1989 Goodwrench 500

The 1989 Goodwrench 500 was the second stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 24th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, March 5, 1989, before an audience of 44,300 in Rockingham, North Carolina, at North Carolina Speedway, a 1.017 miles (1.637 km) permanent high-banked racetrack. On the final restart with six laps left in the race, Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace would manage to pull away to a sizable lead to take his 11th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. To fill out the top three, owner-driver Alan Kulwicki and Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

North Carolina Motor Speedway was opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School.

Entry list

(R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, March 2, at 2:30 PM EST. Originally, the first 20 positions were going to be determined by first round qualifying, with positions 21-40 meant to be determined the following day on Friday, March 3. However, due to rain, the second round was cancelled. As a result, the rest of the starting lineup was set using the results from the first round. 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 were given.

Rusty Wallace, driving for Blue Max Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 24.606 and an average speed of 148.793 miles per hour (239.459 km/h) in the first round.

No drivers would fail to qualify.