|| *Comments on the 1991 Hardee's 500:* View the most recent comment <#48> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Anonymous posted: 10.04.2005 - 7:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) the way gant ran the last 10 races of '91 i bet he wishes there was a chase that year. and he would of qualified for it by 2 pts after the 19th race. 2. joe posted: 01.10.2006 - 8:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also one of the last races that Buicks were largely used. They were still used up until 1994, but I'm pretty sure this was the last year of factory support. 3. CanucksAndNASCAR Fan posted: 05.19.2006 - 8:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) If there were a chase, Gant would have been the oldest driver to ever win the championship at 51 years old. Guess life really does begin after 50, doesn't it? Oh yeah, if there were a chase in 1984, Gant would have won that as well--at age 44. 4. CanucksAndNASCAR Fan posted: 05.19.2006 - 8:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) I may also add that Sterling Marlin would have liked having a chase for the Winston Cup in 1991. Instead of finishing 7th under the old system, he would have finished third behind Harry Gant and Dale Earnhardt. 5. STbastien posted: 05.26.2006 - 4:02 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) don't forget that without that stupid chase thing, kurtbusch wouldn't ever been champion, and Jeff Gordon would be running his slicks for six... 6. Jeff24 posted: 06.04.2006 - 2:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was Larry Pearson's last Cup start 7. Fenway posted: 10.28.2006 - 9:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The end of an era -- Bill Elliott's last race in a Harry Melling Ford. 8. MegaRacer posted: 01.22.2007 - 3:57 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) Oh puh-leeeeeeease!! "If The Chase was around in such and such year, so and so woulda finished 12th in the championship" who cares! What's done is done! Anyway, I remember all Dale had to do was complete the first lap and that was that. The RCR crew hoisted the Winston Cup as Dale completed the first lap. At least Dale raced instead of stroking it to a 30th place finish like several others have before and after. 9. myself posted: 02.13.2007 - 8:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A lot of "lasts" involved w/ this race: -last ride for Elliott in the Melling car -last ride for Geoff Bodine in the 11 car -last time Folgers sponsored Mark Martin -last ride for Morgan Shepherd w/ Bud Moore -last ride for Sterling Marlin w/ Junior Johnson....would've thought he'd have gotten a win in that car -last ride for Dale Jarrett w/ the Wood Bros. 10. Mr. Etc posted: 05.11.2007 - 9:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Marlin ran w/ Junior Johnson through 92 11. myself posted: 05.17.2007 - 3:41 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Also the last win for Folgers as a primary sponsor. They nabbed a decent # of checkered flags w/ Richmond, Schrader, & Martin. I stand corrected on the Marlin/Johnson error. 12. Anonymous posted: 06.05.2007 - 11:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Kurt Busch WOULD have been Champion actually in 2002 if the chase had been around. 13. Anonymous posted: 06.25.2007 - 9:26 pm Rate this comment: (3) (1) stupid chase bring back the old system 14. Bill posted: 08.15.2007 - 4:08 am Rate this comment: (2) (3) The chase is what makes it interesting..... 15. RaceFanX posted: 01.07.2008 - 4:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mark Martin pulls off the rare feat of going winless into the final event of the season and scoring the victory 16. Anonymous posted: 01.10.2008 - 3:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I dont want to to turn this into a debate about the chase, but if the chase didnt exist 2 years ago, Johnson would have beaten Kenseth by a single point under the old system. Doesnt get much more exciting than that! Oh man do I miss the old races of the 90s 17. Anonymous posted: 03.31.2008 - 12:58 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) Martin had the best car hands down. Too bad he couldnt have a run like that the year before huh 18. Haywood posted: 04.08.2008 - 3:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) i would just like to comment on the talk about the chase system being used to determine gant would be the winner. this is all theoretical. i enjoy running these to see just for a "what if" scenario, but there's no way to know what would really happen. if teams knew about the chase at the beginning of the season, each event would have transpired differently. wins mean that much more, the points are wiped out at the end of the 19th race, etc. and then each subsequent chase event would transpire that much different. with that being said, if somehow hypothetically each race still managed to result in the same finishes, harry gant would have won (and kyle petty in '92). i'm definitely a fan of a more exciting finish to the season, and to suggest that the chase won't provide that more often is absurd. if you just look at the season formats on paper, it should be obvious that the chase will make the races more interesting for the fans. 19. DaleSrFanForever posted: 08.24.2008 - 2:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Earnhardt championship count: 5 20. Jeremy Siple posted: 03.27.2009 - 10:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This whole "if the Chase had been around this year this would have happened" thing is asinine. If the chase had been around back then, drivers would have raced differently, and you would have entirely different outcomes. Personally, I still don't like the chase. Not because I'm some old fogy who's stuck in the past. I'm 21. But if NASCAR wants to make anything more exciting, it should be the races, not the championship. Drop boring races at Fontana and Pocono and add more short tracks and some dirt tracks to the schedule. The championship should reward the best, most consistent driver & team. Period. 21. 18fan posted: 12.06.2009 - 1:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I would like to know if anyone thinks Mark would still be racing if he ran in 1990 the way he ran in this race. 22. 00andJoe posted: 09.28.2010 - 2:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually, I think the Buicks were only eligible through '92? The Oldsmobiles were through '94. Of course, I could be wrong on that. 23. 18fan posted: 04.23.2011 - 10:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) MegaRacer- Why would Dale or anybody else stroke when they only need to complete one lap. Some guys "stroke" to a 15th-20th place finish if that's what they need to not lose the title. 24. Dave posted: 05.25.2012 - 7:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @Jeremy Siple You took the words right outta my mouth! 25. menardfan15 posted: 06.13.2012 - 3:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also the last race for jimmy means racing with sponsorship from Alka-Seltzer! 26. Spen posted: 08.07.2012 - 2:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Just because I felt like it, I calculated how this season would have turned out under the current F1 point system. 1. Dale Earnhardt 280 2. Harry Gant 273 3. Davey Allison 254 4. Ernie Irvan 221 5. Mark Martin 208 6. Ken Schrader 190 7. Rusty Wallace 164 8. Ricky Rudd 162 9. Darrell Waltrip 156 10. Sterling Marlin 129 11. Geoff Bodine 126 12. Bill Elliott 115 13. Morgan Shepherd 89 14. Alan Kulwicki 87 15. Michael Waltrip 86 16. Dale Jarrett 73 17. Hut Stricklin 63 18. Kyle Petty 53 19. Brett Bodine 45 20. Terry Labonte 39 21. Jimmy Spencer 36 22. Joe Ruttman 19 23. Rick Mast 15 24. Bobby Hamilton 14 25. Derrike Cope 13 26. Dick Trickle 8 27. Bobby Hillin, Jr. 6 28. Richard Petty 2 29. Dave Marcis 1 Chad Little 1 Jimmy Hensley 1 Ted Musgrave, Rick Wilson, Lake Speed and Jimmy Means scored zero points. 27. BlackChevy14 posted: 09.24.2013 - 5:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rusty had a pretty hard wreck in this one. One of his hardest that didn't involve him cashing in some frequent flier miles. For all the grand possibilities the 1990 season had set up for Mark and company, it was a pretty disappointing '91 campaign. They should have been one of the teams to beat and that's exactly what they wound up being, a beaten team. A lot of teams would have taken a win, 14 top-fives, 17 top-10s, and a sixth-place points rank with a smile, but coming off what for all intents and purposes should have been a title-winning season, it was a pretty disappointing year. It's a pattern in our sport, you have what looks like a breakout year and come up just short and everyone says "Wait til NEXT year," and you miss the championship by a mile and regress in pretty much every category (though they did lead more laps in '91 thanks in large part to the Charlotte heartbreaker). 28. BlackChevy14 posted: 09.24.2013 - 5:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, after being known as the Atlanta Journal 500 for the previous 11 seasons, the '91 race had the one-year-only moniker of the Hardee's 500. The next year brought probably the most famous name for an Atlanta 500-miler given the events of that race, the Hooters 500. 29. Matthew Sullivan posted: 09.23.2014 - 4:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Petty, Greg Sacks and Mike Wallace had to start at the rear of the field due to missing the driver's meeting. 30. HD11 posted: 02.09.2015 - 10:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was Gary Nelson's final race as Kyle Petty's crew chief before going to work for Nascar. Also, it was Robin Pemberton's final race as Mark Martin's crew chief before he moved to the Kyle Petty team. It's a bit ironic as Pemberton would of course eventually follow in Nelson's footprints to Nascar. 31. nascarman posted: 05.26.2015 - 1:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Qualifying Results: Pos. Driver Speed 1. Bill Elliott 177.937 2. Geoffrey Bodine 176.840 3. Ernie Irvan 176.435 4. Mark Martin 176.424 5. Dale Earnhardt 176.050 6. Davey Allison 175.278 7. Michael Waltrip 175.222 8. Alan Kulwicki 175.071 9. Harry Gant 174.764 10. Dale Jarrett 174.541 11. Sterling Marlin 174.436 12. Kyle Petty 174.303 13. Ken Schrader 174.092 14. Jimmy Spencer 173.766 15. Derrike Cope 173.766 16. Bobby Hamilton 173.513 17. Terry Labonte 173.497 18. Hut Stricklin 173.458 19. Ted Musgrave 173.392 20. Chad Little 173.255 21. Bobby Hillin, Jr. 174.264 22. Darrell Waltrip 173.877 23. Brett Bodine 173.728 24. Rusty Wallace 172.856 25. Morgan Shepherd 172.796 26. Stanley Smith 172.764 27. Dave Marcis 172.666 28. Rick Mast 172.584 29. Ricky Rudd 172.579 30. Richard Petty 172.378 31. Kenny Wallace 172.356 32. Rick Wilson 172.237 33. Larry Pearson 172.096 34. Randy LaJoie 171.504 35. Greg Sacks 171.498 36. Mike Wallace 170.984 37. Eddie Bierschwale 170.559 38. Jim Sauter 170.469 39. Wally Dallenbach, Jr. 170.077 40. Joe Ruttman 170.035 32. Sebastien posted: 08.08.2015 - 7:01 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Wallace #52 was an Olds, not a Pontiac. 18:58 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azumgf2BlO4 33. Ryan W posted: 09.13.2015 - 4:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This year was probably the least exciting and least dominant year Dale won out of all of his championships. But... We'll take it! 34. 88Chris posted: 10.16.2015 - 10:20 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) And still NASCAR Winston Cup Champion-Dale Earnhardt 35. Big Mac Fan posted: 12.02.2015 - 6:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not only was this Bill Elliott's last race with Melling, but it was also Melling's final top 5. 36. NadeauFan91 posted: 12.22.2016 - 6:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Greg Sacks was running 8th in the underfunded Derick Close car before blowing up late. 37. kup posted: 11.16.2017 - 12:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) UPS: universal points system. Driver's UPoints = Miles / Aver.Finish 1991 UPS _ Driver = Miles / AF 1330 _ Dale Earnhardt 11436 / 8.6 1203 _ Ricky Rudd 11427 / 9.5 973 _ Davey Allison 10611 / 10.9 950 _ Sterling Marlin 11208 / 11.8 935 _ Harry Gant 11125 / 11.9 898 _ Mark Martin 10781 / 12.0 865 _ Ernie Irvan 10465 / 12.1 802 _ Darrell Waltrip 10901 / 13.6 721 _ Bill Elliott 10816 / 15.0 688 _ Ken Schrader 9842 / 14.3 663 _ Rusty Wallace 10148 / 15.3 & TOTAL: UPS! 43 years 1949-1991: Richard Petty 7 in: '63, '64, '67, '71, '72, '75, '79. Lee Petty 5 in: '50, '52, '54, '58, '59. Dale Earnhardt 5 in: '80, '86, '87, '89, '91. David Pearson 4 in: '66, '68, '69, '76. Cale Yarborough 3 in: '74, '77, '78. Bobby Allison 3 in: '81, '82, '83. Buck Baker 2 in: '56, '57. Rex White 2 in: '60, '61. Bill Blair 1 in: '49. Fonty Flock 1 in: '51. Herb Thomas 1 in: '53. Tim Flock 1 in: '55. Joe Weatherly 1 in: '62. Ned Jarrett 1 in: '65. Bobby Isaac 1 in: '70. Benny Parsons 1 in: '73. Terry Labonte 1 in: '84. Darrell Waltrip 1 in: '85. Bill Elliott 1 in: '88. Mark Martin 1 in: '90. 38. Josh posted: 12.31.2017 - 1:56 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Last race for Chad Little in the #19 Bulls Eye BBQ Sauce/Tyson Foods Ford, and also the last race for that team overall. Last race for the #24 Team III Racing Pontiac. The sponsor and driver arrangement with Dirt Devil and Kenny Wallace, respectively, fell apart and the team did not come to Daytona in 1992. This however was NOT the last time the #24 appeared in a Winston Cup field before Jeff Gordon's debut one year later at this race; Butch Gilliland fielded the #24 as a Winston West entrant at Sonoma and Phoenix in 1992. Last race for Banquet Foods on the Travis Carter #98 team driven by Jimmy Spencer. The team ran in 1992 on a limited schedule with Moly Black Gold sponsorship and struggled. Last race for the Joe Ruttman and Dinner Bell Foods pairing on the RahMoc #75. This arrangement was only in place for 1991. Last race for Interstate Batteries on the #49 of Stanley Smith. Interstate Batteries of course went to sponsor Joe Gibbs' startup team in 1992 with driver Dale Jarrett. Smith continued to compete part time in 1992 with Ameritron Batteries sponsorship in a Chevrolet. Dave Marcis, just like at Rockingham earlier in the fall, fielded a car prepared by Richard Childress. The paint and decals were exactly like that of Earnhardt's #3. Marcis had a good run in the RCR car, coming home 12th. Bobby Hillin's #53 entry with owner Martin Birrane was also a Childress car. Hillin gave the car a good run in the Top 5 for several laps in the middle of the race, albeit getting the track position because of some pit strategy. Birrane and Hillin would stay together to run a limited schedule in 1992 with more cars purchased from RCR, using the #31 under the "Team Ireland" banner. 39. @Statscrash posted: 10.15.2018 - 1:21 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think a lot of people have questioned Jimmy Spencer's head through the years 40. RaceFanX posted: 12.31.2018 - 4:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first of two wins for Mark Martin at Atlanta, both of them coming in the early-to-mid 1990s before the track was reconfigured. He sent the dark red #6 Folgers Ford into retirement with a win before switching to a new red, white, and blue look in 1992 as Valvoline motor oil took the place of the coffee giant as his primary sponsor. 41. Jimnsimforever posted: 01.18.2019 - 1:28 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @38 On the TBS broadcast of the Charlotte 500 a few weeks before this race Bobby Hillin also drove the #53 Longhorn Steaks car. They reported that it was owned by Dick Moroso. 42. nohbody posted: 03.30.2019 - 4:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) The Chase is bullshit and doesn't count. Gordon tied Dale in 2014 with his seventh title. Harvick and Johnson have three each. Carl has two. Bad Brad, Truex, and Kyle Bush each have one. 43. Guy posted: 03.30.2019 - 6:26 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) "Nobody" is a good name for the above poster, since nobody even said anything about the chase and this is a race from 1991 44. GoPM21 posted: 04.23.2019 - 3:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) During the later stages of the race, ESPN did a nice rundown of every car that was still running in the race. Each sponsor got some TV time and all drivers got a mention. A nice production touch you don't see anymore. 45. Jeffrey posted: 09.28.2019 - 9:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @35 Jerry Nadeau finished 5th at Watkins Glen in 1999 in the Melling car 46. 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. 47. QFH posted: 10.25.2020 - 1:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ernie Irvan's Grandfather had a heart attack not long before this race began, Ernie ran well for him and was rewarded with a runner up 48. JSPorts posted: 01.22.2021 - 11:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wins in the Gen-3 car (1981-1991): 1st: Darrell Waltrip, 54 2nd: Dale Earnhardt, 46 3rd: Bill Elliott, 34 4th: Bobby Allison, 23 5th: Rusty Wallace, 20 6th: Harry Gant, 16 7th: Cale Yarborough, 14 8th: Davey Allison & Tim Richmond, 13 10th: Ricky Rudd, 12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: