1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 12 of 29 in the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
_with_emphasis_on_NASCAR_track.svg)
Track map for Sonoma Raceway. The NASCAR track is emphasized in this version.
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| Date | June 9, 1991 | ||
| Location | Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, California | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 1.99 mi (3.2 km) |
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| Distance | 74 laps, 172.88 mi (308.69 km) | ||
| Weather | Warm with temperatures reaching up to 82.9 °F (28.3 °C); wind speeds up to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Hendrick Motorsports | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Rusty Wallace | Penske Racing South | |
| Laps | 45 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 28 | Davey Allison | Yates Racing | |
The 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that occurred on June 9, 1991, at Sears Point International Raceway in the American community of Sonoma, California.
Scott Gaylord would make his NASCAR Cup Series debut in this racing event.Butch Gilliland, the father of current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor David Gilliland, failed to qualify for this race along with three other drivers.
Kyle Petty would break his leg at a crash in Talladega and was unable to compete; Tommy Kendall took over the #42 Mello Yello machine while Petty was recuperating. Petty's first race after his injury would end up being the 1991 Heinz Southern 500; a fall race at Darlington Raceway.
While the average green flag run would be 10 laps, 19% of this 74-lap race would be run under some sort of caution flag. A grid of 43 American-born drivers qualified for this road course racing event; R.K. Smith would blow his engine on the second lap, making him the last-place finisher. John Krebs would be the lowest-finishing driver to complete the race while Hershel McGriff would see his ambitions ruined by a crash on lap 61. Ford, Chevrolet and Pontiac vehicles would form the clear majority of the manufacturers involved.
After more than two and a half hours of racing, Davey Allison would defeat the first winner of the annual event Ricky Rudd by a margin of one second after Rudd was black-flagged at the checkers for a previous contact with Allison in the race. Their intense rivalry at this racing event proved their expertise on road courses when most of the other NASCAR drivers in the 1990s were more concerned about racing on oval tracks and struggled to survive in places like Sonoma and Watkins Glen. While Rudd was originally considered to be the winner since he finished first, NASCAR officials spotted a flagarant incident involving him and second-place driver Davey Allison. Rudd's tapping of Davey Allison at the White flag earned him a black-flag of 5 seconds added to his total time; enough to put Allison as the winner. National media would cover the closing moments of this controversial race. As a result, Sonoma Raceway would forever be put on the map of motorsports history.
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