1987 Miller High Life 400

Race details
Race 3 of 29 in the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1987 Miller High Life 400 program cover, featuring Kyle Petty.
Date	March 8, 1987
Official name	33rd Annual Miller High Life 400
Location	Richmond, Virginia, Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.542 mi (0.872 km)
Distance	400 laps, 216.8 mi (348.905 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 216.8 mi (348.905 km)
Average speed	81.52 miles per hour (131.19 km/h)
Attendance	30,000
Pole position
Driver	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing
Time	20.506
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	235
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Lake Speed
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1987 Miller High Life 400 was the third stock car race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 33rd iteration of the event. Originally scheduled to be the second race of the season, the race was postponed from its scheduled date of February 22, 1987 to March 8 due to winter storms that affected the Richmond area and scheduling conflicts.^[1] The race was held before an audience of 30,000 in Richmond, Virginia, at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway, a 0.542 miles (0.872 km) D-shaped oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete.

After recovering from a practice crash early in the race's weekend and an early spin during the ninth lap of the race itself, Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt was able to mount a comeback, dominating a majority of the race to take his 22nd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season.^[2][3] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports' Geoff Bodine and Blue Max Racing's Rusty Wallace finished second and third, respectively.

Background

Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is a 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. Known as "America's premier short track", it formerly hosted a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, an IndyCar Series race, and two USAC sprint car races.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, March 6, at 3:00 PM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round were 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, March 7, at 10:45 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-30 were decided on time,^[4] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points in the previous season; up to two were given.

Alan Kulwicki, driving for his own AK Racing team, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 20.506 and an average speed of 95.153 miles per hour (153.134 km/h) in the first round.^[5]

Five drivers failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 530 2 Bill Elliott 510 (-20) 6 3 Bobby Allison 417 (-113) 2 4 Ken Schrader 414 (–116) 6 5 Terry Labonte 411 (–119) 1 6 Darrell Waltrip 401 (–129) 3 7 Neil Bonnett 399 (–131) 5 8 Ricky Rudd 392 (–138) 2 9 Richard Petty 382 (–148) 10 Phil Parsons 378 (–152) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References