1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300
The 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that occurred on June 9, 1991, at Sears Point International Raceway in the American community of Sonoma, California.
| Race details[1] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 12 of 29 in the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
_with_emphasis_on_NASCAR_track.svg.png) Track map for Sonoma Raceway. The NASCAR track is emphasized in this version. | |||
| Date | June 9, 1991 | ||
| Location | Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, California | ||
| Course |
Permanent racing facility 1.99 mi (3.2 km) | ||
| Distance | 74 laps, 172.88 mi (308.69 km) | ||
| Weather | Warm with temperatures reaching up to 82.9 °F (28.3 °C); wind speeds up to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Hendrick Motorsports | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Rusty Wallace | Penske Racing South | |
| Laps | 45 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 28 | Davey Allison | Yates Racing | |
Scott Gaylord would make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in this racing event.[2] Butch Gilliland, the father of current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor David Gilliland, failed to qualify for this race along with three other drivers.
Kyle Petty would break his leg at a crash in Talladega and was unable to compete; Tommy Kendall took over the #42 Mello Yello machine while Petty was recuperating.[3] Petty's first race after his injury would end up being the 1991 Heinz Southern 500; a fall race at Darlington Raceway.
Summary
While the average green flag run would be 10 laps, 19% of this 74-lap race would be run under some sort of caution flag. A grid of 43 American-born drivers qualified for this road course racing event; R.K. Smith would blow his engine on the second lap, making him the last-place finisher. John Krebs would be the lowest-finishing driver to complete the race while Hershel McGriff would see his ambitions ruined by a crash on lap 61. Ford, Chevrolet and Pontiac vehicles would form the clear majority of the manufacturers involved.[4]
After more than two and a half hours of racing, Davey Allison would defeat the first winner of the annual event Ricky Rudd by a margin of one second after Rudd was black-flagged at the checkers for a previous contact with Allison in the race. Their intense rivalry at this racing event proved their expertise on road courses when most of the other NASCAR drivers in the 1990s were more concerned about racing on oval tracks and struggled to survive in places like Sonoma and Watkins Glen.[5] While Rudd was originally considered to be the winner since he finished first, NASCAR officials spotted a flagrant incident involving him and second-place driver Davey Allison. Rudd's tapping of Davey Allison at the White flag earned him a black-flag of 5 seconds added to his total time; enough to put Allison as the winner.[6] National media would cover the closing moments of this controversial race. As a result, Sonoma Raceway would forever be put on the map of motorsports history.[7]
Three accidents and an oil spill on the track would cause most of the yellow flag occurrences. While Rusty Wallace would lead the most laps in this race, his lack of consistency kept him from besting either Rudd or Allison. The cars in this racing event averaged speeds of nearly 73.000 miles per hour (117.482 km/h).[4] Dale Earnhardt would keep his NASCAR Winston Cup championship points lead but would lead Ricky Rudd by a mere 53 points after this race.[4] Tommy Kendall was not going to surrender the lead when Martin got alongside him, hence why they made contact and Mark went around.[4] Tommy Kendall got the worst end of it, though, cutting a tire and finishing last car on the lead lap after having to pit for new left sides.[4]
Individual race earnings for each driver ranged from the winner's portion of $61,950 ($174,217.37 when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finisher's portion of $3,475 ($6,522.95 when adjusted for inflation). NASCAR officials at this race were authorized to hand out a grand total of $458,960 to all the qualifying drivers of this event ($861,517.15 when adjusted for inflation).[8]
Results
Timeline
Section reference: [4]
- Start: Ricky Rudd was leading the racing grid to the start/finish line as the green flag was waved.
- Lap 4: Caution due to R.K. Smith's accident, ended on lap 6.
- Lap 12: Rusty Wallace took over the lead from Ricky Rudd.
- Lap 17: John Krebs took over the lead from Rusty Wallace.
- Lap 18: Robert Sprague took over the lead from John Krebs.
- Lap 19: Rusty Wallace took over the lead from Robert Sprague.
- Lap 23: Caution due to oil on track, ended on lap 25.
- Lap 39: Morgan Shepher's engine stopped working on this lap.
- Lap 46: Dale Jarrett took over the lead from Rusty Wallace.
- Lap 47: Rusty Wallace took over the lead from Dale Jarrett.
- Lap 53: Transmission problems ended Mike Chase's hopes of winning the event.
- Lap 54: Robert Sprague's engine stopped working on this lap.
- Lap 58: The rear end of Irv Hoevv's vehicle came off in a very unsafe manner.
- Lap 60: Tommy Kendall took over the lead from Rusty Wallace.
- Lap 61: Hershel McGriff had a terminal crash.
- Lap 64: Caution due to Richard Petty's accident, ended on lap 67.
- Lap 72: Davey Allison took over the lead from Tommy Kendall.
- Lap 73: Ricky Rudd took over the lead from Davey Allison.
- Lap 74: Davey Allison took over the lead from Ricky Rudd.
- Finish: Davey Allison was officially declared the winner of the event.
Race results
References
- Weather information for the 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
- Information about the 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 at Race Database
- Top 10 Best NASCAR Cup Sears Point Races at NorCal Car Culture
- 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 racing information at Racing Reference
- NASCAR Flashback: 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300, Rudd Vs. Allison at Rubbings Racing
- Ricky Rudd by John C. Regruth at Google Books
- NASCAR at Sonoma: Recalling 1991 controversy Archived 2013-01-31 at Archive.today at Press Democrat
- Winnings information for the 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
| Preceded by 1991 Budweiser 500 |
NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season 1991 |
Succeeded by 1991 Champion Spark Plug 500 |
| Preceded by 1990 |
Banquet Frozen Foods 300 races 1991 |
Succeeded by 1992 |