1992 Budweiser 500

Race details
Race 11 of 29 in the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1992 Budweiser 500 program cover, featuring Bill Elliott, Junior Johnson. and Tim Brewer.
Date	May 31, 1992
Official name	24th Annual Budweiser 500
Location	Dover, Delaware, Dover Downs International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1 mi (1.6 km)
Distance	500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Average speed	109.456 miles per hour (176.152 km/h)
Attendance	77,000
Pole position
Driver	Brett Bodine	King Racing
Time	24.422
Most laps led
Driver	Darrell Waltrip	Darrell Waltrip Motorsports
Laps	104
Winner
No. 33	Harry Gant	Leo Jackson Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	TNN
Announcers	Mike Joy, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1992 Budweiser 500 was the 11th stock car race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 24th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, May 31, 1992, before an audience of 77,000 in Dover, Delaware at Dover Downs International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. Running on fumes, Leo Jackson Motorsports driver Harry Gant would manage to save enough fuel to coast to the finish to take his 17th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt and Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Dover Downs International Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

Dover Downs International Speedway is an oval race track in Dover, Delaware, United States that has held at least two NASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the NTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1-mile (1.6 km) concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated by Dover Motorsports.

The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.

Qualifying

Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, May 29, at 3:00 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 Saturday, May 30.^[3] 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.^[4]

Brett Bodine, driving for King Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 24.422 and an average speed of 147.408 miles per hour (237.230 km/h).^[5]

No drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Davey Allison 1,694 1 2 Harry Gant 1,624 (-70) 2 3 Dale Earnhardt 1,595 (-99) 2 4 Bill Elliott 1,577 (–117) 1 5 Alan Kulwicki 1,564 (–130) 6 Terry Labonte 1,483 (–211) 7 Morgan Shepherd 1,472 (–222) 1 8 Dick Trickle 1,383 (–311) 1 9 Geoff Bodine 1,360 (–334) 1 10 Ricky Rudd 1,346 (–348) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References