1990 Hanes Activewear 500

Race details
Race 8 of 29 in the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1990 Hanes Activewear 500 program cover.
Date	April 30, 1990
Official name	41st Annual Hanes Activewear 500
Location	Martinsville, Virginia, Martinsville Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.526 mi (0.847 km)
Distance	500 laps, 263 mi (423.257 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 263 mi (423.257 km)
Average speed	77.423 miles per hour (124.600 km/h)
Attendance	43,500
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Junior Johnson & Associates
Time	20.644
Most laps led
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Junior Johnson & Associates
Laps	270
Winner
No. 11	Geoff Bodine	Junior Johnson & Associates
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1990 Hanes Activewear 500 was the eighth stock car race of the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 41st iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 30, 1990, before an audience of 43,500 in Martinsville, Virginia at Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526 miles (0.847 km) permanent oval-shaped short track. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end, Junior Johnson & Associates driver Geoff Bodine would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his eighth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace and Bud Moore Engineering driver Morgan Shepherd would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Martinsville Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

Martinsville Speedway is an NASCAR-owned stock car racing track located in Henry County, in Ridgeway, Virginia, just to the south of Martinsville. At 0.526 miles (0.847 km) in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. It is also the only remaining race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, April 27, at 3:00 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, April 28, at 12:30 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-30 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 but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given.

Geoff Bodine, driving for Junior Johnson & Associates, would win the pole, setting a time of 20.644 and an average speed of 91.726 miles per hour (147.619 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 Dale Earnhardt 1,275 2 Morgan Shepherd 1,223 (-52) 2 3 Geoff Bodine 1,131 (-144) 1 4 Mark Martin 1,125 (–150) 1 5 Darrell Waltrip 1,106 (–169) 2 6 Kyle Petty 1,073 (–202) 4 7 Rusty Wallace 1,071 (–204) 8 Ken Schrader 1,052 (–223) 1 9 Bill Elliott 1,032 (–243) 1 10 Brett Bodine 1,028 (–247) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References