for Richard Childress). NAPA 500 The NAPA 500 was held November 12 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The #17 of Darrell Waltrip won the pole. Top ten results 3-Dale Earnhardt 4-Sterling Marlin 2-Rusty Wallace 94-Bill Elliott 22-Ward Burton 23-Jimmy Spencer 88-Ernie Irvan, 1 lap down 18-Bobby Labonte, 1 lap down 77-Bobby Hillin Jr., 1 lap down 10-Ricky Rudd, 1 lap down Failed to qualify: 66-Billy Standridge, 59-Jack Sprague, 90-Mike Wallace, 40-Shane Hall, 0-Delma Cowart, 49-Eric Smith Jeff Gordon came into the race only having to finish 41st or better to win the championship. As a result, he took it easy during the race (at one point, the team did a pit stop with Ray Evernham (Gordon's crew chief) serving as a tire changer). Dale Earnhardt came into this race 147 points behind Gordon. Earnhardt, knowing that he had to be near perfect to win the championship, went all out with nothing to lose. However, he went on to win the race and lead the most laps. He led 268 of the 328 laps. Gordon led only one lap, and that was during a round of green flag pit stops. With Earnhardt's win and leading the most laps (10 bonus points for leading the most laps), and with Gordon finishing 14 laps down in 32nd place, along with the 5 bonus points for leading a lap, Earnhardt gained a total of 113 points on Gordon. However, it was not enough for him to win a series record 8th championship. Gordon officially won his 1st title by 34 points over Earnhardt. Hendrick Motorsports entered a fourth car just for this race just in case the unforeseen were to hit Gordon's car. If problems were to befall Gordon's car, the car would immediately pull off the track and retire from the race. This was the #58 Pontiac with "Racing for a Reason" on the quarter panels. Racing for a Reason referred to finding a cure for leukemia, a disease that owner Rick Hendrick had been diagnosed with. The team had originally hired Jimmy Horton to drive the car in the race. Horton qualified the car in 34th, but was unable to race it due to serious injuries suffered in a terrible crash in the ARCA Bondo Mar-Hyde Series support race the day before the NAPA 500. Jeff Purvis was then hired to sub for Horton in the #58 and drove the car to a