1993 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500

Race details
Race 4 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 program cover, featuring Bill Elliott. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	March 20, 1993
Official name	34th Annual Motorcraft Quality Parts 500
Location	Hampton, Georgia, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.522 mi (2.449 km)
Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Scheduled Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Average speed	150.442 miles per hour (242.113 km/h)
Attendance	82,000
Pole position
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Time	30.653
Most laps led
Driver	Mark Martin	Roush Racing
Laps	140
Winner
No. 21	Morgan Shepherd	Wood Brothers Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TNN
Announcers	Mike Joy, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1993 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 was the fourth stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 34th iteration of the event. The race was originally scheduled to be held on Sunday, March 14, 1993, but was postponed by nearly a week due to the 1993 Storm of the Century that affected a majority of the American East Coast.^[1] The race was run on Saturday, March 20, in Hampton, Georgia at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.522 miles (2.449 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 328 laps to complete. Depending on fuel mileage, Wood Brothers Racing driver Morgan Shepherd would manage to conserve enough fuel on the final green flag stint to take his fourth and final career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[2][3] To fill out the top three, Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Ernie Irvan and Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Atlanta Motor Speedway, the circuit where the race was held.

Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a 1.522-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.

The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of 1.54-mile (2.48 km) where before it was 1.522-mile (2.449 km). The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Qualifying

Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, March 12, at 2:30 PM EST. Originally, the first 20 positions were going to be determined by first round qualifying, with positions 21-40 meant to be determined the following day on Saturday, March 13. However, due to a major snowstorm and nor'easter, the second round was cancelled. As a result, qualifying was set using the results from the first round.^[5]

Rusty Wallace, driving for Penske Racing South, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.653 and an average speed of 178.749 miles per hour (287.669 km/h) in the first round.^[6]

Four drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Dale Earnhardt 619 2 2 Geoff Bodine 600 (-19) 2 3 Rusty Wallace 592 (-27) 3 4 Dale Jarrett 560 (–59) 5 5 Jeff Gordon 536 (–83) 3 6 Mark Martin 533 (–86) 7 7 Ernie Irvan 527 (–92) 9 8 Morgan Shepherd 510 (–109) 1 9 Davey Allison 509 (–110) 3 10 Hut Stricklin 501 (–118) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References