superspeedway.

How did the Charlotte 600 unfold in May?

Dale Earnhardt won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte on May 25, and Geoff Bodine had won the pole for the race. The win was a strong one for Earnhardt, who went on to build his title campaign on results like this.

A practice crash put Richard Petty's number 43 Pontiac out of action, and NASCAR would not let him bring out a backup. Petty Enterprises bought the lime green-and-white No. 6 Chevrolet of D.K. Ulrich, and Petty finished 38th after a blown engine ended his day after 123 laps.

The race also marked the first Winston Cup start for Brett Bodine, who drove a Hendrick Motorsports No. 2 Chevrolet to an 18th-place finish, six laps down to the winner.

What happened at Dover and Riverside in the early summer?

Geoff Bodine won the Budweiser 500 at Dover on May 18, starting from a field that Ricky Rudd had led in qualifying. Bobby Allison finished second and Dale Earnhardt third, which gave the race a strong top three for the championship contenders.

Darrell Waltrip won the Budweiser 400 at Riverside on June 1 from the pole, and it was the final time he would win from the pole. Tim Richmond finished second, and that result kept the front of the field busy through June.

At Pocono on June 8, Tim Richmond won the Miller High Life 500, his first win since April 1984. The race ended under caution after Shepherd, Gant and Arrington tangled in a violent accident four laps from the finish.

Why did the October races matter for the 1986 title?

The October races gave the championship contenders their final chances to score points. Dale Earnhardt won the Oakwood Homes 500 at Charlotte on October 5, despite losing two laps to separate tire problems during the race. It was his first win at Charlotte since the Coca-Cola 600 in May, and he had to work hard for the victory.

The pre-race ceremonies for that race were hot, with several members of marching bands passing out from heat exhaustion in unusually warm late-October weather. The conditions did not stop the racing, which went on as planned.

At Rockingham on October 19, Neil Bonnett won the Nationwise 500. It was his last win with Junior Johnson, because he was set to drive for RahMoc Enterprises in 1987. Each of these results kept the chase in focus for the drivers still in contention.

What changes set up the 1987 season?

The 1986 season was a year of transitions for several teams. Darrell Waltrip's final win with Junior Johnson came at the Holly Farms 400 on September 28, and he later joined Hendrick Motorsports as a teammate of Bodine in 1987.

Terry Labonte took over the No. 11 car from Waltrip, and the No. 12 team was dissolved. Bonnett's move to RahMoc Enterprises was another change that reshaped the field heading into the next season.

Alan Kulwicki bought out team owner Bill Terry before the Southern 500, making him an owner-driver. He finished 12th at Darlington, seven laps down, in his first outing in that role.

What were the key results of the 1986 season?