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The Dinoco 400 is a Piston Cup Racing Series race and a Piston Cup event. In Cars, it is the last race of the 2005 season, and it is held at the Motor Speedway of the South. Prior to the race, The King, Chick Hicks, and Lightning McQueen are tied in season points that determine the Piston Cup champion. A lot of stake happened here. The King was set to retire and pass on the Dinoco sponsorship to someone else, Lightning McQueen aiming to be the first rookie to win the Piston Cup, as well as Chick Hicks aiming to win his first title as well. However, due to a tire malfunction from McQueen, the race's results in the first three-way tie in the league's history. A three-way tie-breaker race is then set to take place one week later at the Los Angeles International Speedway. In Cars 3, it was the fourth 2016 Piston Cup race held at Copper Canyon Speedway.

CopperCanyon

Kris Revstopski waving the checkered flag making Jackson Storm the winner.

History[]

Cars[]

StripWeathersCars

Weathers, Hicks, and McQueen leading the pack,

Early on, Weathers, Hicks, and McQueen work their way to their usual positions at the front of the pack. Hicks and McQueen fight to pass one another, and their quarrel ends with Hicks performing a PIT maneuver on McQueen, causing him to spin out towards the infield. McQueen recovers quickly, and Hicks notices. Claiming that he is aiming to want Dinoco himself, he intentionally bumps Winford Bradford Rutherford, who collides with Murray Clutchburn, and soon everyone behind Weathers and Hicks are involved in a chaotic wreckage involving race cars, otherwise known as the infamous "Dinoco is all mine" incident. However, McQueen carefully weaves through the wreckage, much to the awe of the audience.

After carefully avoiding the crash, McQueen stays out on the track and refuses to take tires while every other racer is doing so. During the 301st lap, McQueen finally reaches the pit row, only for him to ignore his pit crew and fuel up a small amount of gas.

ThreeWayTie

The three-way tie between Weathers, McQueen, and Hicks.

When the final lap is announced, McQueen is close to lap the racer in last place, Slider Petrolski, showing how much he is ahead of everyone else. Right as announcers Darrell Cartrip and Bob Cutlass prepare to crown the champion, McQueen's left rear tire blows out as he rounds the very last corner. McQueen tries his best to maintain as much speed as possible, but he has slowed down immensely, which only worsens when his right rear tire explodes. Weathers and Hicks round the final corner during the race, and prepare to pass McQueen, who is desperately jumping towards the finish line. McQueen, Hicks, and Weathers all cross the finish line at the exact same time—causing the fans and announcers alike to excitedly speculate who was truly the winner.

Officials take time to study footage and determine a winner while the competitors take interviews and make sponsor appearances. The officials announce that the race has been called a three-way draw, and the three first-place finishers will compete in a tie-breaker race at the Los Angeles International Speedway one week later.

Starting positions (restart)[]

Position Number Sponsor Name
1st 95 Rust-eze Lightning McQueen
2nd 93 Spare Mint Ernie Gearson
3rd 28 Nitroade Aiken Axler
4th 121 Clutch Aid Kevin Shiftright
5th 117 Lil' Torquey Pistons Ralph Carlow
6th 90 Bumper Save Ponchy Wipeout
7th 43 Dinoco The King
8th 84 Re-Volting Davey Apex
9th 80 Gask-its Sage VanDerSpin
10th 74 Sidewall Shine Slider Petrolski
11th 58 Octane Gain Billy Oilchanger
12th 34 Trunk Fresh Dirkson D'Agostino
13th 61 Vitoline James Cleanair
14th 35 Shifty Drug Kevin Racingtire
15th 39 View Zeen Ryan Shields
16th 76 Vinyl Toupee Crusty Rotor
17th 4 Tow Cap Rusty Cornfuel
18th 56 Fiber Fuel Brush Curber
19th 36 Tank Coat Eugene Carbureski
20th 70 Gasprin Floyd Mulvihill
21st 86 htB Chick Hicks
22nd 54 Faux Wheel Drive Johnny Blamer
23rd 92 Sputter Stop Murray Clutchburn
24th 33 Mood Springs Chuck Armstrong
25th 8 Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
26th 73 Rev-N-Go Misti Motorkrass
27th 101 Tach-O-Mint Greg Candyman

Finishing positions[]

Captura de tela 2023-09-18 205609

The scoring pylon, seen at the height of the speedway.

When Lightning McQueen exits the speedway toward Mack, a scoring pylon is seen in the background, casting the top eight placements:

Position Number Sponsor Name
1st 95 Rust-eze Lightning McQueen
43 Dinoco The King
86 htB Chick Hicks
4th 121 Clutch Aid Kevin Shiftright
5th 28 Nitroade Aiken Axler
6th 70 Gasprin Floyd Mulvihill
7th 92 Sputter Stop Murray Clutchburn
8th 76 Vinyl Toupee Crusty Rotor

The top eight results mirror what can be seen in the last full shot of the other racers, as Chick and the King round the final corner.

Cars 3[]

Most of the racers are veterans, except for a mysterious newcomer. Lightning McQueen, Bobby Swift, and Cal Weathers perform well during the race, mainly making up the top three. But on the last lap, Jackson Storm suddenly zooms past the entire top ten in a few seconds, including McQueen, Bobby, Cal, and Brick with Storm placing first and winning the race. Storm's successful debut influences other sponsors what next-generation racers can do.

Finishing positions[]

  1. 20: Jackson Storm
  2. 95: Lightning McQueen
  3. 19: Bobby Swift
  4. 42: Cal Weathers
  5. 24: Brick Yardley
  6. 84: Apple Racer
  7. 76: Rev Roadages
  8. 34: Dirkson D'Agostino
  9. 92: Murray Clutchburn
  10. 121: Dino Draftsky
  11. 28: Phil Tankson
  12. 15: Carl Clutchen
  13. 73: Rev-N-Go Racer
  14. 11: Chip Gearings
  15. 80: Rex Revler
  16. 00: Jimmy Cables
  17. 31: Terry Kargas
  18. 90: Ponchy Wipeout
  19. 68: Parker Brakeston
  20. 36: Reb Meeker
  21. 64: Bruce Miller
  22. 21: Speedy Comet
  23. 6: Markus Krankzler
  24. 54: Tommy Highbanks
  25. 52: Brian Spark
  26. 93: Ernie Gearson
  27. 39: Buck Bearingly
  28. 48: T.G. Castlenut
  29. 5: Lane Locke
  30. 82: Darren Leadfoot
  31. 4: Jack DePost
  32. 33: Dud Throttleman
  33. 123: Todd Marcus
  34. 117: Ralph Carlow
  35. 70: Floyd Mulvihill
  36. 67: Bobby Roadtesta

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • As of Cars 3, the Dinoco 400 is no longer the final race of the Piston Cup season. At least in that year, as the last race is the Los Angeles 500.
  • Despite having being towed out of the race, Chuck Armstrong strangely reappears in the restart lap. This is an error or somewhat a retcon however, as several other racers were also too damaged to continue racing, yet they still appear in some shots of the race.
  • The pit row only has 19 team stands for the racers, even though there were 36 cars competing.
    • Alongside that, very strangely enough in Cars, half of the racers pit crew team's are nowhere to be seen in the film, alongside lacking visible pitrow slots. Although despite this, its very likely that the said amount still has them, as every racer very importantly needs a pit crew in the race to have their tires changed, be refueled, etc. This is seemingly a plothole in the film.
    • Pit crew members who didnt appear such as: Megan Shifter (Brush Curber's pitty), Mike Stockar (Lee Revkins' pitty), Bryn Imageare (Greg Candyman's pitty) were given diecast releases in the late 2010's.
    • This was however corrected in Cars 3 where every single racer has thier pit crew present.
  • Strangely enough, for unknown reasons, in Cars, unlike any of the other Piston Cup haulers, the team hauler of Re-Volting is absent, while only its parking slot is seen (next to Haul Inngas'), and it in addition, oddly lacks its number.
  • If Chick Hicks did win the Dinoco 400 alongside winning the Piston Cup, it is highly likely that Tex would still refuse to sponsor him due to having played dirty in the race and would still be booed for it. It is also likely that if The King did win, he would’ve passed on the Dinoco sponsorship to McQueen or someone else, presumably Cal Weathers but not Chick Hicks due to having hated him ever since.
  • Jackson Storm debuts in this race.
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