1989 Busch 500

1989 Busch 500

Race details
Race 20 of 29 in the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1989 Busch 500 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	August 26, 1989
Official name	29th Annual Busch 500
Location	Bristol, Tennessee, Bristol International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.533 mi (0.858 km)
Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Average speed	85.554 miles per hour (137.686 km/h)
Attendance	54,000
Pole position
Driver	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing
Time	16.394
Most laps led
Driver	Darrell Waltrip	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	239
Winner
No. 17	Darrell Waltrip	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1989 Busch 500 was the 20th stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 29th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, August 26, 1989, before an audience of 54,000 in Bristol, Tennessee, at Bristol International Speedway, a 0.533 miles (0.858 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end, Hendrick Motorsports driver Darrell Waltrip would manage to dominate the late stages of the race, leading the final 206 laps to take his 78th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his fifth victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, owner-driver Alan Kulwicki and King Racing driver Ricky Rudd would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, August 25, at 7:35 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 15 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, August 26, at 1:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 15-30 would be decided on time,^[5] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified on time but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given.

Alan Kulwicki, driving for his own AK Racing team, would win the pole, setting a time of 16.394 and an average speed of 117.043 miles per hour (188.362 km/h) in the first round.^[6][7]

Four drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,852 2 Rusty Wallace 2,799 (-53) 3 Mark Martin 2,734 (-118) 4 Darrell Waltrip 2,711 (–141) 5 Davey Allison 2,553 (–299) 6 Bill Elliott 2,531 (–321) 1 7 Terry Labonte 2,488 (–364) 1 8 Ken Schrader 2,473 (–379) 1 9 Ricky Rudd 2,457 (–395) 1 10 Geoff Bodine 2,434 (–418) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References