1993 Save Mart Supermarkets 300K

1993 Save Mart Supermarkets 300K

Race details
Race 10 of 30 in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1993 Save Mart Supermarkets 300K program cover, featuring Bill Elliott and Ernie Irvan.
Date	May 16, 1993
Official name	5th Annual Save Mart Supermarkets 300K
Location	Sonoma, California, Sears Point Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.52 mi (4.06 km)
Distance	74 laps, 186.48 mi (300.11 km)
Scheduled Distance	74 laps, 186.48 mi (300.11 km)
Average speed	77.013 miles per hour (123.940 km/h)
Attendance	90,000
Pole position
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Time	1:38.783
Most laps led
Driver	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Laps	33
Winner
No. 15	Geoff Bodine	Bud Moore Engineering
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1993 Save Mart Supermarkets 300K was the tenth stock car race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season, the fourth race of the 1993 NASCAR Winston West Series season, and the fifth iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, May 16, 1993, at the Grand Prix layout of Sears Point Raceway, a 2.52 miles (4.06 km) permanent road course layout. The race took the scheduled 74 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race, Bud Moore Engineering driver Geoff Bodine would manage to fend off numerous challenges for the lead from Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Ernie Irvan and Hendrick Motorsports driver Ricky Rudd to take his 15th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Irvan and Rudd would finish second and third, respectively.

Sears Point Raceway is one of two road courses to hold NASCAR races, the other being Watkins Glen International. The standard road course at Sears Point Raceway is a 12-turn course that is 2.52 miles (4.06 km) long;^[3] the track was modified in 1998, adding the Chute, which bypassed turns 5 and 6, shortening the course to 1.95 miles (3.14 km). The Chute was only used for NASCAR events such as this race, and was criticized by many drivers, who preferred the full layout.^[4] In 2001, it was replaced with a 70-degree turn, 4A, bringing the track to its current dimensions of 1.99 miles (3.20 km).^[5]

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, May 14, at 6:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 25 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, May 15, at 1:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 26-40 would be decided on time,^[6] 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; which was one for cars in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and two extra provisionals for the NASCAR Winston West Series. 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.

Dale Earnhardt, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 1:38.783 and an average speed of 91.838 miles per hour (147.799 km/h) in the first round.^[7]

Five drivers would fail to qualify.

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Dale Earnhardt 1,526 1 2 Rusty Wallace 1,506 (-20) 3 Davey Allison 1,408 (-118) 1 4 Kyle Petty 1,363 (–163) 2 5 Geoff Bodine 1,352 (–174) 2 6 Dale Jarrett 1,333 (–193) 1 7 Morgan Shepherd 1,287 (–239) 2 8 Ernie Irvan 1,275 (–251) 3 9 Mark Martin 1,234 (–292) 1 10 Jeff Gordon 1,207 (–319) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.