1990 Miller Genuine Draft 400

Race details
Race 22 of 29 in the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1990 Miller Genuine Draft 400 program cover, featuring Rusty Wallace. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	September 9, 1990
Official name	33rd Annual Miller Genuine Draft 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	95.567 miles per hour (153.800 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Morgan-McClure Motorsports
Time	22.524
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	173
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress 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 1990 Miller Genuine Draft 400 was the 22nd stock car race of the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 33rd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 9, 1990, 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, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would manage to defend the field in a final three-lap restart to the finish to take his 47th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his eighth victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and Hendrick Motorsports driver Darrell Waltrip 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 Friday, September 7, 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, September 8, 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.

Ernie Irvan, driving for Morgan–McClure Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 22.524 and an average speed of 119.872 miles per hour (192.915 km/h) in the first round.^[6][7] Two drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Mark Martin 3,344 2 Dale Earnhardt 3,328 (-16) 3 Geoff Bodine 3,120 (-224) 4 Rusty Wallace 2,952 (–392) 5 Bill Elliott 2,921 (–423) 1 6 Ricky Rudd 2,837 (–507) 1 7 Morgan Shepherd 2,768 (–576) 8 Kyle Petty 2,734 (–610) 1 9 Ken Schrader 2,719 (–625) 1 10 Ernie Irvan 2,673 (–671) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References