With poor finishes from the top two in the driver's championship standings, those being Bill Elliott and Davey Allison, the points battle had tightened to extreme margins, with the top five in the driver's championship all being within 100 points within the leader with three races left in the season, the first time of such an occurrence in NASCAR history.[3]
Bobby Hillin Jr. was disqualified after the race after his car was found to have illegal engine in post-race inspection. It was the last time a disqualification was levied in the Cup Series for technical infringement until 2019, when Erik Jones was disqualified from the 2019 Federated Auto Parts 400.[4] The disqualification affected the team Hillin drove for, which opted to shut down after it was unable to pay for the fines levied for the inspection failure.[5]
Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of Bruton Smith) as track president.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, October 7, at 5:00 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 Thursday, October 8, at 1:30 PM 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,[6] 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. 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.
Alan Kulwicki, driving for his own AK Racing team, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.163 and an average speed of 179.027 miles per hour (288.116 km/h) in the first round.[7]
^Howell, Mark D. (1997). From Moonshine to Madison Avenue: A Cultural History of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 26. ISBN0-87972-739-X.
