1995 Food City 500

1995 Food City 500

Race details
Race 6 of 31 in the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1995 Food City 500 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt. Artwork by Sam Bass.
Date	April 2, 1995
Official name	35th Annual Food City 500
Location	Bristol, Tennessee, Bristol Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.533 mi (0.858 km)
Distance	342 laps, 182.286 mi (293.36 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Average speed	92.011 miles per hour (148.077 km/h)
Attendance	76,000
Pole position
Driver	Mark Martin	Roush Racing
Time	15.399
Most laps led
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	205
Winner
No. 24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1995 Food City 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1995 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, April 2, 1995, in Bristol, Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.533 miles (0.858 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end, Hendrick Motorsports driver Jeff Gordon would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his fifth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his third victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace and owner-driver Darrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.

The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, March 31, 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 1, at 12:30 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,^[3] 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 four 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.

Mark Martin, driving for Roush Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 15.399 and an average speed of 124.605 miles per hour (200.532 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Nine drivers would fail to qualify.