A young Brian France sorts out winner of '78 Dixie 500

The following is the second of a four-part series highlighting Atlanta Motor Speedway's storied history as the track prepares for its 100th Cup Series race.

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Whether the sport involved is professional football or NASCAR, there's nothing that excites fans more than a dramatic ending.

As history shows, NASCAR races at Atlanta Motor Speedway often are decided in the closing seconds, just as the Pittsburgh Steelers battled back against the Arizona Cardinals in this year's Super Bowl.

• Cup Series tickets
• Truck Series tickets
• Book your travel

But in one memorable AMS race, the 1978 Dixie 500, the 39th of 99 Cup races run at the track, the drama continued long after the checkered flag fell.

In the 1970s NASCAR world, rivalries were the rage -- Ford versus Chevy, Petty versus Pearson, Petty versus Allison. Many times the Petty-Allison contests were between Richard Petty and Bobby Allison. But in the 1978 Dixie 500, it was Bobby Allison's brother Donnie squaring off against the King.

Both Allison and Petty rode season-long winless streaks into Atlanta for the next-to-last race of the season. Petty hadn't won since July in Daytona the year before. Donnie Allison's last victory had come at Rockingham the fall before, but his Hoss Ellington-prepared Chevrolet had been fast on the superspeedways that year. He finished third at Atlanta in the spring, and had runner-up runs at Charlotte and Talladega along with two other top-fives, at Michigan and Charlotte.

Buddy Baker, driving the No. 27 owned by M.C. Anderson, dominated much of the fall Atlanta race, but he dropped out on Lap 311 with a blown engine.

"Buddy's car was the fastest that day, but mine was one of the fastest all day long," Allison said. "But I lost two laps when I came off the banking too fast making a pit stop and wadded up the left-front fender."

As the laps wound down, with the skies darkening by the minute, a five-car crash set up a short sprint to the finish. When the green flag was displayed, Petty passed race leader Dave Marcis. But Allison, who was still being shown a lap down on the scoreboard, bolted past them both and was several car lengths out front when Petty nipped Marcis by a fender at the finish, seemingly ending his losing streak. (Continued)