1994 Miller Genuine Draft 400

Race details
Race 24 of 31 in the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1994 Miller Genuine Draft 400 program cover, featuring Rusty Wallace. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	September 10, 1994
Official name	37th Annual Miller Genuine Draft 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	104.156 miles per hour (167.623 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Ted Musgrave	Roush Racing
Time	21.765
Most laps led
Driver	Terry Labonte	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	237
Winner
No. 5	Terry Labonte	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Chuck Bown
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1994 Miller Genuine Draft 400 was the 24th stock car race of the 1994 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 37th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, September 10, 1994, 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. On lap 373 of the race, Hendrick Motorsports driver Terry Labonte would make a late-race pass for the lead and hold the field off to take his 13th 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 owner-driver Darrell Waltrip 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, September 9, at 5:30 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 10, at 2:00 PM 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,^[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 provisionals 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.

Ted Musgrave, driving for Roush Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 21.765 and an average speed of 124.052 miles per hour (199.642 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Seven drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 3,620 1 2 Rusty Wallace 3,388 (-232) 1 3 Mark Martin 3,317 (-303) 4 Ricky Rudd 3,210 (–410) 1 5 Ken Schrader 3,139 (–481) 1 6 Morgan Shepherd 3,077 (–543) 2 7 Ernie Irvan 3,026 (–594) 1 8 Jeff Gordon 2,921 (–699) 1 9 Bill Elliott 2,887 (–733) 10 Michael Waltrip 2,829 (–791) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References