1993 Slick 50 300

Race details
Race 16 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Slick 50 300 program cover, featuring Bill Elliott. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	July 11, 1993
Official name	Inaugural Annual Slick 50 300
Location	Loudon, New Hampshire, New Hampshire International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.058 mi (1.704 km)
Distance	300 laps, 317.4 mi (510.805 km)
Scheduled Distance	300 laps, 317.4 mi (510.805 km)
Average speed	105.947 miles per hour (170.505 km/h)
Attendance	66,000
Pole position
Driver	Mark Martin	Roush Racing
Time	30.021
Most laps led
Driver	Sterling Marlin	Stavola Brothers Racing
Laps	123
Winner
No. 2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Television in the United States
Network	TNN
Announcers	Mike Joy, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1993 Slick 50 300 was the 16th stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the inaugural iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, July 11, 1993, in Loudon, New Hampshire, at New Hampshire International Speedway, a 1.058-mile (1.703 km) permanent, oval-shaped, low-banked racetrack. The race took the scheduled 300 laps to complete. With the help of a fast final pit stop, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would manage to pull away on the final restart with 27 to go to take his 26th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his fifth victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison would finish second and third, respectively.

This would mark Allison's final race, as the following day he would be critically injured in a helicopter crash at Talladega Speedway and ultimately died early in the morning of July 13, 1993.

Background

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

New Hampshire International Speedway is a 1.058-mile (1.703 km) oval speedway located in Loudon, New Hampshire which has hosted NASCAR racing annually since the early 1990s, as well as an IndyCar weekend and the oldest motorcycle race in North America, the Loudon Classic. Nicknamed "The Magic Mile", the speedway is often converted into a 1.6-mile (2.6 km) road course, which includes much of the oval. The track was originally the site of Bryar Motorsports Park before being purchased and redeveloped by Bob Bahre. The track is currently one of eight major NASCAR tracks owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, July 9, at 3:30 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, July 10, 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 21-40 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.

Mark Martin, driving for Roush Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.021 and an average speed of 126.871 miles per hour (204.179 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Clay Young was the only driver to fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,427 2 Dale Jarrett 2,256 (-171) 3 Rusty Wallace 2,177 (-250) 4 Morgan Shepherd 2,112 (–315) 2 5 Davey Allison 2,104 (–323) 6 Kyle Petty 2,088 (–339) 1 7 Jeff Gordon 2,056 (–371) 2 8 Mark Martin 2,048 (–379) 4 9 Ken Schrader 2,026 (–401) 1 10 Ernie Irvan 2,007 (–420) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References