1995 Hanes 500
The 1995 Hanes 500 was the eighth stock car race of the 1995 [NASCAR Winston Cup Series] and the 39th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 23, 1995, in Martinsville, Virginia at Martinsville Speedway, a permanent oval-shaped short track. The race was shortened from its scheduled 500 laps to 356 laps due to impending darkness. At race's end, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace was able to dominate the majority of the race when the race was called for darkness with delays of the race coming from a rain delay. The win was Wallace's 40th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Ted Musgrave and Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon would finish second and third, respectively.
Background
Martinsville Speedway is a NASCAR-owned stock car racing track located in Henry County, in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. At 0.526 miles in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. It was also one of the first paved oval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. It is also the only remaining race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948.Entry list
' denotes rookie driver.Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, April 21, at 3:00 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, April 22, at 12:15 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-32 would be 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; which was usually four. 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.Bobby Labonte, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 20.294 and an average speed of in the first round.
Seven drivers would fail to qualify.