1990 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500

Race details
Race 4 of 29 in the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1990 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 program cover, featuring Morgan Shepherd.
Date	March 18, 1990
Official name	31st Annual Motorcraft Quality Parts 500
Location	Hampton, Georgia, Atlanta International Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.522 mi (2.449 km)
Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Scheduled Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Average speed	156.849 miles per hour (252.424 km/h)
Attendance	45,000
Pole position
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Time	Set by 1990 owner's points
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	216
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ABC
Announcers	Paul Page, Benny Parsons, Bobby Unser
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1990 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 31st iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 18, 1990, before an audience of 45,000 in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta International Raceway, a 1.522 miles (2.449 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 328 laps to complete. On the final restart with two laps in the race, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would manage to make a late-race charge to the lead, coming back from a poor final pit stop to take his 40th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Bud Moore Engineering driver Morgan Shepherd and Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Ernie Irvan would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Atlanta Motor Raceway, the circuit where the race was held.

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a 1.522-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.

The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of 1.54-mile (2.48 km) where before it was 1.522-mile (2.449 km). The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Qualifying

Two rounds of qualifying were scheduled to be held on Friday, March 16, and Saturday, March 17.^[5] However, Friday's sessions were cancelled due to rain, with both rounds then scheduled to commence on Saturday.^[6] However, Saturday's sessions would also be cancelled due to rain, leaving qualifying to be determined by a system of owner's points and postmarks on entry list blanks. The top 30 positions would be determined by the current 1990 owner's points, while the final nine spots would be determined by a system of provisionals that included past winners, and finally postmarks. As a result, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would win the pole.^[7]

Three drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 659 1 2 Morgan Shepherd 601 (-58) 1 3 Rusty Wallace 562 (-97) 1 4 Kyle Petty 561 (–98) 5 5 Geoff Bodine 538 (–121) 3 6 Sterling Marlin 534 (–125) 7 Bill Elliott 526 (–133) 2 8 Jimmy Spencer 521 (–138) 5 9 Ken Schrader 507 (–152) 1 10 Dick Trickle 507 (–152) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References