|| *Comments on the 1996 UAW-GM Quality 500:* View the most recent comment <#26> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Anonymous posted: 03.12.2005 - 10:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) the turnng point in the championship. Labonte dominates as Gordon finishes 31st with engine problems. 2. J. Kircher posted: 04.05.2006 - 4:02 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Terry Labonte wins only his second race of the year during a championship campaign and both wins took place in special paint schemes. In this race he ran a Kellogg's Honey Crunch car and in his other win at North Wilkesboro in the spring he drove the silver Ironman scheme. I seem to remeber some big wrecks during the race including one that may have caused a red flag for repairs on the backstretch. Robby Gordon may have been involved in that, I'm not sure, but it's interesting that he did race a DEI car. This helped both parties, as Earnhardt was still trying to get a team ready for full-time Cup racing in about a year and a half ('98) and Gordon was re-starting his stock car career before racing for Felix Sabates in '97 and some select starts the rest of '96. 3. CanucksAndNASCAR Fan posted: 05.17.2006 - 7:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hey, Ernie Irvan had a nasty wreck in this race where his front end was demolished. 4. Darrell posted: 10.28.2006 - 4:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Andy Petree's first race as a Cup owner. 5. most posted: 12.17.2007 - 2:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) In the Irvan crash, Robby Gordon also had a terible head on hit, several cars in that one were absolutely demolished! 6. adamal82 posted: 01.07.2008 - 7:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wasn't this the race in which Dale Earnhardt had to buy Joe Nemecheck's backup car for Robby Gordon b/c Robby wrecked 2 cars during practice sessions. If memory serves me right the car almost looked like the car Steve Park drove for DEI in 1997. 7. RaceFanX posted: 01.13.2008 - 3:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think it was, Robby was originally going to drive a blue #14 "Racing for Kids" magazine car like Jeff Green ran in the Pocono races but wrecked it and got the spare car, and sponsorship, from Joe Nemechek who DNQed 8. Anonymous posted: 05.02.2008 - 10:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) http://youtube.com/watch?v=hGtmtLIJcVo 9. Ryan posted: 11.21.2010 - 12:52 am Rate this comment: (2) (4) Clutch performance for the Ice Man. Unclutch for Boy Wonder... 10. RaceFanX posted: 08.27.2011 - 11:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #5 Terry Labonte- Kellogg's Honey Crunch Corn Flakes (it was a new flavor at the time and he ran that sponsorship again the next week at Rockingham) Playing off their internet sponsorship Wally Dallenbach and Bud Moore's #15 had a spider and a web painted on their car for this race to tie in with Halloween. 11. David posted: 10.24.2012 - 9:11 pm Rate this comment: (3) (1) "Clutch performance for the Ice Man. Unclutch for Boy Wonder..." Yup, because we all know that Jeff's engine problems were totally his fault. 12. 83andJoe posted: 07.06.2013 - 2:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #14 crew chief: Dave Charpentier 13. Ryan W posted: 07.25.2013 - 2:23 am Rate this comment: (1) (2) Welcome back to the championship battle Terry They were someone's fault having to do with Jeff Gordon, David. I mean Terry didn't have those problems. *JAWS theme* 14. 83andJoe posted: 10.08.2013 - 7:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #40 crew chief: Brad Noffsinger 15. RaceFanX posted: 01.20.2014 - 10:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #14 Robby Gordon- Racing for Kids / Burger King To the Back: #1 Rick Mast (driver change) #3 Dale Earnhardt (backup car, practice crash) #14 Robby Gordon (backup car, practice crash) #28 Ernie Irvan (backup car, practice crash) #37 Jeremy Mayfield (backup car, practice crash) Rick Mast missed qualifying to be there as his wife had twins. With his priorities in order Ron Barfield Jr. qualified the #1 Pontiac instead. "Cartoon Network Wacky Racing" changed their paint job for the first time in this race as they jettisoned the yellow Fred Flintstone-look the #29 Chevrolet had run all year up to this point to field a purple Scooby-Doo car instead. Scooby would finish out 1996 on board the car and run the first half of 1997 before being replaced with a white Tom-and-Jerry scheme. This was Jeff Green's second and final race in the #29 for the year before the team replaced him with Robert Pressley who came over from the Skoal #33 to close out the year in preparation for a full season in 1997 (which saw him fired after 10 races and replaced again by Green). As such this was Pressley's last race in the #33. Ernie's wreck scarred a lot of people, coming so soon after his comeback from the Michigan crash people were worried when it happened. Thankfully, he was alright. 16. Anonymous posted: 04.08.2014 - 2:48 pm Rate this comment: (3) (2) Labonte gained 110 freakin' points on Gordon this race, and put himself in prime position to snatch away the title, which he did. Remind me again why we have a chase. As if a guy destroying someone's 111 point lead with 3 races to go isn't exciting enough. F*ck off NASCAR. 17. myself posted: 04.15.2015 - 1:43 pm Rate this comment: (1) (4) 100% agree with post #16! 18. brian posted: 04.22.2016 - 10:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Agree with 16, 17 post. 19. slamjam posted: 12.09.2016 - 9:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes Ryan. It was the engine's fault. Which happens to everybody. Fluke problems. 20. binkerbo posted: 02.09.2017 - 11:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Billy Standridge's sponsor was Diamond Rio/Hanes 21. Bramblegrunt posted: 03.29.2017 - 3:33 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) 4 cars crashed before the start of this race in practice which included Dale Earnhardt, Jeremy Mayfield, Robby Gordon, and Ernie Irvan. Rick Mast did not qualify for the birth of his twins. Ron Barfield qualified in his place. In an omen of this race, everyone who crashed in practice also crashed in this race with the exception of Earnhardt. Everyone talks about the Ernie Irvan crash where he spun in turn 2 very reminiscent of Johnny Benson's and Ricky Cravens crash in the 600 earlier in the year. He spun, got clipped up high by Robby Gordon and Robert Pressley and as he slid down was slammed in the front by an oncoming John Andretti. In almost the exact same place later in the event, Dick Trickle also spun and then slid down the track where Bobby Hillin slammed into him. Hillin was transported to the hospital with rib injuries. Up front, Jeff Gordon led some early laps but just like his front row starting mate Bobby Labonte, both experienced mechanical issues in the event. This was a relieving race to many who worried about Ricky Craven after his spring Talladega crash, he was totally noncompetitive but on this day he was clearly one of the best 3 cars and he was even disappointed with a 5th exclaiming after the race was over the set of tires he had to finish up the race just wasnt to his liking. Mark Martin also showed flashes of brilliance but it was Texas Terry who struck with a big win as he saw his title contender have issues and he took a huge chunk of his points lead away in a big win 22. JSPorts posted: 03.29.2017 - 4:45 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This may have been the race that got Terry the 2nd championship. He had a great performance at Charlotte. 23. HD11 posted: 04.13.2017 - 10:42 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Todd Parrott said during a TBS interview, "If you run with the squirrels, you'll get your nuts cracked!" To this day, one of my favorite all time racing quotes. 24. HD11 posted: 04.22.2017 - 10:25 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Also, this wound up being the final race for Tony Glover as crew chief for the Kodak 4 car. He made the trip to Rockingham the following week but left the track on Thursday. He had signed on with Felix Sabates to be Robby Gordon's crew chief in 1997 and at that point it was agreed he should leave the 4 team immediately. In my opinion this was the beginning of the downfall of Morgan McClure Racing. The team never ran consistently as well after 1996, even though Bobby Hamilton would give them one final win. They had a lot of success with Glover calling the shots. 25. Jimnsimforever posted: 04.01.2019 - 5:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ron Barfield Jr was the driver that qualified the #1 car for Rick Mast while he was attending the birth of his twins. It was mentioned above a couple of times but may have gotten lost in the middle of the posts because it's not listed here. 26. SweetRich posted: 03.12.2020 - 9:21 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators for the race were Ken Squier, Buddy Baker and Mike Wallace. The pit road reporters were Dick Berggren and Steve Byrnes. And in The STP Pit Communication Center was Rick Benjamin. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: