| Type: | NASWINSTON |
| Official Name: | 26th Annual AC Delco 500 |
| Date: | October 21 |
| Pole Driver: | Ken Schrader |
| Pole Team: | Hendrick Motorsports |
| Announcers: | Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons |
| Most Driver: | Kyle Petty |
| First Driver: | Alan Kulwicki |
| Most Laps: | 207 |
| Most Team: | SABCO Racing |
| First Team: | AK Racing |
| Car: | 7 |
| Network: | ESPN |
| Radio: | Motor Racing Network |
| Avg: | 126.452mph |
| Attendance: | 55,800 |
| Location: | Rockingham, North Carolina, North Carolina Motor Speedway |
| Distance Km: | 805.257 |
| Scheduled Km: | 805.257 |
| Scheduled Mi: | 500.364 |
| Scheduled Laps: | 492 |
| Distance Laps: | 492 |
| Course Km: | 1.636 |
| Course Mi: | 1.017 |
| Season No: | 29 |
| Race No: | 27 |
| Race Name: | AC Delco 500 |
| Year: | 1990 |
| Pole Time: | 24.769 |
| Distance Mi: | 500.364 |
| Caption: | The 1990 AC Delco 500 program cover, featuring Rusty Wallace. |
The 1990 AC Delco 500 was the 27th stock car race of the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 26th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 21, 1990, before an audience of 55,800 in Rockingham, North Carolina, at North Carolina Speedway, a 1.017miles permanent high-banked racetrack. At race's end, owner-driver Alan Kulwicki would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his second career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.[1] [2] [3] [4] To fill out the top three, Melling Racing driver Bill Elliott and Leo Jackson Motorsports driver Harry Gant would finish second and third, respectively.
In the driver's championship, second-place driver in the standings, Dale Earnhardt, was able to gain four points over first-place driver Mark Martin, dropping Martin's lead down to 45 points.[5]
North Carolina 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.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, October 18, at 2:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Friday, October 19, at 2:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,[6] and 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.
Ken Schrader, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 24.769 and an average speed of 147.817mph in the first round.[7] [8]
Four drivers would fail to qualify.
| Pos | Driver | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Martin | 4,120 | |||||||
| 2 | Dale Earnhardt | 4,075 (-45) | |||||||
| 3 | Bill Elliott | 3,716 (-404) | |||||||
| 4 | Geoff Bodine | 3,700 (–420) | |||||||
| 5 | Rusty Wallace | 3,479 (–641) | |||||||
| 6 | Kyle Petty | 3,421 (–694) | |||||||
| 7 | Ricky Rudd | 3,419 (–701) | |||||||
| 8 | Morgan Shepherd | 3,344 (–776) | |||||||
| 9 | Ernie Irvan | 3,309 (–811) | |||||||
| 10 | Alan Kulwicki | 3,302 (–818) | |||||||
| Official driver's standings | |||||||||