The 1989 DAYTONA 500 – NASCAR Cup Series

Relive a historic NASCAR race, with the DAYTONA 500 contested at the start of the 1989 season of what was then the Winston Cup.

After the speed records set by Bill Elliott in 1987, but also the accident of Bobby Allison during the Talladega Winston 500 that same year, NASCAR decided to act and reduce car speeds on the Daytona and Talladega ovals . Restriction plates were then imposed by NASCAR in 1988. As a result of this decision, the cars were closer to each other. It was still difficult to talk about racing in packs at that time, since all the teams had not yet understood all the subtleties of these races and had not yet chosen to develop specific chassis for these four events.

Ken Schrader takes pole position in the 1989 DAYTONA 500, the thirty-first edition of the name. The driver of the #25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet shares the front row with three-time champion teammate Darrell Waltrip.

Ken Schrader won the first Duel, while the second went to the 1984 champion, Terry Labonte, at the wheel of the No. 11 Ford of Junior Johnson’s team. Thanks to this success in the qualifying race, Terry Labonte secured a start in second position.

No less than 62 cars are registered for 42 places on the starting grid. Each Duel therefore promises to eliminate ten pilots. In the end, Delma Cowart, Doug Heveron, Jim Sauter, Phil Duffie, Charlie Glotzbach, Ricky Woodward, Jim Bown, Kyle Petty, Tony Spanos, Hut Stricklin, Mark Gibson, Derrike Cope, Randy LaJoie, Brad Noffsinger, Connie Saylor, Jimmy Horton , Bobby Gerhart and Trevor Boys did not qualify. As for Tom Winkle, he withdrew Mickey Gibbs’ Pontiac n°48 and placed himself in the n°67 initially entrusted to Brad Teague.

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