The 1987 Budweiser 500 was the 11th stock car race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 19th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, May 31, 1987, before an audience of 56,000 in Dover, Delaware at Dover Downs International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete.

By race's end, Ranier-Lundy Racing's Davey Allison had managed to dominate the late stages of the race, leading 216 laps to take his second career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season. The victory also marked the first time a driver who had declared for NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors had won multiple races in the same season. To fill out the top three, Melling Racing's Bill Elliott and Junior Johnson & Associates' Terry Labonte finished second and third, respectively.

Background

Dover Downs International Speedway is an oval race track in Dover, Delaware, United States that has held at least two NASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the NTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1-mile (1.6 km) concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated by Dover Motorsports.

The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.

Entry list

(R) denotes rookie driver.

#DriverTeamMake1Brett BodineEllington RacingBuick3Dale EarnhardtRichard Childress RacingChevrolet4Rick WilsonMorgan–McClure MotorsportsOldsmobile04Charlie RudolphRudolph RacingChevrolet5Geoff BodineHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet6D. K. UlrichU.S. RacingChevrolet7Alan KulwickiAK RacingFord8Bobby Hillin Jr.Stavola Brothers RacingBuick9Bill ElliottMelling RacingFord11Terry LabonteJunior Johnson & AssociatesChevrolet12Larry PollardHamby RacingChevrolet15Ricky RuddBud Moore EngineeringFord17Darrell WaltripHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet18Dale Jarrett (R)Freedlander MotorsportsChevrolet21Kyle PettyWood Brothers RacingFord22Bobby AllisonStavola Brothers RacingBuick26Morgan ShepherdKing RacingBuick27Rusty WallaceBlue Max RacingPontiac28Davey Allison (R)Ranier-Lundy RacingFord30Michael WaltripBahari RacingChevrolet31Ron ShephardRon Shephard RacingChevrolet33Harry GantMach 1 RacingChevrolet35Benny ParsonsHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet37Curtis MarkhamBeahr RacingFord43Richard PettyPetty EnterprisesPontiac44Sterling MarlinHagan RacingOldsmobile52Jimmy MeansJimmy Means RacingPontiac55Phil ParsonsJackson Bros. MotorsportsOldsmobile58Jerry BowmanJerry Bowman RacingFord62Steve Christman (R)Winkle MotorsportsPontiac64Rodney CombsLangley RacingFord67Buddy ArringtonArrington RacingFord70J. D. McDuffieMcDuffie RacingPontiac71Dave MarcisMarcis Auto RacingChevrolet75Neil BonnettRahMoc EnterprisesPontiac80Gary FedewaBurke RacingChevrolet81Mike PotterFillip RacingFord85Jimmy HortonS&H RacingFord88Buddy BakerBaker–Schiff RacingOldsmobile90Ken SchraderDonlavey RacingFord

Qualifying Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Saturday, May 30, at 10:00 AM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round were 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, at 3:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 were decided on time, 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 provisionals were given.

Bill Elliott, driving for Melling Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 24.818 and an average speed of in the first round.

No drivers failed to qualify.

Full qualifying results Pos.#DriverTeamMakeTimeSpeed19Bill ElliottMelling RacingFord24.818145.056228Davey AllisonRanier-Lundy RacingFord24.860144.811390Ken SchraderDonlavey RacingFord25.010143.942422Bobby AllisonStavola Brothers RacingBuick25.065143.627533Harry GantMach 1 RacingChevrolet25.130143.25564Rick WilsonMorgan–McClure MotorsportsOldsmobile25.185142.94275Geoff BodineHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet25.185142.942817Darrell WaltripHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet25.197142.874935Benny ParsonsHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet25.220142.744103Dale EarnhardtRichard Childress RacingChevrolet25.224142.7211115Ricky RuddBud Moore EngineeringFord25.250142.5741275Neil BonnettRahMoc EnterprisesPontiac25.291142.3431311Terry LabonteJunior Johnson & AssociatesChevrolet25.314142.2141421Kyle PettyWood Brothers RacingFord25.315142.2081526Morgan ShepherdKing RacingBuick25.316142.2031644Sterling MarlinHagan RacingOldsmobile25.325142.152177Alan KulwickiAK RacingFord25.372141.889181Brett BodineEllington RacingChevrolet25.433141.5481927Rusty WallaceBlue Max RacingPontiac25.435141.537208Bobby Hillin Jr.Stavola Brothers RacingBuick25.435141.537Failed to lock in Round 12130Michael WaltripBahari RacingChevrolet25.486141.2542288Buddy BakerBaker–Schiff RacingOldsmobile25.499141.1822318Dale JarrettFreedlander MotorsportsChevrolet25.654140.3292443Richard PettyPetty EnterprisesPontiac25.657140.3132571Dave MarcisMarcis Auto RacingChevrolet25.667140.2582655Phil ParsonsJackson Bros. MotorsportsOldsmobile25.720139.9692780Gary FedewaBurke RacingChevrolet25.731139.9092867Buddy ArringtonArrington RacingFord25.737139.8762964Rodney CombsLangley RacingFord26.092137.9733058Jerry BowmanJerry Bowman RacingFord26.110137.8783112Larry PollardHamby RacingChevrolet26.115137.8523285Jimmy HortonS&H RacingFord26.248137.1533337Curtis MarkhamBeahr RacingFord26.317136.794346D. K. UlrichU.S. RacingChevrolet26.325136.7523562Steve ChristmanWinkle MotorsportsPontiac26.398136.3743681Mike PotterFillip RacingFord26.411136.3073704Charlie RudolphRudolph RacingChevrolet26.431136.2043852Jimmy MeansJimmy Means RacingPontiac26.591135.3843970J. D. McDuffieMcDuffie RacingPontiac26.632135.1764031Ron ShephardRon Shephard RacingChevrolet26.747134.595Official starting lineup

Race results FinSt#DriverTeamMakeLapsLedStatusPtsWinnings1228Davey AllisonRanier-Lundy RacingFord500212running185$46,600219Bill ElliottMelling RacingFord50061running175$35,57531311Terry LabonteJunior Johnson & AssociatesChevrolet4991running165$25,5754103Dale EarnhardtRichard Childress RacingChevrolet49815running165$20,7755935Benny ParsonsHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet4980running155$18,0256390Ken SchraderDonlavey RacingFord49838running155$12,8807817Darrell WaltripHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet4960running151$7,89582571Dave MarcisMarcis Auto RacingChevrolet49625running147$11,57591275Neil BonnettRahMoc EnterprisesPontiac4940running138$8,465101644Sterling MarlinHagan RacingOldsmobile4940running134$9,280112288Buddy BakerBaker–Schiff RacingOldsmobile4920running130$3,400121115Ricky RuddBud Moore EngineeringFord4901running132$11,300133852Jimmy MeansJimmy Means RacingPontiac4870running124$6,48514181Brett BodineEllington RacingChevrolet4860running121$2,40015177Alan KulwickiAK RacingFord4850crash118$7,275163112Larry PollardHamby RacingChevrolet4830running0$5,615171927Rusty WallaceBlue Max RacingPontiac4810running112$10,150182867Buddy ArringtonArrington RacingFord4790running109$5,305193704Charlie RudolphRudolph RacingChevrolet4620running106$2,050202964Rodney CombsLangley RacingFord4560engine103$5,595212130Michael WaltripBahari RacingChevrolet4150engine100$4,725222655Phil ParsonsJackson Bros. MotorsportsOldsmobile3890crash97$2,400233970J. D. McDuffieMcDuffie RacingPontiac3730engine94$1,850241421Kyle PettyWood Brothers RacingFord3700running91$8,80025422Bobby AllisonStavola Brothers RacingBuick362147engine93$10,60026208Bobby Hillin Jr.Stavola Brothers RacingBuick3590engine85$8,700272780Gary FedewaBurke RacingChevrolet3550engine82$1,6502875Geoff BodineHendrick MotorsportsChevrolet3160engine79$8,6002964Rick WilsonMorgan–McClure MotorsportsOldsmobile2890engine76$1,54030533Harry GantMach 1 RacingChevrolet1960engine73$4,275313058Jerry BowmanJerry Bowman RacingFord1610electrical70$1,450321526Morgan ShepherdKing RacingBuick1350crash67$4,155333681Mike PotterFillip RacingFord1320crash64$1,35034346D. K. UlrichU.S. RacingChevrolet910crash61$4,035352318Dale JarrettFreedlander MotorsportsChevrolet840transmission58$3,200362443Richard PettyPetty EnterprisesPontiac690crash55$3,175373562Steve ChristmanWinkle MotorsportsPontiac590engine52$1,175383337Curtis MarkhamBeahr RacingFord290crash0$1,175394031Ron ShephardRon Shephard RacingChevrolet220engine46$1,150403285Jimmy HortonS&H RacingFord00did not start0$0Official race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Dale Earnhardt 1,823 2 Bill Elliott 1,614 (-209) 1 3 Terry Labonte 1,568 (-255) 1 4 Neil Bonnett 1,556 (–267) 2 5 Rusty Wallace 1,467 (–356) 6 Kyle Petty 1,465 (–358) 1 7 Darrell Waltrip 1,458 (–365) 3 8 Richard Petty 1,435 (–388) 9 Ken Schrader 1,406 (–417) 10 Ricky Rudd 1,378 (–445)Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

Notes

References