Random Recap: 1984 Champion Spark Plug 400
Welcome to Random Recaps, a weekly feature at From The Marbles. In this space, we’ll recap a random race from the past at the track the where Sprint Cup Series is racing next. This week’s race is the 1984 Champion Spark Plug 400.
Darrell Waltrip beat out Terry Labonte for the win at Michigan as the two cars had the battle for the win all to themselves.
Waltrip and Labonte were both in Chevrolets, cars that got better gas mileage than the Ford of Bill Elliott, who finished third. Elliott and Cale Yarborough, who finished fifth, both had to make late pit stops to ensure they’d make it to the end on gas.
Elliott was forced to pit for fuel on lap 194 while in the lead. His pit stop handed the lead over to Waltrip and he got the third spot back when Yarborough, the Daytona 500 winner, pitted with two laps to go.
Waltrip led the final seven laps and held off Labonte, who was constantly in his rear-view mirror. However, Labonte couldn’t make a serious charge on Waltrip for the lead.
Labonte led a race-high 117 laps while Waltrip led 46. Elliott led 33. It’s Waltrip’s fourth win of the season.
Only five cars finished the race on the lead lap. Benny Parsons, Dale Earnhardt, Buddy Baker and Richard Petty all finished a lap down while Ron Bouchard in 10th was two laps down.
Labonte cut Earnhardt’s points lead to 36 points and Elliott is 60 points back. Waltrip is now 80 points behind Earnhardt.
Epilogue: The season ended up being Labonte’s first title. He won the championship by 65 points over Harry Gant. Earnhardt lost the points lead thanks to two late-season engine failures and ended up over 240 points behind Labonte.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
