1989 Talladega DieHard 500
The 1989 Talladega DieHard 500 was the 17th stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 21st iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, July 30, 1989, before an audience of 90,000 in Lincoln, Alabama at Alabama International Motor Speedway, a 2.66 miles permanent triangle-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 188 laps to complete. On the final restart with five laps left in the race, Junior Johnson & Associates driver Terry Labonte would manage to defend the field, mainly defending Hendrick Motorsports driver Darrell Waltrip to take his 11th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season. To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Darrell Waltrip and Roush Racing driver Mark Martin would finish second and third, respectively.
Background
Talladega Superspeedway, originally known as Alabama International Motor Superspeedway , is a motorsports complex located north of Talladega, Alabama. It is located on the former Anniston Air Force Base in the small city of Lincoln. The track is a tri-oval and was constructed in the 1960s by the International Speedway Corporation, a business controlled by the France family. Talladega is most known for its steep banking and the unique location of the start/finish line that's located just past the exit to pit road. The track currently hosts the NASCAR series such as the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series. Talladega is the longest NASCAR oval, a tri-oval like the Daytona International Speedway, which also is a tri-oval.Entry list
' denotes rookie driver.Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, July 27, 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 Friday, July 28, 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.Mark Martin, driving for Roush Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 49.158 and an average speed of in the first round.
No drivers would fail to qualify.