1993 Mello Yello 500

Race details
Race 27 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Mello Yello 500 program cover, with artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	October 10, 1993
Official name	34th Annual Mello Yello 500
Location	Concord, North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.5 mi (2.41 km)
Distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Scheduled Distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Average speed	154.537 miles per hour (248.703 km/h)
Attendance	110,000
Pole position
Driver	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	30.391
Most laps led
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing
Laps	328
Winner
No. 28	Ernie Irvan	Robert Yates Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The 1993 Mello Yello 500 was the 27th stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 34th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 10, 1993, before an audience of 110,000 in Concord, North Carolina, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent quad-oval. The race took the scheduled 334 laps to complete. At race's end, Robert Yates Racing driver Ernie Irvan would complete a dominant performance, leading 328 laps to take his ninth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his third and final victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

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

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of Bruton Smith) as track president.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, October 6, at 4:45 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 Thursday, October 7, at 12:00 PM 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.

Jeff Gordon, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.391 and an average speed of 177.684 miles per hour (285.955 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Eight drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 4,047 2 Rusty Wallace 3,965 (-82) 1 3 Mark Martin 3,702 (-345) 1 4 Dale Jarrett 3,656 (–391) 5 Morgan Shepherd 3,475 (–572) 6 Kyle Petty 3,436 (–611) 7 Ken Schrader 3,422 (–625) 8 Ernie Irvan 3,377 (–670) 9 Bill Elliott 3,284 (–763) 1 10 Jeff Gordon 3,209 (–838) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References