First race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Motor car race
The1987 Daytona 500 was the firststock car race of the1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 29th iteration of theevent . The race was held on Sunday, February 15, 1987, before an audience of 130,000 inDaytona Beach, Florida atDaytona International Speedway , a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete.
Nearing the race's end,Hendrick Motorsports 'Geoff Bodine tried to forego a final pitstop but ran out of fuel with three laps to go.Melling Racing 'sBill Elliott took the lead and held off Bodine's teammate,Benny Parsons , and owner-driverRichard Petty to take his 18th careerNASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his first victory of the season, and his second and final Daytona 500 victory.[ 1] [ 2]
The layout ofDaytona International Speedway , the venue where the race was held. Daytona International Speedway is one of threesuperspeedways to holdNASCAR races, the other two beingIndianapolis Motor Speedway andTalladega Superspeedway . The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31degrees , while thefront stretch , the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.
(R) denotes rookie driver.Qualifying was set by the1987 7-Eleven Twin 125s . The top two positions were set by qualifying speeds held for the Twin 125 Qualifiers held on Monday, February 9, with the top two qualifiers in the session earning the top two positions for the Daytona 500. The rest of the starting was set in the Twin 125 Qualifiers, held on Thursday, February 12, during two races. The top 14 finishers in the first race, excluding the pole position winner, set the inside row from rows two to 15, and the top 14 finishers in the second race, excluding the outside pole position winner, set the outside row from rows two to 15. The remaining non-qualifiers set positions 31-40 based on qualifying speeds from the first qualifying session held on Saturday. If needed, up to two extra provisionals were given to teams high enough in the previous season's owner's standings that did not qualify for the race by either qualifying speed or from the Twin 125 Qualifiers.
Bill Elliott , driving forMelling Racing , managed to win the pole, setting a time of 42.783 and an average speed of 210.364 miles per hour (338.548 km/h) in Monday's session.[ 4]
19 drivers failed to qualify.
Full qualifying results [ edit ] Fin St # Driver Team Make Laps Led Status Pts Winnings 1 1 9 Bill Elliott Melling Racing Ford 200 104 running 185 $204,150 2 4 35 Benny Parsons Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 200 2 running 175 $122,420 3 11 43 Richard Petty Petty Enterprises Pontiac 200 2 running 170 $76,040 4 7 88 Buddy Baker Baker–Schiff Racing Oldsmobile 200 45 running 165 $74,450 5 13 3 Dale Earnhardt Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 200 16 running 160 $64,925 6 6 22 Bobby Allison Stavola Brothers Racing Buick 200 0 running 150 $60,475 7 3 90 Ken Schrader Donlavey Racing Ford 200 14 running 151 $68,545 8 5 17 Darrell Waltrip Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 200 1 running 147 $39,925 9 31 15 Ricky Rudd Bud Moore Engineering Ford 200 0 running 138 $38,425 10 22 29 Cale Yarborough Cale Yarborough Motorsports Oldsmobile 200 0 running 134 $29,600 11 19 55 Phil Parsons Jackson Bros. Motorsports Oldsmobile 200 0 running 130 $26,200 12 15 75 Neil Bonnett RahMoc Enterprises Pontiac 199 5 running 132 $29,600 13 21 8 Bobby Hillin Jr. Stavola Brothers Racing Buick 199 0 running 124 $29,005 14 8 5 Geoff Bodine Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 199 10 running 126 $36,365 15 37 7 Alan Kulwicki AK Racing Ford 198 0 running 118 $22,740 16 35 26 Morgan Shepherd King Racing Buick 198 0 running 115 $20,660 17 24 77 Ken Ragan Ragan Racing Ford 197 0 running 112 $17,085 18 14 11 Terry Labonte Junior Johnson & Associates Chevrolet 197 0 running 109 $25,915 19 36 10 Rodney Combs (R) DiGard Motorsports Oldsmobile 197 0 running 106 $15,295 20 42 50 Greg Sacks Dingman Brothers Racing Pontiac 196 0 running 103 $14,335 21 27 86 Ronnie Sanders Moss Racing Ford 195 0 running 0 $13,930 22 18 30 Michael Waltrip Bahari Racing Chevrolet 193 0 running 97 $18,110 23 28 6 Trevor Boys U.S. Racing Chevrolet 191 0 running 94 $16,795 24 40 52 Jimmy Means Jimmy Means Racing Pontiac 191 0 running 91 $14,480 25 38 70 J. D. McDuffie McDuffie Racing Pontiac 191 0 running 88 $11,810 26 33 83 Lake Speed Speed Racing Oldsmobile 188 0 engine 85 $11,105 27 2 28 Davey Allison (R) Ranier-Lundy Racing Ford 184 0 running 82 $14,045 28 39 12 David Sosebee Hamby Racing Chevrolet 184 0 running 79 $14,145 29 29 66 Tom Sneva Jackson Bros. Motorsports Oldsmobile 182 0 engine 76 $11,135 30 10 44 Sterling Marlin Hagan Racing Oldsmobile 167 1 clutch 78 $16,875 31 12 33 Harry Gant Mach 1 Racing Chevrolet 156 0 transmission 70 $15,100 32 17 1 Ron Bouchard Ellington Racing Chevrolet 125 0 engine 67 $11,370 33 23 19 Derrike Cope (R) Stoke Racing Ford 124 0 overheating 64 $10,840 34 16 71 Dave Marcis Marcis Auto Racing Chevrolet 115 0 oil leak 61 $13,975 35 20 21 Kyle Petty Wood Brothers Racing Ford 72 0 valve 58 $13,455 36 34 67 Eddie Bierschwale Arrington Racing Ford 44 0 engine 55 $12,235 37 9 4 Rick Wilson Morgan–McClure Motorsports Oldsmobile 37 0 clutch 52 $11,420 38 30 82 Mark Stahl Stahl Racing Ford 36 0 engine 49 $9,540 39 26 81 Chet Fillip Fillip Racing Ford 19 0 engine 46 $9,705 40 25 64 Connie Saylor Langley Racing Ford 12 0 engine 43 $11,470 41 32 27 Rusty Wallace Blue Max Racing Pontiac 10 0 piston 40 $15,720 42 41 14 A. J. Foyt A. J. Foyt Racing Oldsmobile 10 0 spark plug 37 $7,870 Failed to qualify or withdrew 43 74 Bobby Wawak Wawak Racing Chevrolet 44 51 David Simko Simko Racing Chevrolet 45 02 Joe Booher Booher Racing Pontiac 46 92 Ralph Jones LC Racing Ford 47 93 Charlie Baker Salmon Racing Chevrolet 48 39 Blackie Wangerin Wangerin Racing Ford 49 24 Grant Adcox Adcox Racing Chevrolet 50 62 Steve Christman (R) Winkle Motorsports Pontiac 51 32 Jonathan Lee Edwards Edwards Racing Chevrolet 52 49 Delma Cowart H. L. Waters Racing Chevrolet 53 89 Jim Sauter Mueller Brothers Racing Pontiac 54 09 Jeff Swindell Swindell Racing Chevrolet 55 18 Tommy Ellis Freedlander Motorsports Chevrolet 56 98 Ed Pimm Curb Racing Oldsmobile 57 48 Steve Moore Hylton Motorsports Chevrolet 58 41 Ronnie Thomas Ronnie Thomas Racing Pontiac 59 73 Phil Barkdoll Barkdoll Racing Oldsmobile 60 54 Donnie Allison Gray Racing Chevrolet 61 00 Dick McCabe McCabe Racing Chevrolet WD 63 Jocko Maggiacomo Linro Motorsports Chevrolet Official race results
Standings after the race [ edit ] Drivers' Championship standings Note : Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.
^ Maggiacomo suffered a crash during a Wednesday, February 11 practice session. As the team had no backup car, the team withdrew.[ 3] ^ Higgins, Tom (February 16, 1987)."Elliott Outlasts Daytona Field" .The Charlotte Observer 4B . RetrievedSeptember 20, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ Coble, Don (February 16, 1987)."Elliott conquers Daytona 500" .Florida Today 2C . RetrievedSeptember 20, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ Chuhran, John (February 13, 1987)."Mamaroneck team can only watch" .The Standard-Star . RetrievedSeptember 20, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ Higgins, Tom (February 12, 1987)."Daytona 500 Pole Goes To Elliott" .The Charlotte Observer 5B . RetrievedSeptember 20, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com .
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