1993 SplitFire Spark Plug 500

Race details
Race 24 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 SplitFire Spark Plug 500 program cover.
Date	September 19, 1993
Official name	23rd Annual SplitFire Spark Plug 500
Location	Dover, Delaware, Dover Downs International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1 mi (1.6 km)
Distance	500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Average speed	100.334 miles per hour (161.472 km/h)
Attendance	86,000
Pole position
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Time	23.768
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Laps	215
Winner
No. 2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
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 SplitFire Spark Plug 500 was the 24th stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 23rd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 19, 1993, before an audience of 86,000 in Dover, Delaware at Dover International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. In a controversial victory, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would manage to comeback from a one-lap deficit partly caused by a wreck Wallace had caused by hitting back of Hut Stricklin's car, causing a five-car pileup, including driver's championship leader Dale Earnhardt on lap 370. As a result, Wallace would get his lap back and manage to climb to the front and take his 28th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his seventh victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ken Schrader and owner-driver Darrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Dover Downs International Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

Dover Downs International Speedway is an oval race track in Dover, Delaware, United States that has held at least two NASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the NTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1-mile (1.6 km) concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated by Dover Motorsports.

The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, September 17, 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, September 18, at 11:30 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-36 would be decided on time,^[4] 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 23.768 and an average speed of 151.464 miles per hour (243.758 km/h) in the first round.^[5]

Four drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 3,626 2 Rusty Wallace 3,445 (-181) 3 Mark Martin 3,297 (-329) 4 Dale Jarrett 3,273 (–353) 5 Morgan Shepherd 3,149 (–477) 1 6 Ken Schrader 3,026 (–600) 1 7 Kyle Petty 2,991 (–635) 8 Bill Elliott 2,914 (–712) 9 Jeff Gordon 2,858 (–768) 10 Ernie Irvan 2,842 (–784) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References