The 1979 Champion Spark Plug 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series event that took place on August 19, 1979, at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long.^[5] Opened in 1968, the track's turns are banked at eighteen degrees, while the 3,600-foot-long front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at twelve degrees.^[5] The back stretch, has a five degree banking and is 2,242 feet long.^[5]

There were 36 American-born male drivers on the grid.^[4][3]

David Pearson driving in place of an injured Dale Earnhardt earned the pole position with a speed of 162.992 miles per hour (262.310 km/h) .^[4][2]Richard Petty defeated Buddy Baker^[3] by one second in essentially a fuel mileage race that determined whoever could preserve the most fuel.^[4][2] There were 21 lead changes and five caution flags for 35 laps; making the race three hours and four minutes long while the average speed was 130.376 miles per hour (209.820 km/h).^[4][2]

Blackie Wangerin would receive the last-place finish due to a crash with H.B. Bailey on lap 2 which resulted in Wangerin's car flipping outside of the track in Turn 3 which resulted in a lengthy red flag to rebuild the turns 3 and 4 guardrail. John Anderson got his only top five finish in his Cup debut.^[4][2][3]

Al Rudd, Jr. would race his only NASCAR event here. The entire purse was $142,905 ($599,925.8 when adjusted for inflation).^[6] Notable crew chiefs for this race were Buddy Parrott, Joey Arrington, Kirk Shelmerdine, Darrell Bryant, Dale Inman, Harry Hyde, Bud Moore, Tim Brewer, and Jake Elder.^[7]

Jan Opperman, in a car owned by Will Cronkite was the only driver to not qualify.

Source: ^[9]