1990 Valleydale Meats 500

Race details
Race 6 of 29 in the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1990 Valleydale Meats 500 program cover, featuring Rusty Wallace.
Date	April 8, 1990
Official name	30th Annual Valleydale Meats 500
Location	Bristol, Tennessee, Bristol Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.533 mi (0.858 km)
Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Average speed	87.258 miles per hour (140.428 km/h)
Attendance	57,800
Pole position
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Morgan-McClure Motorsports
Time	16.519
Most laps led
Driver	Darrell Waltrip	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	167
Winner
No. 28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1990 Valleydale Meats 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 30th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 8, 1990, before an audience of 57,800 in Bristol, Tennessee, at Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.533 miles (0.858 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison would manage to best out Roush Racing driver Mark Martin by a margin of 8 inches (20 cm) at the finish of the race to take his seventh career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ricky Rudd would finish third.

Background

The layout of Bristol Motor Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.

Qualifying

Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was scheduled to be held on Friday, April 6, at 4:00 PM EST. However, due to rain, the first round was cancelled, and qualifying was condensed into one round, which was held on Saturday, April 7, at 1:00 PM EST.^[5] Each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 1–30 would be decided on time,^[6] 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.

Ernie Irvan, driving for Morgan–McClure Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 16.519 and an average speed of 116.157 miles per hour (186.937 km/h).^[7]

Two drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 945 2 Morgan Shepherd 903 (-42) 1 3 Kyle Petty 824 (-121) 3 4 Mark Martin 824 (–121) 2 5 Geoff Bodine 804 (–141) 2 6 Ken Schrader 796 (–149) 2 7 Bill Elliott 789 (–156) 2 8 Darrell Waltrip 766 (–179) 3 9 Sterling Marlin 764 (–181) 4 10 Rusty Wallace 750 (–195) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References