1989 The Budweiser at The Glen

1989 Budweiser at The Glen

Race details
Race 18 of 29 in the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1989 Budweiser at The Glen program cover.
Date	August 13, 1989
Official name	4th Annual The Budweiser at The Glen
Location	Watkins Glen, New York, Watkins Glen International
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.428 mi (3.907 km)
Distance	90 laps, 218.52 mi (351.673 km)
Scheduled Distance	90 laps, 218.52 mi (351.673 km)
Average speed	92.452 miles per hour (148.787 km/h)
Attendance	108,000
Pole position
Driver	Morgan Shepherd	RahMoc Enterprises
Time	1:12.564
Most laps led
Driver	Morgan Shepherd	RahMoc Enterprises
Laps	22
Winner
No. 27	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
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 The Budweiser at The Glen was the 18th stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the fourth iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, August 13, 1989, before an audience of 108,000 in Watkins Glen, New York, at the shortened layout of Watkins Glen International, a 2.428-mile (3.907 km) permanent road course layout. In the final laps of the race, Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace was able to take advantage of numerous misfortunes of numerous competitors behind him, leading the final 14 laps to take his 14th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his fourth victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an automobile race track located in Watkins Glen, New York at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980), but the site has been home to road racing of nearly every class, including the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the International Motor Sports Association and the IndyCar Series.

Initially, public roads in the village were used for the race course. In 1956 a permanent circuit for the race was built. In 1968 the race was extended to six hours, becoming the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. The circuit's current layout has more or less been the same since 1971, although a chicane was installed at the uphill Esses in 1975 to slow cars through these corners, where there was a fatality during practice at the 1973 United States Grand Prix. The chicane was removed in 1985, but another chicane called the "Inner Loop" was installed near turn 5 in 1992 after J.D. McDuffie's fatal accident during the previous year's NASCAR Winston Cup event.

The circuit is known as the Mecca of North American road racing and is a very popular venue among fans and drivers. The facility is currently owned by International Speedway Corporation.

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, August 11, at 1:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 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 12, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 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.

Morgan Shepherd, driving for RahMoc Enterprises, would win the pole, setting a time of 1:12.564 and an average speed of 120.456 miles per hour (193.855 km/h) in the first round.^[6][7]

Tom Rotsell was the only driver to fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,614 1 2 Mark Martin 2,488 (-126) 1 3 Darrell Waltrip 2,469 (-145) 1 4 Rusty Wallace 2,459 (–155) 1 5 Bill Elliott 2,394 (–220) 1 6 Davey Allison 2,319 (–295) 1 7 Terry Labonte 2,290 (–324) 8 Ken Schrader 2,244 (–370) 9 Sterling Marlin 2,225 (–389) 1 10 Geoff Bodine 2,154 (–460) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References