The 1991 Miller Genuine Draft 400 was the 22nd stock car race of the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 34th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, September 7, 1991, before an audience of 69,000 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. In the final laps of the race, Leo Jackson Motorsports driver Harry Gant would manage to make a late-race charge for the lead, passing for the lead with 19 to go in the race to take his 14th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his third victory of the season, and his second straight victory.[1][2][3] To fill out the top three, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison and Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would finish second and third, respectively.
Background
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.
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, September 11, 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 12, at 3:00 PM 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,[4] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified on time 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 22.390 and an average speed of 120.590 miles per hour (194.071 km/h) in the first round.[5][6]
Dale Fischlein was the only driver to fail to qualify.
Full qualifying results
Race results
Standings after the race
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References
- ^ Higgins, Tom (September 8, 1991). "Gant makes it 2 straight with victory at Richmond (Part 1)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 65. Retrieved February 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (September 8, 1991). "Gant makes it 2 straight with victory at Richmond (Part 2)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 79. Retrieved February 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Macenka, Joe (September 8, 1991). "Gant captures second consecutive NASCAR victory". The State. p. 31. Retrieved February 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "NASCAR today". The Charlotte Observer. September 6, 1991. p. 38. Retrieved February 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (September 7, 1991). "Wallace gets a boost from Richmond track (Part 1)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 35. Retrieved February 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (September 7, 1991). "Wallace gets a boost from Richmond track (Part 2)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 42. Retrieved February 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.