The 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 41st season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 18th modern-era Cup season. It began February 12 and ended November 19. Rusty Wallace of Blue Max Racing won the championship. This was the first year that every Winston Cup race had flag to flag coverage, with almost all of them being televised live.
The 1989 season marked the end of the first of two tire wars between Goodyear and Hoosier, with Hoosier leaving NASCAR shortly after Goodyear debuted their new radial tires.[1]
Rusty Wallace became the first driver to claim the Unocal 76 Challenge. After one rollover, and bonus money added at the season ending banquet, Wallace received an additional $22,800 for winning from the pole.
Richard Petty was a factor among the leaders, and led 9 laps. But during a pit stop, the gas can leaked fuel onto the exhaust pipe, and started a bad pit fire. Crew member Robert Callicutt suffered second degree burns over 40% of his body and was hospitalized. Petty was forced to drop out of the race. The incident led to new rules regarding crew member fire protection, and newly designed gas can nozzles to prevent leakage. In addition, all pit road reporters for ABC and ESPN would be required to wear fire protected suits for future races telecast by either network.
This race was scheduled for the weekend after the Daytona 500 (February 26), but snow fell in Richmond and blanketed the Speedway. The race was postponed a month, and in subsequent seasons, the spring Richmond race was moved later and later into the season. It is one of the rare times a NASCAR race has been held on Easter Sunday, a weekend that has not had an originally scheduled NASCAR Cup race in the modern era.
After qualifying for 513 consecutive races, Richard Petty failed to make the field for this race for the first time since the 1971 Georgia 500. He wrecked his primary car during practice, and could not get the backup car up to speed. His consecutive starts record would stand until the 1996 First Union 400 when Terry Labonte broke the record. Petty's failure to qualify would not be this isolated race however as he would fail to qualify for three additional races later in the season. This would eventually lead to the past champion's provisional being added for former Cup champions failing to qualify on speed or normal provisionals.
This was the final NASCAR start for team owner Buddy Arrington with Brad Teague as his final driver. Teague would finish 17th, 12 laps down to the winner.
This race would set the all time caution record for the NASCAR Cup Series; this record would hold up for seventeen years before being beaten by the 2005 Coca-Cola 600.
This race marked the end of the first tire war, as Hoosier Racing Tire left NASCAR when they could not sell enough tires to be economically viable. Hoosier returned to the Winston Cup Series in 1994, but left for good after that season.[2][3]
Derrike Cope brings his Purolator sponsorship to the Bob Whitcomb team as their new driver. He was involved in the race's final caution in The Big One crashing out of the race, finishing 30th.
The Winston, an annual all-star race for previous winners and champions along with the winner of the same day Winston Open, was held May 21 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The No. 11 of Terry Labonte won the pole.
Rusty Wallace spun Darrell Waltrip out of the lead coming to the white flag to earn the victory. This sparked a fight between Wallace and Waltrip's crew members in the pits before Wallace got to victory lane.
By winning the Daytona 500 earlier in the season, and now the Coca-Cola 600, Waltrip secured a $100,000 bonus for winning two of the Winston Million races, and put himself in position to win the Winston Million later in the season at Darlington.
Kyle Petty drives the number 42 Peak Antifreeze Chevrolet Monte Carlo owned by Rick Hendrick in this race due to Kyle destroying the only car his regular owner Felix Sabates had during the previous weekend on lap 3 of The Winston. He would finish 17th, 8 laps down to the winner.[4]
Darrell Waltrip, who won the final race with the older Chevrolet Monte Carlo body style at Martinsville a month earlier, became the first driver to take the Lumina that replaced it to Victory Lane.
This race marked the debut of Jimmy Spencer in the NASCAR Cup Series driving Buddy Baker's number 88. However it was short lived as he would finish 34th only completing 75 laps due to engine failure.[5]
Mark Martin actually rolled his car during the race due to an error by a new tire changer (only two of the five lug nuts were properly fastened on the car). Right after the car left the pits, the right rear came off, the car spun, hit the tire barrier and rolled onto its roof. However, he came back to finish the race in 31st, 5 laps down.
This would be Buick's penultimate victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.
This was first time the Pepsi 400 was aired on ESPN. The race was shown flag-to-flag, but on same-day tape delay. Previously, the Pepsi/Firecracker 400 was aired as part of ABC's Wide World of Sports and only highlights of the race would air.
This race featured a rollover crash involving the No. 83 of Lake Speed on lap 144.
This race was notable for two wrecks that tore open portions of the track's boilerplate walls. Jimmy Horton crashed in Turn Two and tore open a hole in the wall. Later a big wreck erupted in Turn One involving Greg Sacks in the Tom Winkle No. 48 and the No. 83 of Lake Speed. The two cars got together going into Turn One and smashed into the boilerplate wall head-on. The hit punched open the wall and sent Sacks flipping. The yellow remained out for the duration of time needed to repair the wall. Speed broke his shoulder in the crash and had to sit out for a couple weeks.
Elliott cut a tire on the opening lap but rallied to take the lead from Wallace in the final ten laps. The win tied Elliott with Tim Richmond for most wins at Pocono. Richmond, battling illness, was the subject of a short retrospective piece on the ESPN telecast and former Richmond crew chiefs Barry Dodson and Harry Hyde were interviewed on-air about him.
Joe Ruttman substituted for Lake Speed in the No. 83, and crashed spectacularly on lap 145. Ruttman hit the wall nearly head-on and almost got on his side as a result.
This would be Labontes final win with the Junior Johnson team. Labonte would not win again in the Cup series until 1994.
Eddie Bierschwale was the substitute driver in the No. 83 for Lake Speed, who was still recovering from his shoulder injury at Pocono. He finished 38th.
This race is notable for a big wreck on lap 89 involving the No. 5 of Geoff Bodine. Bodine lost a tire at the end of the backstraight, spun around and went through the barrier and hitting a fence behind the barrier (more or less marking off the property line of Watkins Glen International's land). Bodine was uninjured.
Also on this day, Tim Richmond who had a long battle with AIDS, died earlier in the day.
Wallace's victory snapped a five-race winning streak for Ford.
Late in the race, ESPN showed Tom Cruise meeting with Rick Hendrick and members of that team as part of his preparation to play Cole Trickle in the 1990 film Days of Thunder.
This race would be Jim Sauter's final Top 10 finish, with Sauter's 9th place finish tying his finish at the 1987 Coca-Cola 600 for the best of his career.
This was the fourth race that Petty failed to qualify. In response to fan complaints about Petty missing several races, NASCAR introduced the past champion's provisional in 1991.[6][7]
Fortunately, this would be the last DNQ for Richard Petty before his retirement in 1992.
The race was red-flagged briefly because of a crash involving Neil Bonnett. Bonnett, who broke his sternum in the incident, was forced to sit out the next three races. The reason for the delay was to clear the track to allow for an ambulance to transport Bonnett out of the speedway to a local hospital.
The Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway was originally scheduled for October 1, but rain forced the race to be postponed to October 15. Rain also cancelled qualifying so Dale Earnhardt who was leading the points at the time qualifying was cancelled on September 30th was awarded the pole per the current owners points at that time.
This race was notable for the race for the win between Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd. On the last lap, Earnhardt and Rudd touched in turn 1, spinning both cars out. This allowed Geoff Bodine to slip by and win the race, and allowed Rusty Wallace to gain points on Earnhardt for the championship hunt.
A rare father-and-son crash knocked both Richard Petty and son Kyle out of the race, with Richard finishing 32nd (last); the 15th and final last-place finish for "the King". Kyle ended the afternoon in 31st place.
Two cars entered by Hendrick Motorsports (the No. 46 City Chevrolet driven by Greg Sacks and the No. 51 Exxon Chevrolet driven by Bobby Hamilton) were entered to get in-race footage for the 1990 film Days of Thunder. Hamilton actually led the race with 100 laps to go (in his first career start) before the engine blew. A third movie car (the No. 18 Hardee's Chevrolet driven by Tommy Ellis) failed to make the race.
Three drivers entered the race mathematically eligible for the Winston Cup championship. Rusty Wallace had a 78-point lead over Mark Martin, and a 79-point lead over third-place Dale Earnhardt. Wallace had to finish 18th or better to clinch the title, but went into the race proclaiming he was going to 'run as hard as he could.' The statement was seen as a thinly veiled criticism of Bill Elliott whom Wallace lost the championship to a year earlier, in a similar situation. In that year, Elliott elected to drive a very conservative race, easily clinching the title, much to the ire of the hard-charging Wallace. Dale Earnhardt qualified 3rd, Wallace qualified 4th, but Martin would start back in 20th.[9]
Despite his plan to race all-out, Wallace encountered problems that complicated his day. On the first round of pit stops, he pitted under green but lost a lap when the caution came out shortly thereafter. Later, he suffered a flat tire and fell all the way back to the 33rd position. Wallace slowly and steadily worked his way back up the standings. Dale Earnhardt, meanwhile, dominated the race leading 294 of the 328 laps en route to victory. Mark Martin, the other driver in the mix for the championship did not end up being a factor. He dropped out on lap 224 with a blown engine that resulted in a fire. In the closing laps, Wallace was three laps down in 15th place, just barely holding on to the hypothetical points lead. Wallace managed to finish the race in 15th, and won the Winston Cup championship by a mere 12 points over Earnhardt.[10] It was Wallace's first and only Winston Cup championship, and the first championship in the modern era for Pontiac.
On lap 203, Grant Adcox struck the wall and suffered a heart attack and severe head injuries. Adcox died shortly after the accident.
