1989 Daytona 500

1989 Daytona 500

Race details
Race 1 of 29 in the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1989 Daytona 500 program cover, featuring Bill Elliott.
Date	February 19, 1989
Official name	31st Annual Daytona 500
Location	Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.0 km)
Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Scheduled Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Average speed	148.466 miles per hour (238.933 km/h)
Attendance	150,000
Pole position
Driver	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports
Time	45.686
Most laps led
Driver	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports
Laps	114
Winner
No. 17	Darrell Waltrip	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	CBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Chris Economaki, Ned Jarrett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1989 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 31st iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 19, 1989, before an audience of 150,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete. Gambling on fuel mileage, Hendrick Motorsports driver Darrell Waltrip would manage to run the last 53 laps on one tank of fuel to take his 74th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his first and only Daytona 500 victory, and his first victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ken Schrader and Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would finish second and third, respectively.

Daytona International Speedway is one of three superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the other two being Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying was set by the 1989 Twin 125 Qualifiers. The top two positions were set by qualifying speeds held for the Twin 125 Qualifiers held on Saturday, February 11, with the top two qualifiers in the session earning the top two positions for the Daytona 500. The rest of the starting was set in the Twin 125 Qualifiers, held on Thursday, February 16 during two races. The top 14 finishers in the first race, excluding the pole position winner, would set the inside row from rows two to 15, and the top 14 finishers in the second race, excluding the outside pole position winner, would set the outside row from rows two to 15. The remaining non-qualifiers would set positions 31-40 based on qualifying speeds from the first qualifying session held on Saturday. If needed, up to two extra provisionals were given to teams high enough in the previous season's owner's standings that did not qualify for the race by either qualifying speed or from the Twin 125 Qualifiers.

Ken Schrader, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 45.686 and an average speed of 196.996 miles per hour (317.034 km/h) in Saturday's session.^[7]

18 drivers would fail to qualify.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Darrell Waltrip 180 (1st) 2 Ken Schrader 180 (2nd) 3 Dale Earnhardt 170 (-10) 4 Geoff Bodine 165 (–15) 5 Phil Parsons 160 (–20) 6 Rick Mast 155 (–25) 7 Alan Kulwicki 151 (–29) 8 Rick Wilson 147 (–34) 9 Terry Labonte 143 (–37) 10 Eddie Bierschwale 139 (–41) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.