The race marked the final Winston Cup Series start for long-time driver Harry Gant. Gant would retire from the race due to a burnt piston, finishing 33rd.[3]
Earnhardt dedicated his season championship to Neil Bonnett who lost his life before the first race of the season.
Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta International Raceway) is a 1.522-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.
The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of 1.54-mile (2.48km) where before it was 1.522-mile (2.449km). The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, November 11, at 2:00 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, November 12, 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,[4] 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 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.
Greg Sacks, driving for U.S. Motorsports Inc., would win the pole, setting a time of 29.485 and an average speed of 185.830 miles per hour (299.064km/h) in the first round.[5]
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