1991 TranSouth 500

Race details
Race 5 of 29 in the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1991 TranSouth 500 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	April 7, 1991
Official name	35th Annual TranSouth 500
Location	Darlington, South Carolina, Darlington Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Scheduled Distance	367 laps, 501.322 mi (806.799 km)
Average speed	135.594 miles per hour (218.217 km/h)
Attendance	50,000
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Junior Johnson & Associates
Time	30.367
Most laps led
Driver	Michael Waltrip	Bahari Racing
Laps	208
Winner
No. 5	Ricky Rudd	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1991 TranSouth 500 was the fifth stock car race of the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 7, 1991, before an audience of 50,000 in Darlington, South Carolina, at Darlington Raceway, a 1.366 miles (2.198 km) permanent egg-shaped oval racetrack. The race took the scheduled 367 laps to complete. At race's end, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ricky Rudd would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his 12th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison and Bahari Racing driver Michael Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Darlington Raceway, the venue where the race was held.

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, April 4, 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 Friday, April 5, at 11:30 AM 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,^[3] 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; which was usually two. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.

Geoff Bodine, driving for Junior Johnson & Associates, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.367 and an average speed of 161.939 miles per hour (260.616 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Mark Stahl was the only driver to fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Ricky Rudd 808 1 2 Dale Earnhardt 728 (-80) 2 3 Ernie Irvan 679 (-129) 4 Ken Schrader 670 (–138) 2 5 Sterling Marlin 667 (–141) 5 6 Mark Martin 648 (–160) 2 7 Morgan Shepherd 644 (–164) 6 8 Michael Waltrip 642 (–166) 4 9 Rusty Wallace 625 (–183) 7 10 Alan Kulwicki 622 (–186) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References