1993 Pontiac Excitement 400

Race details
Race 3 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Pontiac Excitement 400 program cover, with artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	March 7, 1993
Official name	39th Annual Pontiac Excitement 400
Location	Richmond, Virginia, Richmond International Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.75 mi (1.21 km)
Distance	400 laps, 300 mi (482.803 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 300 mi (482.803 km)
Average speed	107.709 miles per hour (173.341 km/h)
Attendance	70,000
Pole position
Driver	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	21.922
Most laps led
Driver	Kyle Petty	SABCO Racing
Laps	168
Winner
No. 28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1993 Pontiac Excitement 400 was the third stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 39th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 7, 1993, in Richmond, Virginia, at Richmond International Raceway, a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) D-shaped oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete. At race's end, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his 19th and eventual final career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace and owner-driver Alan Kulwicki would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Richmond International Raceway, the venue where the race was at.

Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is a 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. Known as "America's premier short track", it formerly hosted a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, an IndyCar Series race, and two USAC sprint car races.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, March 4, 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, March 5, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-34 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.

Ken Schrader, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 21.922 and an average speed of 123.164 miles per hour (198.213 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Three drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Dale Jarrett 490 1 2 Dale Earnhardt 489 (-1) 1 3 Mark Martin 456 (-34) 1 4 Geoff Bodine 445 (–45) 3 5 Rusty Wallace 422 (–68) 3 6 Alan Kulwicki 415 (–75) 2 7 Hut Stricklin 398 (–92) 10 8 Davey Allison 385 (–105) 3 9 Ted Musgrave 381 (–109) 6 10 Jeff Gordon 371 (–119) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References