1991 Budweiser at The Glen
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 18 of 29 in the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1991 Budweiser at The Glen program cover, featuring Geoff Bodine. | |||
| Date | August 11, 1991 | ||
| Official name | 6th Annual Budweiser at The Glen | ||
| Location | Watkins Glen, New York, Watkins Glen International | ||
| Course |
Permanent racing facility 2.428 mi (3.907 km) | ||
| Distance | 90 laps, 218.52 mi (351.673 km) | ||
| Scheduled Distance | 90 laps, 218.52 mi (351.673 km) | ||
| Average speed | 84.771 miles per hour (136.426 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 125,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Hagan Racing | ||
| Time | 1:11.851 | ||
| 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 | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
The 1991 Budweiser at The Glen was the 18th stock car race of the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the sixth iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, August 11, 1991, before an audience of 125,000 in Watkins Glen, New York, at the shortened layout of Watkins Glen International, a 2.428-mile (3.907 km) permanent road course layout. At race's end, Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Ernie Irvan would manage to fend off a late-race charge by Roush Racing driver Mark Martin to take his third career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.[1][2][3] To fill out the top three, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ricky Rudd and the aforementioned Mark Martin would finish second and third, respectively.
The race was marred due to a fatal crash including long-time NASCAR owner-driver and independent driver, J. D. McDuffie. On lap five of the race, McDuffie's car would suffer a broken spindle on the left front tire of his car, causing him to lose his brakes heading into turn five, one of the fastest corners of the track due to the fact that the turn was at the end of the longest and fastest straightaway of the track.[4] Heading into the turn's tire barrier at around 160 miles per hour (260 km/h), McDuffie's car would hit the tire barrier at such a high speed that McDuffie would suffer a basilar skull fracture in the incident, killing McDuffie instantly.[5][6][7] Fellow owner-driver Jimmy Means, who was also involved in the incident and was the first to check on McDuffie's condition after the wreck, would say in later interviews that "It was so bad that I just had to close my eyes."[8]
Background
Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an automobile race track located in Watkins Glen, New York at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980), but the site has been home to road racing of nearly every class, including the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the International Motor Sports Association and the IndyCar Series.
Initially, public roads in the village were used for the race course. In 1956 a permanent circuit for the race was built. In 1968 the race was extended to six hours, becoming the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. The circuit's current layout has more or less been the same since 1971, although a chicane was installed at the uphill Esses in 1975 to slow cars through these corners, where there was a fatality during practice at the 1973 United States Grand Prix. The chicane was removed in 1985, but another chicane called the "Inner Loop" was installed in 1992 after J.D. McDuffie's fatal accident during the previous year's NASCAR Winston Cup event.
The circuit is known as the Mecca of North American road racing and is a very popular venue among fans and drivers. The facility is currently owned by International Speedway Corporation.
Entry list
- (R) denotes rookie driver.
Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, August 9, at 1:00 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 Saturday, August 10, at 11:00 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,[9] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified on time but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given. 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.
Terry Labonte, driving for Hagan Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 1:11.851 and an average speed of 121.652 miles per hour (195.780 km/h) in the first round.[10][11]
No drivers would fail to qualify.
Full qualifying results
Lap 5 crash
As the field entered the Loop on lap 5, the left front wheel spindle on driver J. D. McDuffie's car broke, causing the wheel that was attached to it to come off the car and McDuffie to lose his brakes. He then made contact with the #52 of Jimmy Means, which caused both cars to leave the racing surface at the exit to turn five, heading down a grassy embankment where a tire barrier was placed in front of an Armco guard rail. Since his brakes had failed, and also that there was no gravel trap at the Loop to help him scrub off some speed, McDuffie could not slow or stop his Pontiac. Moments later, he struck the tire barrier with enough force to propel his car into the air and rotate 180 degrees before landing back on the grass, upside down; McDuffie was killed upon impact. Means was able to get his car slowed enough to where he did not make as hard a hit as McDuffie did; in fact, he actually went underneath McDuffie's car as it was in the air before he came to rest just alongside the tires.[4]
As Means emerged from his race car, he went over to the wrecked car of McDuffie to try to assist McDuffie to get out of his racecar. A few seconds after looking inside the cockpit of McDuffie's car, 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.[12]
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 turn five.[7] 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.[13]
"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 and go back out and restart this race. Hey, it's their job. It's what they do – 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 race car right now, they want to be in the garage area hugging their wife, their girlfriend, their mom, their crew members, whoever. I don't want to be here now. I want to be over there looking at Ned, and 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.[13]
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 died.[14]
McDuffie was credited with a last-place finish of 40th, while Means was credited with a 39th place finish.
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 Kendall would break both of his legs in the incident.[15]
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.[16]
Race results
Standings after the race
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References
- ^ Higgins, Tom (August 12, 1991). "Irvan holds off challengers (Part 1)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 25. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (August 12, 1991). "Irvan holds off challengers (Part 2)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 29. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Harris, Mike (August 12, 1991). "Irvan survives Martin bid, wins at Glen". The State. p. 20. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Harris, Mike (August 12, 1991). "McDuffie killed at Watkins Glen". Great Falls Tribune. p. 16. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (August 12, 1991). "Racing wreck kills popular NASCAR driver (Part 1)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 1. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (August 12, 1991). "Racing wreck kills popular NASCAR driver (Part 2)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 4. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Harris, Mike (August 12, 1991). "McDuffie death casts pall over Irvan's win (Part 1)". The Anniston Star. p. 11. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Harris, Mike (August 12, 1991). "McDuffie death casts pall over Irvan's win (Part 2)". The Anniston Star. p. 15. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "NASCAR today". The Charlotte Observer. August 8, 1991. p. 32. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (August 10, 1991). "Record at the Glen (Part 1)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 33. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Higgins, Tom (August 10, 1991). "Record at the Glen (Part 2)". The Charlotte Observer. p. 38. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "1991 Budweiser At The Glen death scene". Legends of NASCAR. Archived from the original on 2012-03-29. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
- ^ a b 1991 Budweiser At The Glen (RAW SATELLITE FEED). SMIFF TV. YouTube. October 22, 2016. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
- ^ 1991 Champion Spark Plug 500 - Sad News. battalionfan888. YouTube. March 18, 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
- ^ Hawke, George (July 1, 1991). "Crash mars Camel Continental". Star-Gazette. p. 1. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Levanduski, Ron (October 9, 1991). "Turn 5 shifts gears". Star-Gazette. p. 9. Retrieved February 22, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
