By starting the race, Dale Earnhardt clinched the NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver's championship, after completing a dominant season. The championship was Earnhardt's third overall driver's championship and his second in a row.[3]
North Carolina Motor Speedway was opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, October 22, at 4:00 PM 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, October 23, at 2:00 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,[4] 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 were given.
Davey Allison, driving for Ranier-Lundy Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 25.144 and an average speed of 145.609 miles per hour (234.335 km/h) in the first round.[5]
Two drivers failed to qualify. One driver who failed to qualify, D. Wayne Strout, crashed his car in a Friday morning practice session. Strout later reported to The Charlotte Observer that the crash was severe enough to the point where he couldn't remember the crash.[6]
