TIL Marty Robbins, in the 1972 Talladega 500, had laps were 15mph faster than his qualifying time.

 After the race, he turned down the Rookie of the Race award and admitted that he removed the carb restrictor “to see what it was like to run up front for once"

https://tilthat.tumblr.com/post/630998339622699008/til-marty-robbins-singer-of-big-iron-raced-in

This may or may not be true based on when restrictor plates were used at Talladega. So, while if it's not true, or seems that way on light research without verifying if Robbins used a restrictor plate in qualifying, it's a funny enough story to post with this caveat