1989 Pontiac Excitement 400

Race details
Race 4 of 29 in the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1989 Pontiac Excitement 400 program cover, with artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	March 26, 1989
Official name	35th Annual Pontiac Excitement 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	89.619 miles per hour (144.228 km/h)
Attendance	50,000
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	22.393
Most laps led
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	126
Winner
No. 27	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Johnny Hayes
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1989 Pontiac Excitement 400 was the fourth stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 26, 1989, before an audience of 50,000 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. With the assist of a late caution and a fast final pitstop, Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace would manage to pull away from the field on the final restart with 17 laps left in the race to take his 12th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, owner-driver Alan Kulwicki and Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt 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 Saturday, March 25, at 2:30 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, March 25, at 4:00 PM 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.

Geoff Bodine, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 22.393 and an average speed of 120.573 miles per hour (194.043 km/h) in the first round.^[6]

Nine drivers would fail to qualify. One of the nine who failed to qualify, Richard Petty, would break a streak of 513 consecutive starts in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.^[7][8]

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 680 2 Alan Kulwicki 616 (-64) 1 3 Darrell Waltrip 582 (-98) 1 4 Sterling Marlin 573 (–107) 2 5 Geoff Bodine 560 (–120) 2 6 Rusty Wallace 554 (–126) 1 7 Rick Wilson 521 (–159) 1 8 Ken Schrader 497 (–183) 3 9 Michael Waltrip 459 (–221) 1 10 Rick Mast 458 (–222) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References