1989 AC Delco 500

Race details
Race 27 of 29 in the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1989 AC Delco 500 program cover.
Date	October 22, 1989
Official name	15th Annual AC Delco 500
Location	Rockingham, North Carolina, North Carolina Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.017 mi (1.636 km)
Distance	492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km)
Scheduled Distance	492 laps, 500.364 mi (805.257 km)
Average speed	114.079 miles per hour (183.592 km/h)
Attendance	52,500
Pole position
Driver	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing
Time	24.634
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Laps	194
Winner
No. 6	Mark Martin	Roush 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 AC Delco 500 was the 27th stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 15th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 22, 1989, before an audience of 52,500 in Rockingham, North Carolina, at North Carolina Speedway, a 1.017 miles (1.637 km) permanent high-banked racetrack. At race's end, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin would manage to dominate the late stages of the race, leading the final 77 laps to take his first career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace and Hendrick Motorsports driver Darrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of North Carolina Motor Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

North Carolina Motor Speedway was opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, October 19, at 2:30 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 Friday, October 20, at 2:00 PM 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 but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given.

Alan Kulwicki, driving for his own AK Racing team, would win the pole, setting a time of 24.634 and an average speed of 148.624 miles per hour (239.187 km/h) in the first round.^[6][7]

No drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Rusty Wallace 3,938 2 Dale Earnhardt 3,829 (-109) 3 Mark Martin 3,810 (-128) 4 Darrell Waltrip 3,646 (–292) 5 Bill Elliott 3,512 (–426) 6 Ken Schrader 3,492 (–446) 7 Ricky Rudd 3,401 (–537) 8 Harry Gant 3,356 (–582) 1 9 Terry Labonte 3,351 (–587) 1 10 Geoff Bodine 3,346 (–592) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References