1990 Mello Yello 500

Race details
Race 26 of 29 in the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1990 Mello Yello 500 program cover, featuring Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	October 7, 1990
Official name	31st Annual Mello Yello 500
Location	Concord, North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.5 mi (2.41 km)
Distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Scheduled Distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Average speed	137.428 miles per hour (221.169 km/h)
Attendance	158,400
Pole position
Driver	Brett Bodine	King Racing
Time	30.966
Most laps led
Driver	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing
Laps	243
Winner
No. 28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Johnny Hayes, Chris Economaki
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The 1990 Mello Yello 500 was the 26th stock car race of the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 31st iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 7, 1990, before an audience of 158,400 in Concord, North Carolina, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent quad-oval. The race took the scheduled 334 laps to complete. Taking advantage of a misfortunate Bill Elliott, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison would manage to dominate the final 76 laps of the race to take his eighth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Bud Moore Engineering driver Morgan Shepherd and Bahari Racing driver Michael Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.

With a poor finish from championship contender Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin managed to increase his driver championship points lead by 33 points, to a total of 49 points.^[5]

Background

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

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of Bruton Smith) as track president.

Qualifying

Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, October 3, at 2:00 PM EST. Originally, the first 20 positions were going to be determined by first round qualifying, with positions 21-40 meant to be determined the following day on Thursday, October 4.^[6] However, due to rain, the second round was cancelled. As a result, the rest of the starting lineup was set using the results from the first round. 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.^[7]

Brett Bodine, driving for King Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.966 and an average speed of 174.385 miles per hour (280.645 km/h) in the first round.^[8][9]

Nine drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mark Martin 3,990 2 Dale Earnhardt 3,941 (-49) 1 3 Bill Elliott 3,541 (-449) 1 4 Geoff Bodine 3,535 (–455) 5 Rusty Wallace 3,412 (–578) 6 Kyle Petty 3,308 (–682) 7 Ricky Rudd 3,273 (–717) 2 8 Morgan Shepherd 3,217 (–773) 1 9 Ernie Irvan 3,171 (–819) 1 10 Alan Kulwicki 3,122 (–868) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References