| Type: | NASWINSTON |
| Date: | April 7 |
| Most Laps: | 208 |
| Pole Driver: | Geoff Bodine |
| Pole Team: | Junior Johnson & Associates |
| First Team: | Hendrick Motorsports |
| First Driver: | Ricky Rudd |
| Most Team: | Bahari Racing |
| Most Driver: | Michael Waltrip |
| Car: | 5 |
| Network: | ESPN |
| Announcers: | Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons |
| Radio: | Motor Racing Network |
| Season No: | 29 |
| Location: | Darlington, South Carolina, Darlington Raceway |
| Race No: | 5 |
| Avg: | 135.594mph |
| Official Name: | 35th Annual TranSouth 500 |
| Race Name: | TranSouth 500 |
| Year: | 1991 |
| Scheduled Laps: | 367 |
| Distance Laps: | 367 |
| Distance Km: | 806.799 |
| Scheduled Km: | 806.799 |
| Scheduled Mi: | 501.322 |
| Course Km: | 2.198 |
| Course Mi: | 1.366 |
| Pole Time: | 30.367 |
| Distance Mi: | 501.322 |
| Caption: | The 1991 TranSouth 500 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt. |
| Attendance: | 50,000 |
The 1991 TranSouth 500 was the fifth stock car race of the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 7, 1991, before an audience of 50,000 in Darlington, South Carolina, at Darlington Raceway, a 1.366miles permanent egg-shaped oval racetrack. The race took the scheduled 367 laps to complete. At race's end, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ricky Rudd would manage to dominate the late stages of the race to take his 12th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.[1] [2] To fill out the top three, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison and Bahari Racing driver Michael Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.
Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, April 4, at 3:00 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, April 5, at 11:30 AM 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,[3] 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; which was usually two. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.
Geoff Bodine, driving for Junior Johnson & Associates, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.367 and an average speed of 161.939mph in the first round.[4]
Mark Stahl was the only driver to fail to qualify.
| Pos | Driver | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Ricky Rudd | 808 | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | Dale Earnhardt | 728 (-80) | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | Ernie Irvan | 679 (-129) | ||||||
| 4 | Ken Schrader | 670 (–138) | |||||||
| 2 | 5 | Sterling Marlin | 667 (–141) | ||||||
| 5 | 6 | Mark Martin | 648 (–160) | ||||||
| 2 | 7 | Morgan Shepherd | 644 (–164) | ||||||
| 6 | 8 | Michael Waltrip | 642 (–166) | ||||||
| 4 | 9 | Rusty Wallace | 625 (–183) | ||||||
| 7 | 10 | Alan Kulwicki | 622 (–186) | ||||||
| Official driver's standings | |||||||||