1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Chronology
The 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup season offered its usual share of exciting races, but it was also touched with tragedy as two of NASCAR's up-and-coming stars -- 1992 champion Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison -- were both killed during the season. Although driver Rusty Wallace offered a late-season streak -- winning five of the last eight races -- he was no match for Dale Earnhardt, who won his 6th Winston Cup championship in 1993.
Relive the season's highlights, including the final standings and see photos of the action in the article that follows.
February 14, 1993: Daytona 500
Dale Jarrett muscles his way past Dale Earnhardt on the final lap and records a one car-length victory in the Daytona 500. Jarrett's last-lap heroics thwart Earnhardt's 15th bid for a win in NASCAR's most prestigious event.
March 7, 1993: Pontiac Excitement 400
Davey Allison leads all but four of the final 157 laps and throttles his Ford to an easy win in the Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
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Pole-sitter #42 Kyle Petty and #18 Dale Jarrett lead the pack at the start of the Feb. 14 "Daytona 500 by STP" at Daytona International Speedway. Petty earned his seventh career pole and was in contention until a late crash put him out of the race. Jarrett went on to win the race, giving team owner Joe Gibbs his first career NASCAR Winston Cup victory.
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March 20, 1993: Motorcraft Quality Parts 500
Morgan Shepherd takes the lead with 12 laps remaining to win the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 at Atlanta, an event postponed six days due to a blizzard. It is Shepherd's fourth career NASCAR Winston Cup win, three of which have come at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
March 28, 1993: TranSouth 500
Dale Earnhardt scrambles back from a one-lap deficit to win the TranSouth 500 at Darlington Raceway. Earnhardt's victory ends a personal 10-month losing skid. Alan Kulwicki finishes sixth in what is destined to be his final race.
April 1, 1993: Food City 500
Reigning NASCAR Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki perishes in a private plane crash en route to Bristol for the Food City 500. Rusty Wallace wins the race three days later and honors Kulwicki with a ceremonial opposite-direction "Polish victory lap."
May 2, 1993: Winston 500
Ernie Irvan prevails in an intense two-lap shootout to win Talladega's Winston 500. Rusty Wallace, who has won four of the nine races in the 1993 campaign, flips across the finish line after a tap from Dale Earnhardt. Wallace finishes sixth and retains his points lead, but suffers multiple injuries in a nasty crash.
May 30, 1993: Coca-Cola 600
Dale Earnhardt overcomes three penalties, one for rough driving, to win the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Earnhardt takes a 129-point lead in the championship chase over Rusty Wallace, who races despite injuries suffered at Talladega.
Dale Jarrett with the winner's trophy after capturing the Daytona 500 in a last-lap duel with Dale Earnhardt. Jarrett caught Earnhardt at the drop of the white flag and made the decisive pass entering the first turn of the final lap to rack up his first Daytona 500 victory. The moment was made more special by Dale Jarrett's father, Ned, who was calling the race for the CBS Sports live telecast. Ned took over the call on the last lap, rooting his son on to victory.
June 13, 1993: Champion Spark Plug 500
Kyle Petty runs away from his rivals and dodges a spectator who runs onto the track during green-flag conditions to win the Champion Spark Plug 500 at Pocono. Sixth-place finisher Davey Allison radios to his crew when he notices the dazed spectator on the speedway surface, "Guys, you ain't gonna believe this. There is some nut standing out here on the racetrack."
July 11, 1993
Rusty Wallace chases down Davey Allison in the final laps to win the first NASCAR Winston Cup race staged at the New Hampshire International Speedway. The following day, Allison is gravely injured in a helicopter crash on the grounds of Talladega Superspeedway. Allison passes away the following morning.
July 18, 1993: Miller Genuine Draft 500
Dale Earnhardt holds off Rusty Wallace on the final lap to win the Miller Genuine Draft 500 at Pocono International Raceway. After the race, Earnhardt and the RCR Enterprises crew pay tribute to the late Davey Allison in a moving prayer service.
July 25, 1993: DieHard 500
Dale Earnhardt beats Ernie Irvan by an eyelash to win the DieHard 500 at Talladega. In one of the closest finishes on record, Earnhardt's margin of victory is a scant .005 second.
September 5, 1993: Mountain Dew Southern 500
Mark Martin racks up his fourth straight victory with a win in the rain-delayed Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Martin is 1.51 seconds in front of Brett Bodine when the race ends 16 laps short of its scheduled distance due to darkness.
September 26, 1993: Goody's 500
Ernie Irvan wins the Goody's 500 at Martinsville in his fourth start with the Robert Yates team. Irvan is wearing a Davey Allison T-shirt under his uniform in honor of the late driver he replaced on the Yates Ford team.
November 14, 1993
Rusty Wallace nails down his 10th win of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Despite posting the most wins, as well as the most top-five and top-10 finishes, Wallace falls 80 points shy of winning the championship. Dale Earnhardt takes his sixth NASCAR Winston Cup title.
Get more details on how the 1993 NASCAR final standings ended up with our chart on the next page.
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1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Standings
Dale Earnhardt built a big points lead early in the season and cruised to his sixth NASCAR Winston Cup championship in 1993. Earnhardt took the points lead in mid May and paced the standings for the rest of the 30-race campaign.
Driver Rusty Wallace trailed by more than 300 points at one point during the 1993 NASCAR season, but he strung together a flurry of wins and top-five finishes, and gradually worked his way back into contention. Wallace won five of the last eight races in the season and finished 80 points behind Earnhardt in the final tally.
Earnhardt won six races, while Wallace took the checkered flag 10 times. Wallace also had more top-five finishes than Earnhardt and an equal number of top-10 finishes, but he couldn't overtake his rival in the points chase.
Also of note, five-time winner Mark Martin placed third in the final points standings with five wins. Check out these details and more in the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup standings chart below.
1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Standings
RankDriver
Points
Wins
Earnings
1 Dale Earnhardt
4,526 6 $3,353,789 2 Rusty Wallace
4,446 10 1,702,154 3 Mark Martin
4,150 5 1,657,662 4 Dale Jarrett
4,000 1 1,242,394 5 Kyle Petty
3,860 1 914,662 6 Ernie Irvan
3,834 3 1,400,468 7 Morgan Shepherd
3,807 1 782,523 8 Bill Elliott
3,774 0 955,859 9 Ken Schrader
3,715 0 952,748 10 Ricky Rudd
3,644 1 752,562 11 Harry Gant
3,524 0 772,832 12 Jimmy Spencer
3,496 0 686,026 13 Darrell Waltrip
3,479 0 746,646 14 Jeff Gordon
3,447 0 765,168 15 Sterling Marlin
3,355 0 628,835 16 Geoff Bodine
3,338 1 783,762 17 Michael Waltrip
3,291 0 529,923 18 Terry Labonte
3,280 0 531,717 19 Bobby Labonte
3,221 0 395,660 20 Brett Bodine
3,183 0 582,014 21 Rick Mast
3,001 0 568,095 22 Wally Dallenbach, Jr.
2,978 0 474,340 23 Kenny Wallace
2,893 0 330,325 24 Hut Stricklin
2,866 0 494,600 25 Ted Musgrave
2,853 0 458,615 26 Derrike Cope
2,787 0 402,515 27 Bobby Hillin, Jr.
2,717 0 263,540 28 Rick Wilson
2,647 0 299,725 29 Phil Parsons
2,454 0 293,725 30 Dick Trickle
2,224 0 244,065 31 Davey Allison
2,104 1 513,585 32 Jimmy Hensley
2,001 0 368,150 33 Dave Marcis
1,970 0 202,305 34 Lake Speed
1,956 0 319,800 35 Greg Sacks
1,730 0 168,055 36 Jimmy Means
1,471 0 148,205 37 Bobby Hamilton
1,348 0 142,740 38 Jimmy Horton
841 0 115,10539
Jeff Purvis
774
0
106,045
40 Todd Bodine
715 0 63,245 41 Alan Kulwicki
625 0 165,470 42 P.J. Jones
498 0 53,370 43 Joe Ruttman
417 0 70,700 44 Joe Nemechek
389 0 56,580 45 Loy Allen, Jr.
362 0 34,695 46 Mike Wallace
343 0 30,125 47 Jimmy Sauter
295 0 48,860 48 Rich Bickle
292 0 36,095 49 Rick Carelli
258 0 19,650 50 John Andretti
250 0 24,915
For more information on all things NASCAR, see:
- NASCAR Home Page
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- NASCAR Results
- NASCAR Drivers
- How NASCAR Race Cars Work
- How the Daytona 500 Works