The 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 45th season of professionalstock car racing in the United States and the 22nd modern-era Cup season. The season began on February 7 and ended on November 14. Dale Earnhardt of Richard Childress Racing won the title, the sixth of his career.
1993 was marked by the deaths of two Winston Cup drivers, though neither were on-track in any form. 1992 Champion Alan Kulwicki was killed on April 1 in a plane crash near Blountville, Tennessee. He was travelling to Bristol International Raceway in a corporate plane belonging to his sponsor, Hooters. Davey Allison died on July 13, a day after a helicopter crash at Talladega Superspeedway left him with a severe head trauma. The accidents robbed the sport of two of its brightest young stars and denied Kulwicki the chance to defend his 1992 title.
The season also saw the introduction of electronic scoring, giving instantaneous interval numbers.
This was the first season without NASCAR legend Richard Petty since 1957.
With the win, Jeff Gordon became the first rookie ever to win a qualifying race, only to be matched by Denny Hamlin in 2006. In the second race, defending Indy 500 winner Al Unser Jr. (entering his first and only NASCAR race) wrecked on lap 10, but still managed to qualify for the Daytona 500 based on speed.
The race was marked by a grinding crash involving Rusty Wallace who was spun out by Michael Waltrip on the backstretch and sent Wallace on a series of horrific barrel rolls in the grass. He was uninjured although.
Jeff Gordon made his first Daytona 500 start on his first Winston Cup full season. He became the first rookie ever to win one of the qualifying races. He also led the 1st lap and finished 5th, which is considered one of the most successful Daytona 500 debuts ever.
Jeff Gordon appeared headed to his first Winston Cup win until during the last pit stop he went past his pit box line and had to back up losing too much time, then scraping the wall trying to stay ahead of Rusty Wallace. Morgan Shepherd passed him and won the event, his final victory as of 2025, his fourth career NASCAR Cup victory overall, and his third at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
This was the last time until the 2018 Martinsville spring race that a race in the NASCAR's premier series was postponed due to snow.
This race was originally scheduled to air on ABC; however by the time the race was rescheduled, ABC was unable to carry the race due to scheduling conflicts, resulting in the broadcast airing on TNN instead.
In what would have been the big story prior to the loss of Alan Kulwicki; this race marked the first day race at Bristol since switching from asphalt to its present concrete surface.
Jimmy Hensley was named the interim substitute driver for the #7 car, filling the seat formerly held by the late Alan Kulwicki. Sponsor Hooters pulled out of the team, but Bojangles stepped in to sponsor the car, promoting the Easter Seals charity on the car's hood.
The biggest news story of the week leading up to the race was the official announcement of the inaugural Brickyard 400, scheduled for August 6, 1994.
On the final lap approaching the checkered flag, Rusty Wallace was spun and flipped end over end. He was tapped in the left rear by Dale Earnhardt, who proceeded to check on him while on his cooldown lap.
Geoff Bodine celebrated the win at the same time as he was finalizing a deal to purchase the assets to the late Alan Kulwicki's #7 team.
The Winston Open
The Winston Open, a 50 lap last chance race to qualify for The Winston, was held on May 22, 1993, at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Jeff Gordon won the pole. The top four finishers would qualify for The Winston later that night.
For the first time, the race was moved to a late afternoon start, and ended under the lights. The race was no longer to be held at the same time as the Indianapolis 500.
Dale Earnhardt overcame two penalties (one for speeding on pit road, the other for wrecking Greg Sacks on a restart) to win his third Coca-Cola 600.
During the race, a fan later identified as Chad Blaine Kohl, darted onto the track as Kyle Petty and Davey Allison were battling for the lead; narrowly avoiding being hit. Kohl would eventually be charged with arson, risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct and public drunkenness.[1]
During a round of Green Flag pitstops on lap 60, Ricky Rudd finally led his first lap of the season.[2]
Trevor Boys finished 39th in this, the final race he would successfully qualify for.
Mark Martin ran out of fuel after 191 laps of 200, handing Ricky Rudd the lead, he would not run out of fuel and win.
This was Rudd's final victory for Hendrick Motorsports as he would leave the team at seasons end to form his own team with Tide sponsorship following him in following season.
Pepsi 400
The Pepsi 400 was held July 3 at Daytona International Speedway. Ernie Irvan won the pole after Ken Schrader who had originally set the fastest time failed post-qualifying inspection due to an illegal carburetor designed to bypass the restrictor plate. Schrader was forced to start in last place.[3]
Rusty Wallace's victory would be all the more impressive considering he started 33rd.
This was the last race for Davey Allison, who would die from injuries suffered in a helicopter accident two days later.
Jeff Burton and Joe Nemechek made their Winston Cup debuts in this race. Both would fall out before the halfway point (Burton - starting 6th - would finish 37th after crashing out, Nemechek - who began the race in 15th place - would finish 36th after the rocker arm of his engine broke).
This was the first race after the death of Davey Allison. Out of respect, his team Robert Yates Racing did not enter the event with a replacement driver.
Bill Elliott, after having a disastrous 1993 to this point, gets his first top five finish of 1993.
This race marked the first time the Robert Yates Racing #28 Havoline-Texaco car was entered following the death of Davey Allison, with Robby Gordon serving as a substitute driver. During the pre-race ceremonies; the invocation by the Rev. Hal Marchman was preceded by the reading of a poem by Davey Allison's widow Liz, while CBS ran a montage of Allison's life and career mixed with footage of Davey Allison's uncle Donnie driving the car around the track as the song "The Fans" by the group Alabama played in the background.
The race was marked by two major accidents: Stanley Smith suffered near-fatal head injuries in a lap 69 accident while Jimmy Horton flew over the wall in-between turns 1 and 2 and landed on an access road outside the track in the same crash. Later in the race, on lap 132, Neil Bonnett flew into the catch fence similar to the Bobby Allison crash in 1987 and just like the Allison crash required a lengthy red flag to repair the fence. That resulted in the introduction of roof flaps in 1994.
The margin of victory was 5 one-thousandths of a second (.005), setting a new record.
Race winner Dale Earnhardt who took his second consecutive victory again just like the previous race made a Polish Victory Lap with the #28 flag of Davey Allison on his memory, who died 12 days before.
Mark Martin won the pole and had the all-dominating car in the race. However, problems in the pits at one point put him out of the top 20 in the race. Martin raced up through the field and inherited the lead with 5 laps to go when the two leaders, Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt, crashed in the esses.
This was Martin's first victory from the pole in his twenty-first attempt.
This was the second race in a row where the red flag stopped the race for an accident. This time it was due to Rick Mast's crash in turn 6 on lap 9, which required a lengthy guardrail repair. Mast was uninjured.[4]
This was Mark Martin's second consecutive victory.
This was the last time this race was sponsored by Champion Spark Plugs, a sponsorship that dates back to 1975.
Brickyard 400 test session
A day after the Champion Spark Plug 400, the top 35 teams in the standings were invited to participate in an open test session for the 1994 Brickyard 400. On the way home from Michigan, the teams stopped at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for two days of practice. Retired driver Richard Petty took a few fast laps on the second day, then donated the car to the Speedway museum.
The race was shortened from 367 laps to 351 laps (15 laps) due to a lengthy rain delay of over 3 hours and the track did not have lights, that would change in time for the race in 2004. As the race came towards the end, the teams were told on a restart with 25 laps to go that there would only be 10 laps remaining due to darkness, and due to this the race ended at approximately 7:30 PM ET.
This race was mired with tire issues resulting in cut tires and 16 cautions for 103 of the 500 laps, and the average speed was 100.334 mph. The race took 4 hours and 59 minutes to complete.
This was Robert Yates Racing's first trip to victory lane since Davey Allison's death and the crew was reported to have had tears in their eyes as they went to victory lane.
This was the last race with an entry list of less than 40 cars until the 2016 Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, where only 39 cars entered. NASCAR limited race fields to a maximum of 40 cars starting with the 2016 season.[7]
Ernie Irvan flat out dominated this race leading 328 of the 334 laps (98.2%).
This would be the first race in NASCAR history that 2 sets of 3 brothers all competed against each other: The Wallace's (Rusty, Mike, & Kenny), and The Bodine's (Geoff, Brett, & Todd). The eldest brother of each set (Rusty & Geoff) finished ahead of the younger brothers. The Wallace's finished 4th (Rusty), 30th (Mike), & 35th (Kenny). The Bodine's finished 13th (Geoff), 15th (Brett), & 42nd/Last (Todd). All drivers but Todd saw the checkered flag and finished the race. Rusty was the only one to finish on the lead lap.
This was Rick Wilson's 200th career start. He would finish 32 laps down to the winner in 36th.
This was the final race Neil Bonnett called on TBS before his death at Daytona in February 1994.
Dale Earnhardt won his sixth Winston Cup championship, needing only to finish in 34th place or better to score enough points to clinch the title; he finished 10th. On lap 117, enough cars had dropped out of the race to mathematically clinch the championship for Earnhardt. Rusty Wallace (the 1989 champion) gave the maximum effort in his 300th career Winston Cup start. Wallace led the most laps and won the race, his tenth win of the 1993 season. But it was not enough as he fell 80 points shy of Earnhardt, and wound up second in the championship to Earnhardt.
Rusty Wallace became the first driver since Dale Earnhardt in 1987 to win ten or more Cup Series races in a single season. This would be the second time in Bob Latford's 1975 Winston Cup points system history, however, that a driver winning ten or more races in a season failed to win the championship.
This was Wallace's 31st and final victory driving a Pontiac, as he and Penske South Racing would switch to Ford in 1994. Pontiac left NASCAR at the end of 2003, and GM discontinued the Pontiac division in 2010. Wallace holds the NASCAR record for most wins by a Pontiac driver (the first 31 of his 55 career wins).
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.
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 climb out of the #31 car, at the last minute, in the event that Earnhardt's primary #3 car, after pre-race inspection, suffered mechanical failure on the grid or during the pace laps. If Earnhardt quickly hopped in and took the green flag to start the race in the #31 car, by rule, he would be awarded full points for that entry. The car Bonnett qualified was even prepared with Earnhardt's exact chassis set-ups. Earnhardt started his primary car (#3) without incident, 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" also helped maximize Earnhardt's finishing position, as only seven additional cars had to drop out for Earnhardt to mathematically clinch the title. RCR pulled out all the stops in preparation for this 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. This was also Bonnett's final ever NASCAR race he competed in before his death at Daytona in February 1994.
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.
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 nor did he finish in the top-ten in points.
Todd Bodine, the contracted driver of car 75, was injured in the previous day's Busch Grand National race, so he was replaced for the race by Phil Parsons.
After his contract was bought from Bill Davis Racing, Jeff Gordon drove the #24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy in 1993. He won one pole, had eleven top-tens and finished 14th in points. His next closest competitor was Bobby Labonte who had replaced Gordon at BDR. He had six top-tens and one pole, while third-place finisher Kenny Wallace had only three top-tens. The last place runner was P. J. Jones, who declared late in the season and only ran six races for Melling Racing.
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