The race was marred by a crash involving Jimmy Means and J. D. McDuffie in the circuit's fifth turn, The Loop, during lap five. A mechanical failure on McDuffie's #70 Pontiac led to him crashing at nearly full race speed into a tire barrier, where he was killed on impact.[4][5][6][7][8]
The race was covered on television by ESPN as part of their contract to air NASCAR Winston Cup Series events. Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, and Ned Jarrett were the broadcast team with Jerry Punch and John Kernan as pit reporters. Jenkins called the race from the broadcast tower on the front stretch while Parsons and Jarrett were stationed on the track; Parsons was stationed at turn 1 while Jarrett was positioned at the exit of The Loop in turn 5.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, August 9, at 1:00 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 Saturday, August 10, at 11:00 AM 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,[9] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified on time but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals 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.
Terry Labonte, driving the #94 Sunoco Oldsmobile for Hagan Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 1:11.851 and an average speed of 121.652 miles per hour (195.780 km/h) in the first round. The lap was a new track record.[10][11] Thirty-nine drivers qualified on time. Michael Waltrip crashed his #30 Pennzoil Pontiac during his qualifying run and did not record a time, starting fortieth with a provisional. Jim Sauter, Jerry O'Neil, and Bob Ferree all were entered but withdrew from the event.
Allison and Marcis were forced to start from the rear of the field. Allison pitted while on the pace laps, while Marcis started the race in a backup car.
Lap 5 crash
As the field entered the Loop on lap 5, the left front wheel spindle broke on J.D. McDuffie's #70 L.C. Whitford Pontiac, causing his brakes to fail and a wheel to come off of the car. He made contact with Jimmy Means, like McDuffie an owner-driver, and both the #70 and Means' #52 Alka-Seltzer Pontiac left the racing surface and headed into the runoff area exiting the turn, which consisted of grass and a tire barrier placed in front of an Armco guardrail attached to a fence. McDuffie, with no way to slow his damaged car, hit the tires at 160 MPH. The force generated by the impact caused his car to become airborne, rotate 180 degrees, and land on the grass upside down. McDuffie suffered a basilar skull fracture in the accident and died instantly.[4]
McDuffie's basilar skull fracture was presumed to have been caused by rapid head movement to his right rather than an impact.[12] McDuffie's family and crew members have long believed that his injuries were caused by a foreign object entering the vehicle.[13] McDuffie's sponsor, Medford Speed, hired accident investigators, Phil Moser and Terry Shaw, to perform to determine the cause of the fatal injuries. The investigation concluded that upon impact with the tire barrier, a tire from the barrier entered the cockpit through the passenger side window and struck McDuffie on the right side of his head near the jaw, causing his fatal head injuries. The report cited a "black tar-like substance" on the window and damage to McDuffie's helmet foam and microphone tab that was consistent with a tire from the barrier entering the car upon impact.[14]
Means, meanwhile, was able to slow his car down before he hit the tire barrier; the #52 actually went underneath the #70 while it was in the air. Getting out of his own wrecked car, Means went over to McDuffie to check on his fellow driver. A few seconds later, having seen McDuffie's condition, Means began frantically waving for track safety officials to come to the scene. Means then spoke to Ned Jarrett, who as mentioned before was stationed on the track just behind where the accident occurred, on the ESPN broadcast moments later that he hoped his fellow driver was okay but conceded the situation did not look good. Means later said he had to "close his eyes" after seeing McDuffie in his car.[15]
Just as the drivers completed the fifth lap, NASCAR threw the red flag and stopped the drivers on the front stretch. The race was red-flagged for one hour and 48 minutes, both to extract McDuffie from his car and repair the guardrail in turn 5, which was bent inward following the impact of Means' car on the tire barrier.[7] Later, as the race was restarting, Jerry Punch of ESPN and Bill Bowser of MRN were both present for the official statement from Winston Cup Media Director Chip Williams that McDuffie had died from his injuries sustained in the crash. On ESPN, Bob Jenkins then eulogized McDuffie before Benny Parsons spoke directly to McDuffie's widow, Ima Jean.[16]
"Jean, I know exactly what you're going through, sweetheart. And you fans out there – you wonder – how these guys can get in these cars and go back out and restart this race. Hey, it's their job. It's what they do – there's a hundred thousand people here this afternoon to watch them do that job. There's not a one of these drivers that wants to be in that race car right now, they want to be in the garage area hugging their wife, their girlfriend, their mom, their crew members, whoever. I don't want to be here now. I want to be over there looking at Ned, and looking at Bob and just not saying anything. But we've got a job to do, and that's report to you who wins, who loses, and what happens during the day. Jean, we all love you and we're sorry."
As he had mentioned, Parsons had his own experience in having to deal with a spousal death. Earlier that season, during the Winston Cup’s June race weekend at Pocono, he had stayed behind at his North Carolina home to be with his wife Connie as she battled a terminal illness. On the day of the race, which Jenkins and Jarrett called without him, Connie Parsons died.[17]
McDuffie was credited with a last-place finish of 40th, while Means was credited with a 39th place finish.
Response by Watkins Glen International
McDuffie's fatal accident was the most recent in a string of accidents involving cars losing brakes or wheels entering The Loop. When NASCAR visited Watkins Glen in 1989, Geoff Bodine blew a tire entering the turn on the penultimate lap of the event, losing his brakes and hitting the tire barrier head on; he did not suffer any injuries in the crash. On June 30, 1991, during the running of the IMSA Camel Continental sports car event, Tommy Kendall suffered a wheel failure in his Intrepid RM-1 before crashing hard in turn 5, breaking both of his legs.[18]
Although track officials did not specifically cite the two serious incidents as their reasoning, for 1992 Watkins
Glen International installed a bus stop chicane near Turn 5 in order to slow the cars down before entering The Loop.[19] The circuit left it up to the individual racing series as to whether or not they would use what would be referred to as the Inner Loop
going forward. Those that do have access to what is now the Outer Loop blocked off with pylons, while those that run the original course layout block off the Inner Loop.
