The 1989 Valleydale Meats 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 29th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 9, 1989, before an audience of 56,000 in Bristol, Tennessee, at Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.533 miles (0.858 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. Coming back from initial mishaps early in the race, Blue Max Racing driver Rusty Wallace would manage to make a late race charge to the lead, passing for the lead with 43 laps left in the race to take his 13th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his third victory of the season.[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Darrell Waltrip and Geoff Bodine, both drivers for Hendrick Motorsports, would finish second and third, respectively.
The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCARshort track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.
Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, April 7, at 2:00 PM EST. Originally, the first 15 positions were going to be determined by first round qualifying, with positions 16-30 meant to be determined the following day on Saturday, April 8.[5] 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.[6]
Mark Martin, driving for Roush Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 15.953 and an average speed of 120.278 miles per hour (193.569 km/h) in the first round.[7]
