1991 Budweiser at The Glen

1991 Budweiser at the Glen

Race details
Race 18 of 29 in the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Watkins Glen short course from 1971–1991, before the Inner Loop was added.
Date	August 11, 1991 (1991-August-11)
Official name	Budweiser at the Glen
Location	Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, New York
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.428 mi (3.909 km)
Distance	90 laps, 218.52 mi (351.81 km)
Weather	Warm with temperatures approaching 81 °F (27 °C); wind speeds up to 14 miles per hour (23 km/h)
Average speed	98.997 miles per hour (159.320 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Terry Labonte	Hagan Enterprises
Most laps led
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Morgan-McClure Motorsports
Laps	39
Winner
No. 4	Ernie Irvan	Morgan-McClure Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins Ned Jarrett Benny Parsons

The 1991 Budweiser at The Glen racing event was officially sanctioned as part of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Taking place on August 11, 1991, at Watkins Glen International, this race was the 18th race completed out of the 29 attempted during the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. The race was won by Ernie Irvan driving the No. 4 Kodak Chevrolet Lumina for Morgan-McClure Motorsports, but was marred by an early crash that claimed the life of veteran driver J. D. McDuffie.

Summary

The entire race took approximately two hours and twelve minutes to complete.

Terry Labonte, driving the No. 94 Sunoco-sponsored Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme for Billy Hagan, qualified on pole for the race. Irvan, who won the race, qualified third. Five cautions slowed the race for 11 laps. Ricky Rudd finished second behind Irvan in the No. 5 Tide-sponsored Chevrolet Lumina for Hendrick Motorsports, and Richard Petty recorded his final career Top 10 finish in the No. 43 STP-sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix by finishing ninth.

ESPN carried the race as part of its coverage of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, and Ned Jarrett called the race while Jerry Punch and John Kernan were pit reporters. Jenkins called the race from the broadcast booth near the front straightaway while his analysts were stationed on the track, with Parsons reporting from the first turn and Jarrett stationed at the fifth turn known as the "Loop".

Lap 5 crash

The fatal crash that marred the race occurred involved two of the six owner-drivers in the race. J.D. McDuffie, as he had done for years, was driving his #70 Pontiac Grand Prix, for which he had obtained sponsorship from a local Watkins Glen-area construction company. The other car involved belonged to Jimmy Means, who also fielded his own Pontiacs at the time; this particular race saw his #52 carry sponsorship from Alka-Seltzer. (The other four owner-drivers in the race were the aforementioned Richard Petty in the #43 STP Pontiac, Darrell Waltrip in the #17 Western Auto Chevrolet, Dave Marcis in the #71 Chevrolet, and Alan Kulwicki in the #7 Hooters Ford.)

The #70 and the #52 made contact with each other entering the Loop turn. McDuffie’s car suffered a broken axle and brake failure, leaving him without any way to stop or slow the car as both he and Means lost control and veered off the track. Going at his full racing speed, and with no gravel trap to stop him, McDuffie rolled through the grass and plowed into the tire barrier protecting the guardrail outside the turn with such force that the car was lifted off the ground, rotated in mid—air, and came to rear upside down. Means was able to get the #52 slowed enough to where he did not make as hard a hit as McDuffie did; in fact, he actually went underneath the #70 as it was in the air before he came to rest just alongside the tires. The impact McDuffie made with the tire barrier killed him instantly.

As Means emerged from his race car, he went over to the wrecked Pontiac to try to assist McDuffie. A few seconds after looking inside the cockpit of the #70, Means began frantically waving for track safety officials to come to the scene. Means then spoke to Ned Jarrett, who as mentioned before was stationed on the track just behind where the accident occurred, on the ESPN broadcast moments later that he hoped his fellow driver was okay but conceded the situation did not look good.

Just as the drivers completed the fifth lap, NASCAR threw the red flag and stopped the drivers on the front stretch. The race was red-flagged for one hour and 48 minutes, first to extract McDuffie from his vehicle, and then to allow time for track workers to repair the guardrail in that location. Later, as the race was restarting, Jerry Punch of ESPN and Bill Bowser of MRN were both present for the official statement from Winston Cup Media Director Chip Williams that McDuffie had died from his injuries sustained in the crash. On ESPN, Bob Jenkins then eulogized McDuffie before Benny Parsons spoke directly to McDuffie's widow, Ima Jean.

"Jean, I know exactly what you're going through sweetheart. And, you fans out there, you wonder how these guys can get in these cars can go back out and restart this race. Hey, it's their job, it's what they do and there's a hundred thousand people here this afternoon to watch them do that job. There's not a one of these drivers that wants to be in that racecar right now, they want to be in the garage area hugging their wife, their girlfriend, their mom, their crewmembers, whoever. I don't want to be here now, I want to be over there looking at Ned, looking at Bob and just not saying anything. But we've got a job to do, and that's report to you who wins, who loses, and what happens during the day. Jean, we all love you and we're sorry."

Benny Parsons, addressing J.D. McDuffie's death on ESPN.

As he had mentioned, Parsons had his own experience in having to deal with a spousal death. Earlier that season, during the Winston Cup’s June race weekend at Pocono, he had stayed behind at his North Carolina home to be with his wife Connie as she battled a terminal illness. On the day of the race, which Jenkins and Jarrett called without him, Connie Parsons passed away.

McDuffie was credited with a last-place finish of 40th, while Means was credited with a 39th place finish. A brief ceremony honoring McDuffie was held during the 1992 Coca-Cola 600 race held the following year.

This incident was the second serious accident at Turn 5 that year. During June's Camel Continental sports car race, Tommy Kendall crashed in the same area after losing control of his vehicle — he, like McDuffie, lost a wheel before crashing — and broke both of his legs. Coincidentally, Kendall was scheduled to take part in this particular race prior to his accident driving the No. 42 Mello Yello Pontiac for Felix Sabates in place of an injured Kyle Petty, but his injuries allowed Bobby Hillin, Jr. to take over the ride for the Budweiser at the Glen. (Hillin finished 18th.)

In the wake of both serious incidents, Watkins Glen International track officials decided to reconfigure the Loop and added a chicane to the entrance of the turn which was dubbed the Inner Loop. They did not, however, make this a permanent change and left the Loop turn as a whole in place, choosing to leave it to the sanctioning bodies of the racing series as to whether or not they wanted to use the chicane. Races using the short course, like the still-running NASCAR events, use the Inner Loop chicane. Races using the full course, like those run by sports car racing series and the IndyCar Series, usually use the original Loop configuration (not all do, however).

Race

When the race restarted, Terry Labonte maintained the lead. On lap 20, Labonte cut a left-rear tire and spun entering turn one, bringing out the caution to retrieve his tire. Ernie Irvan ran up front until he spun out of the lead in turn six on lap 48. Irvan re-entered the track in fifth place. A caution for rain came out on lap 59. The shower was brief and Ken Schrader emerged in the lead after pitting shortly before the caution. Schrader led until lap 68 when he broke a camshaft in turn five and coasted back to the pits. Later that lap, Kim Campbell spun in turn five, hitting the wall with the back of his Oldsmobile and bringing out the fifth and final caution of the day. The race came down to a three car battle between Irvan, Mark Martin, and Davey Allison for the victory. On the final lap, Martin attempted a pass for the lead entering turn one. Irvan blocked the attempt forcing Martin to slam on the brakes. This disrupted the balance of Martin's Thunderbird causing him to spin and Davey Allison to spin in avoidance. Irvan drove to a seven-second victory. Martin finished third while Allison had trouble restarting his car, finishing tenth. Coming out of the final turn, Bill Elliott and Hut Stricklin spun across the finish line, finishing seventh and eight respectively.

Results

Pos	Grid	No.	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Points
1	3	4	Ernie Irvan	Morgan-McClure Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	185
2	22	5	Ricky Rudd	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	90	175
3	2	6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	90	165
4	21	2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South	Ford	90	160
5	14	21	Dale Jarrett	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	90	155
6	7	17	Darrell Waltrip	DarWal Inc.	Chevrolet	90	150
7	19	9	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing	Ford	90	146
8	30	12	Hut Stricklin	Bobby Allison Motorsports	Buick	90	142
9	31	43	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Pontiac	90	138
10	9	28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	90	139
11	23	19	Chad Little	Little Racing	Ford	90	130
12	28	22	Sterling Marlin	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	90	127
13	26	10	Derrike Cope	Whitcomb Racing	Chevrolet	90	124
14	29	75	Joe Ruttman	RahMoc Enterprises	Oldsmobile	90	121
15	8	3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	90	123
16	27	53	John Paul, Jr.	Team Ireland	Chevrolet	90	115
17	11	24	Dorsey Schroeder	Team III Racing	Pontiac	90	117
18	16	42	Bobby Hillin, Jr.	Team Sabco	Pontiac	89	109
19	17	8	Rick Wilson	Stavola Brothers Racing	Buick	89	106
20	38	54	Jim Derhaag	Hakes-Welliver Racing	Oldsmobile	88	103
21	40	30	Michael Waltrip	Bahari Racing	Pontiac	88	100
22	4	11	Geoff Bodine	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	86	102
23	12	7	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing	Ford	82	94
24	39	13	Oma Kimbrough	Linro Motorsports	Buick	80	91
25	18	26	Brett Bodine	King Racing	Buick	77	88
26	34	55	Ted Musgrave #	U.S. Racing	Pontiac	76	90
27	33	98	Jimmy Spencer	Travis Carter Enterprises	Chevrolet	72	82
28	15	33	Harry Gant	Precision Products Racing	Oldsmobile	71	79
29	32	68	Bobby Hamilton #	TriStar Motorsports	Oldsmobile	70	76
30	6	25	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	68	78
31	37	20	Kim Campbell	Moroso Racing	Oldsmobile	64	70
32	5	90	Wally Dallenbach, Jr. #	Donlavey Racing	Ford	58	67
33	10	66	Lake Speed	Cale Yarborough Motorsports	Pontiac	55	64
34	1	94	Terry Labonte	Hagan Racing	Oldsmobile	47	66
35	24	1	Rick Mast	Leo Jackson Motorsports	Oldsmobile	41	58
36	25	15	Morgan Shepherd	Bud Moore Engineering	Ford	33	55
37	20	71	Dave Marcis	Marcis Auto Racing	Chevrolet	11	52
38	13	44	Irv Hoerr	Labonte Motorsports	Oldsmobile	8	49
39	36	52	Jimmy Means	Means Racing	Pontiac	4	46
40	35	70	J. D. McDuffie	McDuffie Racing	Pontiac	4	43
# Rookie of the Year candidate Source: