|| *Comments on the 1991 Bud 500:* View the most recent comment <#19> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. SPENCER posted: 03.17.2006 - 3:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A case were the best car didn't win should of but didn't 2. myself posted: 02.13.2007 - 7:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wasn't this the race that prompted Bristol to pave w/ concrete? I think I remember chunks of asphalt tearing up during this one. 3. Anonymous posted: 05.19.2007 - 6:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) yes MANY top named drivers had to pit becuase of tire failures, which may be why only 3 cars finished on the lead lap 4. Steve.M. posted: 06.25.2007 - 9:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jimmy Spencer had em covered until some mechanical problems 5. Bill posted: 08.15.2007 - 4:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Spencer was the man to beat. It was shame his day ended early. Bobby Labonte also was the relief driver for Rick Wilson. Wilson had the flu and turned the car over. 6. Anonymous posted: 10.30.2007 - 1:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Awful job Rusty. :( 7. Steve.M. posted: 03.31.2008 - 12:56 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) pretty much the only bright spot of an otherwise bad year for Kulwicki. who would have thought he would be champion a year later. 8. Anonymous posted: 11.12.2008 - 2:17 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Kulwicki was 14th overall in 1991. No champion has ever finished worse in the previous year's Winston Cup standings than this (in modern times). 9. Anonymous posted: 11.05.2010 - 7:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bobby Labonte relief drove for Rick Wilson in this race and was running 10th when he fell out due to a right front tire failure. 10. RaceFanX posted: 02.08.2012 - 3:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was Kulwicki's first victory for Hooters 11. jp posted: 01.19.2014 - 10:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Another race in '91 that slipped away from Spencer. He had North Wilkesboro in the bag until Big e and Waltrip muscled by him, and Spencer flat dominated until the mechanical problems......... 12. Evan posted: 04.21.2014 - 6:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) * Spencer dominated this race in parts in the Food City Chevy, and won the Halfway Challenge Money of $100,000, which was an incentive program in those days to lead laps. Wish they'd so something like this today for drivers, but now payout for the races has exceeded the payouts in the 1990's. Unfortunately mechanical problems hurt his chances. * Bobby Labonte jumped in the SNICKERS Buick for Rick Wilson for relief help. * Darrell Waltrip borrowed tires from his brother's team and at one point in this race had yellow tires on until the end of the race. * Race win number 3 for Alan Kulwicki. * Only 3 cars finished on the lead lap, unheard of today because of how close everyone's engines are. * Richard Petty finishes 12th one of his best finishes of the year, he got his last top 10 at Watkins Glen. 13. nascarman posted: 05.26.2015 - 1:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Qualifying Results: (This is incomplete because round 2 of qualifying was held race morning and the speeds were not reported) Pos. Driver Speed 1. Bill Elliott 116.957 2. Rusty Wallace 116.361 3. Darrell Waltrip 116.143 4. Chad Little 116.115 5. Alan Kulwicki 116.080 6. Bobby Hamilton 115.730 7. Davey Allison 115.681 8. Rick Mast 115.674 9. Hut Stricklin 115.660 10. Mark Martin 115.542 11. Jimmy Spencer 115.507 12. Rick Wilson 115.493 13. Dale Earnhardt 115.451 14. Sterling Marlin 115.437 15. Bobby Hillin, Jr. 115.333 14. 52 posted: 11.02.2016 - 5:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Don't think the halfway money was 100k. Prob 10k. 15. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 09.14.2017 - 9:14 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The last time the Bristol night race was run on asphalt, and indeed it was quite an eventful one. As mentioned there was a huge problem with cars losing right front tires throughout the race-a new sealant had been put down before this event and the track was starting to come up, particularly in turn 1. Small pieces of gravel were puncturing the tires. Bobby Hamilton pitted multiple times for a tire rub in the early laps, and on the first green flag run Martin, Rudd, Elliott, and Kulwicki all pitted under green with tire problems. (Martin and Rudd had to serve extra time for speeding in the pits.) More than half the cautions in this race were attributable to blown tires. Rusty got the jump on Elliott at the start and led the first sixteen laps. Dave Marcis was black-flagged to the pits for a water leak, but as he pulled off to the pits, Richard Petty spun out in turns 3 and 4. Rusty and Bill both slowed down anticipating a caution, but none was thrown and their backing off allowed DW to motor past to take the lead while the #2 dropped back to 4th. Kulwicki moved into second but lost ground when he made contact with the King, sending him drifting up the track and losing numerous spots. Davey Allison and Wallace eventually passed DW in traffic, and on lap 63 Davey drifted up high in turns 1 and 2 allowing the #2 to retake the top spot. But in between turns 3 and 4, Rusty blew a right front and slammed the wall hard, coming to a stop at the exit of turn 4. Rusty's car had to be towed off the track; they eventually repaired it after 130 laps in the garage but he only completed a few more laps before retiring for good. Under this first caution, Bobby Labonte relieved Rick Wilson, who was ill with the flu. Michael Waltrip was one of several cars that stayed out under the first caution and inherited the lead, but a few laps after the restart, he also blew a right front coming off the fourth corner and belted the outside wall, coming to a stop in turn 1. Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin, and Alan Kulwicki were running in between Michael and 2nd place Terry Labonte, and all made a lap up when Mikey crashed. (Indeed as mentioned DW did later use some of Michael's yellow wheels.) Earnhardt ran 2nd for a while after the 2nd caution but also had to pit under green for a tire problem. Terry hung on to the lead for a good while but drifted back into the clutches of a hard charging Jimmy Spencer, and right after being passed for the lead also had to come in with tire troubles. Bobby Hillin brought out the race's third caution when he too blew a right front, this time in turn 1, and slammed the wall hard, coming to a stop at the exit of the backstretch. The Hillin caution was so lengthy because NASCAR ordered to tractors off to thoroughly sweep the track of debris. Kulwicki managed to stay in front of Spencer virtually the whole green flag run and made his 2nd lap up at this caution. On the restart Hut Stricklin was running 2nd to Spencer, but the lapped car of Geoff Bodine clipped Stricklin going into turn 3. Bodine spun into the turn 4 wall, ending his day, while Stricklin fought to save his car but ultimately went around on the frontstretch without hitting anything. Stricklin had a great car tonight but ultimately wound up out of contention when he as well had to pit under green for a puncture. Under the next green flag run Dale Jarrett ran second to Jimmy Spencer and was doing a good job keeping pace with him in traffic, but his hopes for two in a row were dashed when he lost the right front wheel in the third corner and clouted the wall hard, bringing his night to an end. Ernie Irvan had made his way up to the top 5 after starting towards the rear and having to pit on the backstretch, but his hopes for winning the night race two years in a row in a row ended when Stricklin spun on the frontstretch the lap after the restart and hit the wall right in front of him, and Hut's and Ernie's cars wound up meeting nose-to-nose. Bill Elliott ran top 5 for quite a while in this race after making up the laps he lost in the pits early, but his good run came to an end when he blew a right rear tire in turn 1 and backed into the outside wall. Jimmy Spencer had been the class of the field most all night and had led over 200 consecutive laps, but lost the lead when as a result of a pit miscommunication he wound up pitting the second time around under the Elliott caution, which handed the point to Sterling Marlin. Spencer remained in the hunt afterwards but his first win would not come in this race as a broken throttle linkage eventually put him laps down. Dick Trickle spun down the frontstretch after contact with Michael Waltrip, and couldn't get his car going afterwards and had to be pushed off the track. Rick Mast brought another yellow after he-you guessed it-blew a right front and impacted the outside wall in between turns 1 and 2. On the restart Kulwicki took the lead from Marlin and would not be headed again for the rest of the night. Two more cautions came out fairly quickly thereafter-one for Harry Gant spinning down the backstretch into the inside wall after a bump from Morgan Shepherd, and another for Chad Little looping it in the second corner-but the final 104 laps were run under green with Kulwicki pulling away from Marlin over the final stretch. Mark Martin worked his way back to only one lap down at the end and was right behind Alan in the final laps, but couldn't get around the #7 to get back on the lead lap. 3rd place Ken Schrader had clung on to the back of the lead lap all night long and was just in front of Kulwicki when the #7 took the checkered flag, just barely hanging on to a lead lap finish. 16. Jimnsimforever posted: 01.16.2019 - 1:39 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Alan Kulwicki seemed extremely happy about this victory. His 1st he obviously was the first to do the polish victory lap. His 2nd the year before was late in the season. He knew he was losing Zerex as a sponsor and hadn't found a new one yet and wouldn't until a good way into the next season. His victory lane interview seemed like it was proving a point that sponsorship for his team should be already taken care of. This victory was the first time he looked extremely happy. Secure with his sponsorship. They were joking with him about having a comb in the car and combing his hair before they got back from commercial to do the victory lane interview. Right before they came back, he said "Ahhh! I should've went backwards!" lol 17. James posted: 11.11.2019 - 8:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Back in the day it was common on the short tracks to only have a few cars left on the lead lap. Whether some lesser known drivers were better at short tracks, or they managed to hold on through attrition, in the early 90s you'd see guys like Sterling Marlin, Hut Stricklin, Jimmy Spencer and Rick Mast in the Top 5 for managing to stay out of trouble all day. Later Mike Wallace and Ward Burton would perform well at short tracks early in their careers. 18. Jacob posted: 04.14.2020 - 7:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) As mentioned elsewhere; in addition to being Alan Kulwicki's first victory since Hooters signed on as a sponsor, Harry Gant wound up 19th, 64 laps down, in the last race before Gant's "Mr. September" streak. 19. Rich posted: 08.05.2020 - 11:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators were Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons. The pit road reporters were Dr. Jerry Punch and John Kernan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: