Attendance 66,000 | ||
 | ||
Date June 10, 1990 (1990-June-10) Location Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, California Course Permanent racing facility
1.99 mi (3.2 km) Distance 74 laps, 172.88 mi (308.69 km) Weather Hot with temperatures reaching up to 88 °F (31 °C); wind speeds up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) | ||
The 1990 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on June 10, 1990, at Sears Point International Raceway in the American community of Sonoma, California.
Contents
Mike Chase, Butch Gilliland, and Jack Sellers would make their introductions into the NASCAR Cup Series in this event while Stan Barrett and Ted Kennedy would leave the Cup Series after this event.
Summary
A grand total of 44 American-born drivers participated in this 74-lap event. Hershel McGriff was the unfortunate last-place finisher due to a problematic stock car engine on the second lap. While Jack Sellers was the last man to actually finish the event, a faulty engine on lap 70 prevented Morgan Shepherd from finishing anywhere except in the middle of the pack. The average green flag run was determined to be 6 laps; with slightly more than 32% of the entire race being run under a caution flag. Race-related accidents and vehicles stalling out on the relatively length road course track were the majority of the reasons behind the yellow flag laps.
I was going into a turn when a tire blew and spun me around,The next thing I knew I was flying through the air. The car landed so far up in the sticks I don't know how we'll get it back
After two hours and forty-five minutes of racing, Rusty Wallace would defeat Mark Martin under the race's final caution flag. Amongst the drivers who failed to qualify for the race were Jimmy Means and Mike Hickingbottom. Mark Martin would maintain a 62-point lead for the 1990 Winston Cup Series championship against Morgan Shepherd after this event was through. Vehicles in this race ran speeds averaging up to 69.245 miles per hour (111.439 km/h); making it the slowest NASCAR Cup Series event in the history of Sonoma Raceway.
West Series driver and occasional Truck Series racer Terry Fisher was competitive all race and ended up a more-than-respectable 15th on the lead lap.
After this race, Mark Martin had a 136-point lead over Dale Earnhardt who was 4th in points after this race. Mark didn't lose the championship because of the penalty at Richmond. He lost it because Earnhardt dominated the rest of the year and took the championship away from him.
Individual earnings for each driver ranged from the winner's share of $69,100 ($126,671.60 when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finisher's share of $3,325 ($6,095.27 when adjusted for inflation). NASCAR officials were authorized to hand out a sum of $443,457 to all the drivers who qualified for this racing event ($812,929.20 when adjusted for inflation).