The 1978 NAPA National 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event held on October 8, 1978, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina.

At that point, a committee of major stockholders in the speedway was assembled, headed by A.C. Goines and furniture store owner Richard Howard.

[3] Smith departed from the speedway in 1962 to pursue other business interests, primarily in banking and auto dealerships from his new home of Rockford, IL.

[9] Skip Manning returns to the Winston Cup ranks for the first time in seven races after losing his ride in Billy Hagen's #92 to Terry Labonte.

Manning did a one-off here in Robert Gee's #8 Autowize Chevrolet but a blown engine very early on sent him to the sidelines and resulted in a bad finish.

There were 40 changes in the lead position throughout the racing event; with Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty dominating a fair amount of these laps.

David Pearson would become the fan favorite for this event; due to him earning his 12th pole position in a row at Charlotte Motor Speedway.