1994 Budweiser 500

Race details
Race 12 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1994 Miller Genuine Draft 500 program cover, featuring Bill Elliott.
Date	June 5, 1994
Official name	26th Annual Budweiser 500
Location	Dover, Delaware, Dover 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	102.529 miles per hour (165.004 km/h)
Attendance	94,000
Pole position
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing
Time	23.691
Most laps led
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing
Laps	313
Winner
No. 2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Television in the United States
Network	TNN
Announcers	Mike Joy, Dick Berggren, Kenny Wallace
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1994 Budweiser 500 was the 12th stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 45th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, June 5, 1994, in Dover, Delaware at Dover International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace was able to defend against a late race charge against Robert Yates Racing driver Ernie Irvan to take his 34th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series and his third victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Ernie Irvan and Hendrick Motorsports driver Ken Schrader would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

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

Dover 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 split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, June 3, 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, June 4, 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 21-34 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.

Ernie Irvan, driving for Robert Yates Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 23.691 and an average speed of 151.956 miles per hour (244.549 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Two drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Ernie Irvan 1,979 2 Dale Earnhardt 1,816 (-163) 3 Rusty Wallace 1,650 (-329) 4 Ken Schrader 1,605 (–374) 5 Mark Martin 1,601 (–378) 1 6 Ricky Rudd 1,476 (–503) 1 7 Lake Speed 1,473 (–506) 2 8 Morgan Shepherd 1,462 (–517) 1 9 Michael Waltrip 1,448 (–531) 1 10 Sterling Marlin 1,434 (–545) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References