1993 Food City 500

Race details
Race 6 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Food City 500 program cover, featuring Larry Carrier.
Date	April 4, 1993
Official name	33rd Annual Food City 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	84.73 miles per hour (136.36 km/h)
Attendance	68,000
Pole position
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Time	15.866
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Laps	376
Winner
No. 2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1993 Food City 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 33rd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 4, 1993, 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. At race's end, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would manage to dominate a majority of the race to take his 23rd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt and SABCO Racing driver Kyle Petty would finish second and third, respectively.

The race weekend was marred by the death of Alan Kulwicki, last year's champion. Kulwicki had died while traveling to Bristol Motor Speedway in an airplane crash on the evening of Thursday, April 1. As a result, his team would withdraw from the race.^[3][4]

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 split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, April 2, at 3:00 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, April 3, at 10:30 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-32 would be decided on time,^[5] 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.

Rusty Wallace, driving for Penske Racing South, would win the pole, setting a time of 15.866 and an average speed of 120.938 miles per hour (194.631 km/h) in the first round.^[6]

Two drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 979 2 Rusty Wallace 932 (-47) 3 Geoff Bodine 861 (-118) 1 4 Mark Martin 855 (–124) 1 5 Davey Allison 804 (–175) 2 6 Dale Jarrett 802 (–177) 7 Morgan Shepherd 795 (–184) 3 8 Kyle Petty 774 (–205) 1 9 Jeff Gordon 744 (–235) 5 10 Jimmy Spencer 738 (–241) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References