1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Series (Start Your Engines!)

The 1989 NASCAR Winston Cup Season was the 41st season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 18th modern-era Cup season. It began February 12 and ended November 19. This was the first year that every Winston Cup race had flag-to-flag coverage, with almost all of them being televised live.

The 1989 season marked the end of the first of two tire wars between Goodyear and Hoosier, with Hoosier leaving NASCAR shortly after Goodyear debuted their new radial tires.

Also, 1989 was the first season without Benny Parsons or Cale Yarborough.

Technical Changes
Following the introduction of the restrictor plate in 1988, all manufacturers made changes to their cars in 1989. The main change involved rounder, more compact bodies for better aero efficiency.

A few model changes also occurred. From the Daytona 500 through to the Pabst Blue Ribbon 400 at The Milwaukee Mile, Chevrolet continued using the old Monte Carlo SS, which lost the Aerocoupe moniker due to the Monte Carlos being rebuilt to stay competitive with the other rebodied cars. Starting with the Winston 500 at Talladega, the new Chevrolet Lumina debuted. Ricky Rudd’s #26 team for King Racing continued to use the old 1987 Buick LeSabre sheet metal at restrictor plate tracks due to being more aerodynamic than the current Buick Regal. All other Buick teams continued to use the normal Regal chassis at plate tracks. Stavola Brothers Racing tried to run a Buick Skyhawk, but decided to stick with the Regal.

During Preseason Testing in January 1989, Pacific Coast Racing discovered in the 1989 rulebook that Chrysler had gotten the Dodge Daytona approved for NASCAR competition. Owner Manny Brown quickly bought up some Dodge Daytona sheetmetal and had it installed on rookie Chloe Johnson's car, having Tim Johnson run a Chrysler LeBaron so they could compare the two models. After six laps, it was found the Daytona was running faster lap times than the LeBaron and easily outpacing it without any drafting help. Shortly thereafter, Tim's car was rebuilt as a Daytona, and together, the Johnson Twins ended the second day with the fastest lap times. This prompted every other Chrysler team to immediately purchase Dodge Daytona sheetmetal (Kelman Racing got its sheetmetal through PCR due to being a satellite team of the latter), and by the end of testing, all Chrysler teams had decided to run the Dodge Daytona at Daytona, Talladega, and Coca-Cola; Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca later revealed he had a NASCAR-legal version of the Dodge Daytona made specifically because he knew Pacific Coast Racing always scanned the eligible models section of the rulebook very carefully every year, and he badly wanted to promote the car.