1986 Miller American 400
The 1986 Miller American 400 was the 14th stock car race of the 1986 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 18th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, June 15, 1986, before an audience of 80,000 in Brooklyn, Michigan, at Michigan International Speedway, a two-mile moderate-banked D-shaped speedway. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete.
In the late laps of the race, Melling Racing's Bill Elliott, who had been a non-contender throughout most of the race, made a late race surge to contest with the leader, Mach 1 Racing's Harry Gant. The two fought for the lead for around 50 laps until lap 195, when Elliott passed Gant and managed to hold off Gant the rest of the way to secure the victory. The victory was Elliott's 16th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports' Geoff Bodine finished third.
During the race's qualifying session, Rick Baldwin, replacing the injured Buddy Arrington, was involved in a crash at the track's first turn during his qualifying lap. Baldwin's car spun, hitting the outside wall on the driver's side. As a result of the crash, Baldwin suffered head injuries that induced him into an 11-year coma that he did not recover from, dying on June 12, 1997. The incident was the first fatal accident in over a year in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series since Terry Schoonover at the 1984 Atlanta Journal 500.
Background
The race was held at Michigan International Speedway, a two-mile moderate-banked D-shaped speedway located in Brooklyn, Michigan. The track is used primarily for NASCAR events. It is known as a "sister track" to Texas World Speedway as MIS's oval design was a direct basis of TWS, with moderate modifications to the banking in the corners, and was used as the basis of Auto Club Speedway. The track is owned by International Speedway Corporation. Michigan International Speedway is recognized as one of motorsports' premier facilities because of its wide racing surface and high banking.Entry list
' denotes rookie driver.Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Saturday, June 14, at 11:30 AM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round were 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, at 2:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 were decided on time, 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 were given.Tim Richmond, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, won the pole, setting a time of 41.853 and an average speed of in the first round.
Five drivers failed to qualify.
Crashes of Rick Baldwin and Mark Stahl
After Ricky Rudd made his qualifying lap, Rick Baldwin was scheduled to make his qualifying lap. Baldwin was tapped by owner-driver Buddy Arrington to qualify the car after Arrington suffered a concussion at the previous race, the 1986 Miller High Life 500. Arrington, if Baldwin had made the race, to start the race, then hand over driving duties to Baldwin so that Arrington could obtain driver's championship points for the race. Heading into the first turn of his qualifying lap, according to Detroit Free Press writer Charlie Vincent, "the car took control of the man and his fate. The car spun, slamming back-end into the wall, then the front end whipped around, smashing the driver's side of the car into the concrete... in an instant, he lost consciousness." After Baldwin wrecked, driver Mark Stahl also crashed in the first turn of his qualifying lap, suffering an ankle injury. Both drivers failed to qualify for the race. In the aftermath of Baldwin's incident, Baldwin was transported to the W. A. Foote Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Michigan where he was diagnosed with multiple head and neck injuries. Baldwin remained in a coma for 11 years, never fully recovering from his injuries and dying on June 12, 1997.Responses from the NASCAR community to the accident displayed sympathy for Baldwin. Arrington, who fielded the car for his independent team that was running Ford products after being a Chrysler team even without factory support stated, "I feel really bad about what happened. What else can I say?... He's a good kid." Corpus Christi Caller-Times writer Emil Tagliabue remarked Baldwin as chasing the dream to join the "clan of good ol' boys", stating, "There are those whom fate somehow seems to mock usually with no apparent good reason. Rick Baldwin is one of those."