1990 Busch 500
The 1990 Busch 500 was the 20th stock car race of the 1990 [NASCAR Winston Cup Series] season and the 30th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, August 25, 1990, before an audience of 58,200 in Bristol, Tennessee, at Bristol International Speedway, a 0.533 miles permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race, Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Ernie Irvan would manage to hold off Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace to the finish to take his first career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season. To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Rusty Wallace and Roush Racing driver Mark Martin would finish second and third, respectively.
Background
The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.Entry list
' denotes rookie driver.Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, August 23, at 7:35 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 15 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, August 24, at 1:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 15-30 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 on time but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given.Dale Earnhardt, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 16.598 and an average speed of in the first round.
Two drivers would fail to qualify.