1989 All Pro Auto Parts 500
The 1989 All Pro Auto Parts 500 was the 25th stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 30th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 8, 1989, before an audience of 151,600 in Concord, North Carolina, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles permanent quad-oval. The race took the scheduled 334 laps to complete. In the closing laps of the race, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ken Schrader would mount a late-race charge to the lead, passing for the lead with 15 laps left in the race to take his second career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season. To fill out the top three, Jackson Bros. Motorsports driver Harry Gant and Roush Racing driver Mark Martin would finish second and third, respectively.
With an eighth-place finish from driver's championship contender Rusty Wallace and a last place finish from Dale Earnhardt, who finished the race 42nd after retiring from the race due to a broken camshaft, Wallace would manage to take over the driver's championship lead from Earnhardt with a 35-point lead.
Background
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. with Marcus G. Smith as track president.Entry list
' denotes rookie driver.Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, October 4, at 2:00 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 Thursday, October 5, 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 21-40 would be decided on time, 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 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.Bill Elliott, driving for Melling Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 31.020 and an average speed of in the first round.
Seven drivers would fail to qualify.