1987 Winston Western 500

Race details
Race 28 of 29 in the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1987 Winston Western 500 program cover, featuring Tim Richmond and Dale Earnhardt.
Date	November 8, 1987
Official name	27th Annual Winston Western 500
Location	Riverside International Raceway, Riverside, California
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.62 mi (4.216 km)
Distance	119 laps, 311.78 mi (501.761 km)
Scheduled Distance	119 laps, 311.78 mi (501.761 km)
Average speed	95.503 miles per hour (153.697 km/h)
Attendance	64,500
Pole position
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	1:19.977
Most laps led
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	92
Winner
No. 27	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Buddy Baker, Johnny Hayes
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1987 Winston Western 500 was the 28th and penultimate stock car race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season, the eighth and the final race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston West Series, and the 27th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, November 8, 1987, before an audience of 64,500 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 119 laps to complete.

Taking advantage of misfortune caused by an aggressive battle for the lead in the closing laps between Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine, Blue Max Racing's Rusty Wallace was able to pull ahead when Bodine blew a tire and Earnhardt blew his engine. Wallace was able to score his fourth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports' Benny Parsons and Wood Brothers Racing's Kyle Petty 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, November 6, at 4:30 PM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 25 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, November 7, at 2:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 26-40 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.

Geoff Bodine, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 1:19.977 and an average speed of 117.934 miles per hour (189.796 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 4,521 2 Bill Elliott 4,022 (-499) 3 Terry Labonte 3,923 (-598) 4 Darrell Waltrip 3,802 (–719) 5 Rusty Wallace 3,691 (–830) 1 6 Richard Petty 3,635 (–886) 1 7 Kyle Petty 3,613 (–908) 2 8 Ricky Rudd 3,572 (–949) 2 9 Bobby Allison 3,365 (–1,156) 1 10 Neil Bonnett 3,352 (–1,169) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References