| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 11 of 29 in the1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1991 Budweiser 500 program cover, featuringGeoff Bodine. | |||
| Date | June 2, 1991 | ||
| Official name | 23rd Annual Budweiser 500 | ||
| Location | Dover, Delaware,Dover Downs International Speedway | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 1 miles (1.6 km) | ||
| Distance | 500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Scheduled distance | 500 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Average speed | 120.152 miles per hour (193.366 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 77,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Bahari Racing | ||
| Time | 25.106 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Laps | 187 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 25 | Ken Schrader | Hendrick Motorsports | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | TNN | ||
| Announcers | Mike Joy,Buddy Baker,Phil Parsons | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
The1991 Budweiser 500 was the 11thstock car race of the1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 23rd iteration of theevent. The race was held on Sunday, May 31, 1991, before an audience of 77,000 inDover, Delaware atDover Downs International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end,Hendrick Motorsports driverKen Schrader, after making a late-race pass for the lead with 78 laps to go in the race, would manage to hold onto the lead for the rest of the race to take his fourth and to date, final careerNASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.[1][2][3] To fill out the top three,Richard Childress Racing driverDale Earnhardt andLeo Jackson Motorsports driverHarry Gant would finish second and third, respectively.
Dover Downs International Speedway is an ovalrace track inDover, Delaware, United States that has held at least twoNASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hostedUSAC and theNTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1-mile (1.6 km) concreteoval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated byDover Motorsports.
The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway afterDover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, May 31, at 3:00 PMEST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 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, June 1, at 11:30 AMEST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,[4] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.
Michael Waltrip, driving forBahari Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 25.106 and an average speed of 143.392 miles per hour (230.767 km/h) in the first round.[5][6]
Billy Fulcher was the only driver to fail to qualify after his qualifying speed was determined to be too slow to run the race.
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| Previous race: 1991 Coca-Cola 600 | NASCAR Winston Cup Series 1991 season | Next race: 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 |
