1987 Budweiser 400

Race details
Race 13 of 29 in the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1987 Budweiser 400 program cover.
Date	June 21, 1987
Official name	19th Annual Budweiser 400
Location	Riverside International Raceway, Riverside, California
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.62 mi (4.216 km)
Distance	95 laps, 248.9 mi (400.565 km)
Scheduled Distance	95 laps, 248.9 mi (400.565 km)
Average speed	102.183 miles per hour (164.448 km/h)
Attendance	55,000
Pole position
Driver	Terry Labonte	Junior Johnson & Associates
Time	1:20.244
Most laps led
Driver	Tim Richmond	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	48
Winner
No. 25	Tim Richmond	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Larry Nuber, Dick Berggren
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1987 Budweiser 400 was the 13th stock car race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season, the second race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston West Series, and the 19th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, June 21, 1987, before an audience of 55,000 in Riverside, California, at the short layout of Riverside International Raceway, a 2.62 miles (4.22 km) permanent road course layout at the track. The race took the scheduled 95 laps to complete.

By race's end, Hendrick Motorsports' Tim Richmond managed to dominate the late stages of the race, leading the last 31 of 39 laps to take his 13th and final career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Bud Moore Engineering's Ricky Rudd and RahMoc Enterprises' Neil Bonnett finished second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Riverside International Raceway, the venue where the race was held.

Riverside International Raceway (sometimes known as Riverside, RIR, or Riverside Raceway) was a motorsports race track and road course established in the Edgemont area of Riverside County, California, just east of the city limits of Riverside and 50 mi (80 km) east of Los Angeles, in 1957. In 1984, the raceway became part of the newly incorporated city of Moreno Valley. Riverside was noted for its hot, dusty environment and for being somewhat of a complicated and dangerous track for drivers. It was also considered one of the finest tracks in the United States.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, June 19, at 6:30 PM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round were 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, June 20, at 5:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 were 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 provisionals were given.

Terry Labonte, driving for Junior Johnson & Associates, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 1:20.244 and an average speed of 117.541 miles per hour (189.164 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Five drivers failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 2,129 2 Bill Elliott 1,944 (-185) 3 Neil Bonnett 1,868 (-261) 1 4 Terry Labonte 1,790 (–339) 1 5 Kyle Petty 1,726 (–403) 1 6 Ricky Rudd 1,704 (–425) 2 7 Richard Petty 1,661 (–268) 2 8 Darrell Waltrip 1,655 (–474) 1 9 Ken Schrader 1,652 (–477) 1 10 Phil Parsons 1,581 (–548) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References