| Type: | NASWINSTON |
| Avg: | 148.982mph |
| Radio: | Performance Racing Network |
| Caption: | The 1994 Hooters 500 program cover, with artwork by Sam Bass. |
| Official Name: | 35th Annual Hooters 500 |
| Pole Driver: | Greg Sacks |
| Pole Time: | 29.485 |
| First Team: | Roush Racing |
| Most Team: | Roush Racing |
| First Driver: | Mark Martin |
| Most Driver: | Mark Martin |
| Most Laps: | 119 |
| Car: | 6 |
| Pole Team: | U.S. Motorsports Inc. |
| Date: | November 12 |
| Location: | Hampton, Georgia, Atlanta Motor Speedway |
| Season No: | 31 |
| Race No: | 31 |
| Network: | ESPN |
| Race Name: | Hooters 500 |
| Year: | 1994 |
| Scheduled Laps: | 328 |
| Distance Laps: | 328 |
| Distance Km: | 803.41 |
| Scheduled Mi: | 499.216 |
| Scheduled Km: | 803.41 |
| Course Km: | 2.449 |
| Course Mi: | 1.522 |
| Distance Mi: | 499.216 |
| Announcers: | Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons |
| Attendance: | 100,000 |
The 1994 Hooters 500 was the 31st and final stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, November 12, 1994, in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.522miles permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 328 laps to complete. At race's end, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his 14th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.[1] [2] To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt and Butch Mock Motorsports driver Todd Bodine would finish second and third, respectively.
The race marked the final Winston Cup Series start for long-time driver Harry Gant. Gant would retire from the race due to a burnt piston, finishing 33rd.[3]
Earnhardt dedicated his season championship to Neil Bonnett who lost his life before the first race of the season.
Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a 1.522-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.
The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of 1.54miles where before it was 1.522miles. The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, November 11, at 2:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, November 12, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,[4] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.
Greg Sacks, driving for U.S. Motorsports Inc., would win the pole, setting a time of 29.485 and an average speed of 185.83mph in the first round.[5]
13 drivers would fail to qualify.
| Fin | St | Driver | Team | Make | Laps | Led | Status | Pts | Winnings | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 6 | Mark Martin | Roush Racing | Ford | 328 | 119 | running | 185 | $104,200 | |
| 2 | 30 | 3 | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | Chevrolet | 328 | 17 | running | 175 | $55,950 | |
| 3 | 36 | 75 | Todd Bodine | Butch Mock Motorsports | Ford | 328 | 41 | running | 170 | $44,000 | |
| 4 | 20 | 15 | Lake Speed | Bud Moore Engineering | Ford | 328 | 20 | running | 165 | $32,000 | |
| 5 | 34 | 90 | Mike Wallace (R) | Donlavey Racing | Ford | 328 | 13 | running | 160 | $23,800 | |
| 6 | 33 | 21 | Morgan Shepherd | Wood Brothers Racing | Ford | 328 | 0 | running | 150 | $24,100 | |
| 7 | 3 | 12 | Derrike Cope | Bobby Allison Motorsports | Ford | 327 | 4 | running | 151 | $21,030 | |
| 8 | 10 | 5 | Terry Labonte | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 326 | 0 | running | 142 | $22,550 | |
| 9 | 23 | 18 | Dale Jarrett | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chevrolet | 326 | 0 | running | 138 | $23,325 | |
| 10 | 27 | 30 | Michael Waltrip | Bahari Racing | Pontiac | 326 | 0 | running | 134 | $21,200 | |
| 11 | 38 | 25 | Ken Schrader | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 326 | 0 | running | 130 | $18,375 | |
| 12 | 37 | 44 | Jimmy Hensley | Charles Hardy Racing | Ford | 325 | 2 | running | 132 | $10,950 | |
| 13 | 9 | 43 | John Andretti (R) | Petty GMS Motorsports | Pontiac | 325 | 9 | running | 129 | $15,025 | |
| 14 | 8 | 10 | Ricky Rudd | Rudd Performance Motorsports | Ford | 324 | 0 | running | 121 | $17,200 | |
| 15 | 6 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | Hendrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 323 | 0 | running | 118 | $20,125 | |
| 16 | 39 | 23 | Hut Stricklin | Travis Carter Enterprises | Ford | 323 | 0 | running | 115 | $12,450 | |
| 17 | 22 | 78 | Pancho Carter | Triad Motorsports | Ford | 322 | 0 | running | 112 | $9,130 | |
| 18 | 31 | 97 | Jeff Green | Junior Johnson & Associates | Ford | 321 | 0 | running | 109 | $8,815 | |
| 19 | 15 | 02 | Randy LaJoie | Taylor Racing | Ford | 318 | 0 | running | 106 | $8,575 | |
| 20 | 25 | 27 | Jimmy Spencer | Junior Johnson & Associates | Ford | 315 | 0 | running | 103 | $11,710 | |
| 21 | 16 | 17 | Darrell Waltrip | Darrell Waltrip Motorsports | Chevrolet | 313 | 0 | running | 100 | $10,745 | |
| 22 | 41 | 42 | Kyle Petty | SABCO Racing | Pontiac | 307 | 0 | running | 97 | $18,730 | |
| 23 | 7 | 41 | Joe Nemechek (R) | Larry Hedrick Motorsports | Chevrolet | 299 | 0 | running | 94 | $10,115 | |
| 24 | 42 | 40 | Bobby Hamilton | SABCO Racing | Pontiac | 296 | 0 | running | 91 | $13,800 | |
| 25 | 2 | 28 | Kenny Wallace | Robert Yates Racing | Ford | 292 | 0 | running | 88 | $18,685 | |
| 26 | 29 | 29 | Steve Grissom (R) | Diamond Ridge Motorsports | Chevrolet | 290 | 0 | running | 85 | $9,370 | |
| 27 | 24 | 1 | Rick Mast | Precision Products Racing | Ford | 288 | 9 | running | 87 | $14,055 | |
| 28 | 21 | 16 | Ted Musgrave | Roush Racing | Ford | 287 | 0 | timing chain | 79 | $14,940 | |
| 29 | 40 | 67 | Ken Bouchard | Cunningham Racing | Ford | 280 | 0 | valve | 76 | $6,675 | |
| 30 | 12 | 52 | Gary Bradberry | Jimmy Means Racing | Ford | 276 | 0 | running | 73 | $6,600 | |
| 31 | 19 | 8 | Jeff Burton (R) | Stavola Brothers Racing | Ford | 275 | 0 | running | 70 | $12,635 | |
| 32 | 18 | 2 | Rusty Wallace | Penske Racing South | Ford | 263 | 0 | running | 67 | $17,670 | |
| 33 | 28 | 33 | Harry Gant | Leo Jackson Motorsports | Chevrolet | 257 | 0 | oil pan | 64 | $12,405 | |
| 34 | 4 | 7 | Geoff Bodine | Geoff Bodine Racing | Ford | 247 | 34 | crash | 66 | $16,740 | |
| 35 | 35 | 54 | Robert Pressley | Leo Jackson Motorsports | Chevrolet | 222 | 0 | running | 58 | $6,275 | |
| 36 | 14 | 26 | Brett Bodine | King Racing | Ford | 211 | 8 | engine | 60 | $12,510 | |
| 37 | 11 | 22 | Bobby Labonte | Bill Davis Racing | Pontiac | 211 | 0 | running | 52 | $10,170 | |
| 38 | 43 | 11 | Bill Elliott | Junior Johnson & Associates | Ford | 203 | 0 | oil pump | 49 | $10,140 | |
| 39 | 1 | 77 | Greg Sacks | U.S. Motorsports Inc. | Ford | 161 | 24 | vibration | 51 | $18,515 | |
| 40 | 13 | 4 | Sterling Marlin | Morgan–McClure Motorsports | Chevrolet | 155 | 0 | engine | 43 | $16,100 | |
| 41 | 26 | 31 | Ward Burton (R) | A.G. Dillard Motorsports | Chevrolet | 154 | 28 | valve | 45 | $8,900 | |
| 42 | 17 | 19 | Loy Allen Jr. (R) | TriStar Motorsports | Ford | 109 | 0 | crash | 37 | $6,100 | |
| 43 | 32 | 20 | Bobby Hillin Jr. | Moroso Racing | Ford | 89 | 0 | engine | 34 | $6,100 | |
| Failed to qualify | |||||||||||
| 44 | 55 | Tim Fedewa | RaDiUs Motorsports | Ford | |||||||
| 45 | 98 | Jeremy Mayfield (R) | Cale Yarborough Motorsports | Ford | |||||||
| 46 | 64 | Gary Wright | White Racing | Chevrolet | |||||||
| 47 | 47 | Billy Standridge (R) | Johnson Standridge Racing | Ford | |||||||
| 48 | 32 | Dick Trickle | Active Motorsports | Chevrolet | |||||||
| 49 | 45 | Rich Bickle (R) | Terminal Trucking Motorsports | Ford | |||||||
| 50 | 71 | Dave Marcis | Marcis Auto Racing | Chevrolet | |||||||
| 51 | 80 | Joe Ruttman | Hover Motorsports | Ford | |||||||
| 52 | 35 | Bill Venturini | Venturini Motorsports | Chevrolet | |||||||
| 53 | 53 | Brad Teague | Jimmy Means Racing | Ford | |||||||
| 54 | 61 | Rick Carelli | Chesrown Racing | Chevrolet | |||||||
| 55 | 34 | Bob Brevak | Brevak Racing | Ford | |||||||
| 56 | 50 | Brian Bonner | A. J. Foyt Racing | Ford | |||||||
| Official race results | |||||||||||
| Pos | Driver | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dale Earnhardt | 4,694 | |||||||
| 1 | 2 | Mark Martin | 4,250 (-444) | ||||||
| 1 | 3 | Rusty Wallace | 4,207 (-487) | ||||||
| 4 | Ken Schrader | 4,060 (–634) | |||||||
| 5 | Ricky Rudd | 4,050 (–644) | |||||||
| 6 | Morgan Shepherd | 4,029 (–665) | |||||||
| 7 | Terry Labonte | 3,876 (–818) | |||||||
| 8 | Bill Elliott | 3,776 (–918) | |||||||
| 9 | Jeff Gordon | 3,688 (–1,006) | |||||||
| 10 | Darrell Waltrip | 3,617 (–1,077) | |||||||
| Official driver's standings | |||||||||