1976 in NASCAR

The 1976 NASCAR Grand National Winston Cup Series season began on Sunday, January 18 and ended on Sunday, November 21. Cale Yarborough, driving the #11 Junior Johnson Holly Farms Chevrolet scored his first of three consecutive NASCAR Grand National Series Winston Cup Championships. Skip Manning was named NASCAR Rookie of the Year.

Notable races

 * Daytona 500 – From disallowance of qualifying times for A.J. Foyt, Dave Marcis, and Darrell Waltrip to the crashing of race leaders Richard Petty and David Pearson a half-mile from the checkered flag, the 1976 500 became one of the most celebrated races in history.


 * Carolina 500 – Richard Petty won going away in a race marred by a huge melee on the backstretch where Bobby Allison tumbled.


 * Atlanta 500 – David Pearson spent 225 laps to get back onto the lead lap and took his third win of the season.


 * Virginia 500 – Darrell Waltrip took the win, his first with Gatorade sponsorship.


 * Winston 500 – Buddy Baker became the first driver to win a 500-miler in less than three hours.


 * World 600 – Pearson edged Petty and Cale Yarborough as Bruton Smith made his official return to Charlotte Motor Speedway.


 * Purolator 500 – The lead changed 47 times as Pearson's blown tire coming to the white flag gave Petty only his second win of the season.


 * Talladega 500 – Dave Marcis took his only Talladega win and the first for crew chief Harry Hyde. The lead changed a season-high 57 times.


 * Yankee 400 – David Pearson took his eighth win of the season, but first since the June event at Michigan International Speedway.


 * Southern 500 – Pearson took the one race he had sought his entire career. A big wreck occurred after Buddy Baker blew up and spun; behind him Skip Manning spun and was hit in the left side door by Joe Frasson.


 * Delaware 500 Cale Yarborough made up two laps on two separate occasions and won his second straight race.


 * National 500 Donnie Allison surprised the field in a backup Hoss Ellington Monte Carlo; the engine measured a tick over the legal displacement in immediate post race inspection but after cooling down the engine was within limits.


 * American 500 Richard Petty took the win, only his third of the season. Lennie Pond finished second.  Green flag pitstops became frequent as Petty spent a total of 125 seconds in the pits to Pond's 54 seconds.


 * Dixie 500 – Dave Marcis took his final superspeedway win.  Dale Earnhardt made his third career start in this race and survived a vicious tumble after hitting the spinning Ford of Dick Brooks.


 * LA Times 500 – Pearson posted his eighth superspeedway win and tenth overall of the season.

Final Points Standings

 * 1) Cale Yarborough – 4644
 * 2) Richard Petty – 4449
 * 3) Benny Parsons – 4304
 * 4) Bobby Allison – 4097
 * 5) Lennie Pond – 3930
 * 6) Dave Marcis – 3875
 * 7) Buddy Baker – 3745
 * 8) Darrell Waltrip – 3505
 * 9) David Pearson – 3483
 * 10) Dick Brooks – 3447