1989 Miller High Life 400

Race details
Race 22 of 29 in the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1989 Miller Genuine Draft 400 program cover, featuring Bobby Allison. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	September 10, 1989
Official name	32nd Annual Miller High Life 400
Location	Richmond, Virginia, Richmond International Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.75 mi (1.21 km)
Distance	400 laps, 300 mi (482.803 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 300 mi (482.803 km)
Average speed	88.38 miles per hour (142.23 km/h)
Attendance	60,000
Pole position
Driver	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing
Time	22.289
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Laps	211
Winner
No. 27	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Johnny Hayes, Chris Economaki
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1989 Miller High Life 400 was the 22nd stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 32nd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 10, 1989, before an audience of 60,000 in Richmond, Virginia, at Richmond International Raceway, a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) D-shaped oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete. Gambling on fuel strategy, Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace would manage to run the last 129 laps of the race on one tank of fuel to take his 16th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his sixth and final victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt and Hendrick Motorsports driver Geoff Bodine would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Richmond International Raceway, the venue where the race was at.

Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is a 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. Known as "America's premier short track", it formerly hosted a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, an IndyCar Series race, and two USAC sprint car races.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, September 8, 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, September 9, at 11:00 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,^[5] 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; up to two were given.

Bill Elliott, driving for Melling Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 22.289 and an average speed of 121.136 miles per hour (194.949 km/h) in the first round.^[6][7]

Greg Sacks was the only driver to fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 3,212 2 Rusty Wallace 3,149 (-63) 3 Mark Martin 3,016 (-196) 4 Darrell Waltrip 2,963 (–249) 1 5 Davey Allison 2,796 (–416) 1 6 Bill Elliott 2,796 (–416) 1 7 Ricky Rudd 2,782 (–430) 2 8 Geoff Bodine 2,726 (–486) 2 9 Ken Schrader 2,724 (–488) 1 10 Harry Gant 2,721 (–491) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References