Hooters 500
The Hooters 500 was held November 14 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Harry Gant won the pole. In this race, Dale Earnhardt clinched his sixth championship, only needing a 34th place finish or better to claim the title; he finished 10th. 1989 champion Rusty Wallace gave his maximum effort in his 300th Winston Cup start but was still 80 points short of the Winston Cup Championship.
During practice, Dale Earnhardt, Ken Schrader, and Jeff Gordon all had crashes. However, all three were uninjured and qualified for the race.
This race was a day of remembrance, as mentioned in the television broadcast opening. Exactly a one year prior, the 1992 race ended up being one of the greatest races of all time - and two of the key fixtures, Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison were killed in aviation accidents during the season.
Top Ten Results
- 2-Rusty Wallace
- 5-Ricky Rudd
- 17-Darrell Waltrip
- 11-Bill Elliott
- 41-Dick Trickle
- 30-Michael Waltrip
- 18-Dale Jarrett
- 55-Ted Musgrave
- 75-Phil Parsons
- 3-Dale Earnhardt, 1 Lap down
Failed to qualify: 47-Billy Standridge, 95-Jeremy Mayfield, 52-Jimmy Means, 62-Clay Young, 57-Bob Schacht, 72-John Andretti, 63-Norm Benning, 9-P. J. Jones, 84-Rick Crawford, 48-Andy Genzman
Neil Bonnett qualified for the race in a backup car (#31) for RCR, and executed one of the first start and park situations in NASCAR. The team arranged that Bonnett would step aside from the #31 car, in the last minute, in the event that Earnhardt's car, after pre-race inspection, suffered mechanical failure on the grid or during the pace laps. If Earnhardt started the race in the #31 car, by rule, he would be awarded full points for that entry. The car Bonnett qualified was set up with Earnhardt's exact chassis set up. Earnhardt started his primary car as expected, and Bonnett pulled off the track to finish last after 3 laps. The team gave the reason of "engine failure." Bonnett's intentional "start and park" helped maximize Earnhardt's finishing position, as only seven other cars had to drop out for Earnhardt to clinch the title. RCR pulled out all the stops in preparation for the race. They brought a truck filled with extra spare parts, including an entire pre-assembled rear end and a framing machine to fix the car in case of a crash.
Due to fog at the airport, several pit crew members on several teams were late arriving at the track. Darrell Waltrip started the race without his entire pit crew.
By lap 117, enough cars had dropped out of the race to mathematically clinch the championship for Earnhardt.
Jeff Gordon secured the rookie of the year award; but in a mild surprise, he did not manage to win a points-paying race during the season.
Read more about this topic: 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series