The Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971 ...

event that took place in November at the North Carolina Motor Speedway from 1965 to 2003. It was the first NASCAR Cup Series victory for three drivers including

Mark Martin Mark Anthony Martin (born January 9, 1959) is a retired American stock car racing driver. He has the second most wins all time in what is now the Xfinity Series with 49. He scored 40 Cup Series wins. He finished second in the NASCAR Cup Series s ...

in 1989,

Ward Burton John Edward Burton III (born October 25, 1961) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He has five career wins in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, including the 2002 Daytona 500 and the 2001 Southern 500. He is the older brothe ...

in 1995, and

Johnny Benson Jonathan Thomas Benson Jr. (born June 27, 1963) is an American retired stock car racing driver and the son of former Michigan modified driver John Benson Sr. Benson has raced across NASCAR's three national series ( Cup, Busch, Truck), and his ...

in 2002. It was the final race win for Bill Elliott in 2003. This race, typically run as the penultimate race of the NASCAR season, was dropped from the schedule after the 2003 season. The Pop Secret sponsorship was moved over to the newly acquired Labor Day date at Auto Club Speedway, while the late season date was originally taken over by the

Southern 500 The Southern 500, officially known as the Cook Out Southern 500 for sponsorship reasons, is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina, United States. The race distance is and consists of 367 laps. Fro ...

at Darlington and is now occupied by the

AAA Texas 500 The Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. The inaugural race took place on November 6, 2005. The race has always started in the late afternoon, gone thro ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Past winners

Multiple winners (drivers)

Multiple winners (manufacturers)

Notable races

*1965:

Curtis Turner Curtis Morton Turner (April 12, 1924 – October 4, 1970) was an American stock car racer. Throughout his life, he developed a reputation for drinking and partying. In 1999, he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. History He was ...

posted his final Grand National win, driving the

Wood Brothers Racing Wood Brothers Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was formed in 1950 by eponymous brothers Glen and Leonard Wood. From 2006 to 2008, the team was merged with Tad a ...

#41 following his reinstatement to NASCAR. *1967:

Bobby Allison Robert Arthur Allison (born December 3, 1937) is a former American professional stock car racing driver and owner. Allison was the founder of the Alabama Gang, a group of drivers based in Hueytown, Alabama, where there were abundant short tracks ...

posted his first Rockingham win.

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

legend Jim Clark made his only NASCAR start in this race. *1968: Richard Petty outlasted Cale Yarborough and

Bobby Isaac Robert Vance Isaac (August 1, 1932 – August 14, 1977) was an American stock car racing driver. Isaac made his first NASCAR appearance in 1961, and quickly forged a reputation of one of the toughest competitors of the 1960s and 1970s. He was most ...

for his only win of the season on a track bigger than a short track. *1972:

battled Richard Petty, David Pearson, and Buddy Baker, ultimately leading 217 laps for his tenth win of 1972 and final win with the Richard Howard team led by

Junior Johnson Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (June 28, 1931 – December 20, 2019), better known as Junior Johnson, was an American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s. He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became ...

. *1973: Pearson posted his eleventh win of the 1973 season while

Benny Parsons Benjamin Stewart Parsons (July 12, 1941 – January 16, 2007) was an American NASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst/pit reporter on SETN, TBS, ABC, ESPN, NBC, and TNT. He became famous as the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, ...

won the season championship despite severe damage in an early crash. *1976: Richard Petty defeated

Lennie Pond Lennie Wayne Pond (August 11, 1940 – February 10, 2016) was an American NASCAR driver. He won NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year honors in 1973, and won his only race at Talladega Superspeedway in 1978 for Ronnie Elder and Harry Ranier. Pond ...

for the win, despite several green-flag pitstops — Petty won despite 125 total seconds in the pits to Pond's 54 seconds. *1977:

Donnie Allison Donnie Allison (born September 7, 1939) is an American former driver on the NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup circuit, who won ten times during his racing career, which spanned from 1966 to 1988. He is part of the "Alabama Gang", and is the bro ...

outclassed the field for his second win of the season. *1979: Darrell Waltrip, entering the race with the Winston Cup point lead, finished a distant sixth as Petty grabbed the win and the point lead. *1980: Multiple crashes thinned the field as Cale Yarborough took the win in a close points race with sophomore Dale Earnhardt. The race lead changed 35 times. *1981: Darrell Waltrip and

, locked in a bitter point battle, finished 1–2; the lead changed 33 times in total and five times over the final 32 laps between Waltrip and Allison. *1982: Allison spun out of the pits on his final pitstop and Waltrip seized the win. *1983:

Terry Labonte Terrance Lee Labonte (born November 16, 1956), nicknamed Texas Terry or The Iceman, is an American former stock car driver who raced from 1978 to 2014 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup and Sprint Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series). A tw ...

broke out of a duel with

Tim Richmond Timothy Lee Richmond (June 7, 1955 – August 13, 1989) was an American race car driver from Ashland, Ohio. He competed in IndyCar racing before transferring to NASCAR's Winston Cup Series. Richmond was one of the first drivers to change from ...

for the win, his first in three years. *1984: Bill Elliott edged Harry Gant in a photo finish after Gant seized the lead with two to go. *1992: In the final race Richard Petty would compete in at the Petty's native

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

; son

Kyle Kyle or Kyles may refer to: Places Canada * Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada Ireland * Kyle, County Laois * Kyle, County Wexford Scotland * Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshir ...

, in the hunt for the 1992 championship, dominated the race, leading all but 8 laps en route to the younger Petty collecting his 2nd victory of the season; which was the only time Kyle Petty won more than one race in a season. *1994: In addition to winning the race, Dale Earnhardt clinched his 7th title at the Rock. *1995:

won his first race at the Rock after a late season change to

Bill Davis Racing Bill Davis Racing was a racing team that participated in all three of NASCAR's top divisions until 2009. The team had run Toyota-branded stock cars and trucks in the Camping World Truck Series (Toyota Tundra) since 2004 and Sprint Cup Series ( T ...

. *2001:

Joe Nemechek Joseph Frank Nemechek III (born September 26, 1963) is an American professional stock car racing driver who last competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 24 Toyota Supra for Sam Hunt Racing. Nemechek has made the second mos ...

gave

Andy Petree Racing Andy Petree Racing (APR) was a NASCAR team that won 12 races. Originally formed in 1985 as Jackson Bros. Motorsports, its ownership changed hands several times over the years, with three different owners from its beginning to its closure in 2004. ...

their last win in NASCAR by leading the most laps. *2002:

finally clinched the win at the Rock for his first win over a hard-charging

. *2003: Bill Elliott's victory in this race was the last win of his career.

External links

* {{NASCAR Cup Series races Former NASCAR races 1965 establishments in North Carolina 2003 disestablishments in North Carolina Recurring sporting events established in 1965 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2003 Defunct sports competitions in the United States