1993 Miller Genuine Draft 400

Race details
Race 23 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Miller Genuine Draft 400 program cover, featuring Rusty Wallace. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	September 11, 1993
Official name	36th 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	99.917 miles per hour (160.801 km/h)
Attendance	75,000
Pole position
Driver	Bobby Labonte	Bill Davis Racing
Time	22.130
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Laps	206
Winner
No. 2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1993 Miller Genuine Draft 400 was the 23rd stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 36th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, September 11, 1993, before an audience of 75,000 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. At race's end, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his 27th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his sixth victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Junior Johnson & Associates driver Bill Elliott 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 Friday, September 10, at 5:30 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, September 11, at 3:00 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,^[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; up to two were given. 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.

Bobby Labonte, driving for Bill Davis Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 22.130 and an average speed of 122.006 miles per hour (196.350 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Four drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 3,544 2 Rusty Wallace 3,260 (-284) 3 Mark Martin 3,227 (-317) 4 Dale Jarrett 3,108 (–436) 5 Morgan Shepherd 3,011 (–533) 6 Kyle Petty 2,870 (–674) 7 Ken Schrader 2,851 (–693) 3 8 Bill Elliott 2,780 (–764) 1 9 Jeff Gordon 2,762 (–782) 2 10 Ernie Irvan 2,752 (–792) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References