1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300

The 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 was the 12th stock car race of the 1991 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season, the third race of the 1991 NASCAR Winston West Series season, and the third iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, June 9, 1991, before an audience of 62,000 at the Grand Prix layout of Sears Point Raceway, a 2.52 mi permanent road course layout. The race took the scheduled 74 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race, Robert Yates Racing driver Davey Allison, with the assist of a late-race penalty on leader Ricky Rudd, would manage to comeback from a late-race spin to take his tenth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season. To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Ricky Rudd and Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would finish second and third, respectively.

In what has been considered by NASCAR drivers and media as one of the most controversial rule callings in NASCAR history, Hendrick Motorsports driver Ricky Rudd was penalized after performing a bump and run maneuver on the final turn of the raceway with two laps to go in the race on leader Davey Allison. After Rudd completed his final lap, Rudd was shown the black flag instead of the checkered flag, instead showing the checkered flag to Allison to signify that Allison had won the race. Rudd, who was initially given a drive-through penalty, was given a five-second time penalty for the move on Allison for not taking the drive-through penalty, moving Rudd to a second-place finish. Rudd argued that he had both not known of the penalty and that he did not enough time to serve a penalty, who was given the black flag on the final lap of the race. According to NASCAR rules, a driver had three laps to serve their penalty. Dave Marcis, who was near the accident, would agree with Rudd, saying "How is Ricky supposed to know he got a black flag? He was up in Turn 2 or 3 by then." According to NASCAR's vice president for Competition, Les Richter, the move that Rudd had made was "unnecessary and avoidable", a decision that which both confused and angered Rudd and his team, saying that NASCAR had never made such a decision before for a bump and run maneuver.

Immediately after the race, Rudd and Rudd's crew chief, Waddell Wilson, would protest the results of the race. Wilson was recorded by The Charlotte Observer reporter Tom Higgins pleading to NASCAR president Bill France Jr. to change the results, saying "Don't take this race away from us, Billy!... You told all [the drivers] in the drivers' meeting that on the last lap they were on their own!" Rudd himself would compare the officiating of NASCAR officials to the World Wrestling Federation, saying that "This is the best example of how NASCAR makes their own rules. NASCAR needs a Ford in victory lane." Allison, the winner of the race, speaking in an article for The Press Democrat said "We feel like we deserve the victory, and we're going to savor it just like the rest of them."

Background

Sears Point Raceway is one of two road courses to hold NASCAR races, the other being Watkins Glen International. The standard road course at Sears Point Raceway is a 12-turn course that is 2.52 miles (4.06 km) long; the track was modified in 1998, adding the Chute, which bypassed turns 5 and 6, shortening the course to 1.95 miles (3.14 km). The Chute was only used for NASCAR events such as this race, and was criticized by many drivers, who preferred the full layout. In 2001, it was replaced with a 70-degree turn, 4A, bringing the track to its current dimensions of 1.99 miles (3.20 km).

Entry list

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

#	Driver	Team	Make	Sponsor
00	Scott Gaylord	Oliver Racing	Oldsmobile	Oliver Gravity Separators
1	Rick Mast	Precision Products Racing	Oldsmobile	Skoal
2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South	Pontiac	Miller Genuine Draft
3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	GM Goodwrench Service Plus
4	Ernie Irvan	Morgan–McClure Motorsports	Chevrolet	Kodak
04	Hershel McGriff	Lipseia Racing	Pontiac	U.S. Bank
5	Ricky Rudd	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Tide
6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	Folgers
7	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing	Ford	Hooters
8	Rick Wilson	Stavola Brothers Racing	Buick	Snickers
9	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing	Ford	Coors Light
09	R. K. Smith	Midgley Racing	Pontiac	Midgley Racing
10	Derrike Cope	Whitcomb Racing	Chevrolet	Purolator Filters
12	Hut Stricklin	Bobby Allison Motorsports	Buick	Raybestos
15	Morgan Shepherd	Bud Moore Engineering	Ford	Motorcraft
17	Darrell Waltrip	Darrell Waltrip Motorsports	Chevrolet	Western Auto
19	Chad Little	Little Racing	Ford	Red Baron
20	Kim Campbell	Moroso Racing	Oldsmobile	NAPA Auto Parts
21	Dale Jarrett	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	Citgo
22	Sterling Marlin	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	Maxwell House
23	Mike Chase	Freymiller Racing	Ford	Freymiller Trucking
24	Mickey Gibbs	Team III Racing	Pontiac	Team III Racing
24W	Butch Gilliland	Gilliland Racing	Pontiac	Gear Engineering
25	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	Kodiak
26	Brett Bodine	King Racing	Buick	Quaker State
28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	Texaco, Havoline
30	Michael Waltrip	Bahari Racing	Pontiac	Pennzoil
33	Harry Gant	Leo Jackson Motorsports	Oldsmobile	Skoal Bandit
42	Tommy Kendall	SABCO Racing	Pontiac	Mello Yello
43	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises	Pontiac	STP
44	Irv Hoerr	Labonte Motorsports	Oldsmobile	Bay Area Oldsmobile
44W	Jack Sellers	Emerson Racing	Buick	Coca-Cola
49	Stanley Smith (R)	BS&S Motorsports	Buick	Interstate Batteries
52	Bobby Hillin Jr.	Jimmy Means Racing	Pontiac	Alka-Seltzer
55	Ted Musgrave (R)	U.S. Racing	Pontiac	U.S. Racing
66	Lake Speed	Cale Yarborough Motorsports	Pontiac	Phillips 66 TropArtic
68	Bobby Hamilton (R)	TriStar Motorsports	Oldsmobile	Country Time
71	Dave Marcis	Marcis Auto Racing	Chevrolet	Big Apple Market
73	Bill Schmitt	Schmitt Racing	Ford	Raley's Supermarkets
75	Joe Ruttman	RahMoc Enterprises	Oldsmobile	Dinner Bell Foods
76	Bill Sedgwick	Spears Motorsports	Chevrolet	Spears Manufacturing
91	Robert Sprague	Rouse Racing	Ford	Rouse Racing
93	Troy Beebe	Beebe Racing	Buick	Taco Bell
94	Terry Labonte	Hagan Racing	Oldsmobile	Sunoco
97	Geoff Bodine	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	Budweiser
98	Jimmy Spencer	Travis Carter Enterprises	Chevrolet	Banquet Foods
99	John Krebs	KC Racing	Pontiac	Skoal