- 1991 Daytona 500
The
Daytona 500 by STP was heldFebruary 17 atDaytona International Speedway .Davey Allison won the pole.Top Ten Results
# 4-
Ernie Irvan
# 22-Sterling Marlin
# 75-Joe Ruttman
# 1-Rick Mast
# 3-Dale Earnhardt
# 21-Dale Jarrett
# 20-Bobby Hillin, Jr.
# 7-Alan Kulwicki
# 5-Ricky Rudd
# 68-Bobby Hamilton Failed to qualify: 0-
Delma Cowart , 13-Brian Ross , 34-Gary Balough , 35-Bill Venturini , 39-Blackie Wangerin , 45-Phillip Duffie , 47-Rich Bickle , 65-Dave Mader III , 69-Dorsey Schroeder , 70-J. D. McDuffie , 72-Chuck Bown , 80-Jimmy Horton , 82-Mark Stahl , 95-Rick Jeffery , 96-Phil Parsons , 99-Brad Teague *This race began a series of changes to pit road procedure after the death of Melling Racing #9 rear tire changer Mike Ritch in a pit road accident at Atlanta the previous November. The most notable aspect of the rule changes was the ban on tire changes during cautions, under any circumstances. Any tire changed under caution (even if it was flat) resulted in a one lap penalty. In addition, each car was given a sticker based on their starting position. Cars starting in odd numbered positions were given a blue sticker with a white 1 on it, while cars in even-numbered starting positions were given orange stickers with a white 2 on them. When a restart occurred from a caution, the pits would be closed. Two laps after the restart from a caution, a blue flag would be waved at the entrance of pit road, allowing only the cars with the blue stickers to pit for tires. The next time around, an orange flag would be waived, allowing the rest of the field (that wasn't allowed to pit the previous lap) could come in for tires.
*The result of the pit procedure was that it essentially messed up the race. It was too time consuming to change 4 tires at the time since it had to be done under green per the rules (At the time, a 4 tire pit stop would take roughly 22-26 seconds). For an example of how the rules adversely affected the racing,
Kyle Petty ran the entire 500 miles on the same left side tires. Even though this was the case, Petty led the most laps in the race (51) and was in the top 5 before crashing with 3 laps to go withDavey Allison andDale Earnhardt .*
Dale Earnhardt actually obliterated aseagull on the 3rd or 4th lap of the race while leading. This actually adversely affected Earnhardt's water temperature, raising it at one point to 240 degrees. It forced Earnhardt's team to make emergency repairs under one of the many early cautions in the race.*This race was run right at the end of
Operation Desert Storm , also known as the Persian Gulf War. As a sign of support to the troops, 5 cars (that were otherwise unsponsored) sported paint schemes representing the 5 branches of the U.S. Military. It was the first use of special paint schemes in NASCAR, a trend that is prevalent today. [ [http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/04/09/cup.paint.schemes/index.html Special paint schemes Cup's fashionable trend] ; Raygan Swan,NASCAR ,April 9 ,2007 ; RetrievedMay 22 2008 ] The cars were technically sponsored in this race by Winston as a show of gratitude to the teams and the troops. In addition, the 5 Armed Forces cars sported the message, "We Support Our Troops" on the TV Panel. These cars were (with their finishing positions in parentheses):U.S. Army : 7-Alan Kulwicki (8th, 1 lap down)United States Navy : 18-Greg Sacks (42nd, Crashed after 20 laps with the #8 ofRick Wilson )U.S. Air Force : 24-Mickey Gibbs (17th, 3 laps down)U.S. Coast Guard : 71-Dave Marcis (35th, Broke a Valve after completing 40 laps)U.S. Marines : 88-Buddy Baker (37th, Blew an engine after completing 35 laps)
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