Heading into the next four races of the season, Dale Earnhardt, who at this point had a 573 point lead in the driver's championship over Bill Elliott, was slated as the lock-in for the championship, only needing a 40th or better place finish in the next four races to clinch the championship.[2]
North Wilkesboro Speedway is a short oval racetrack located on U.S. Route 421, about five miles east of the town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, or 80 miles north of Charlotte. It measures 0.625 mi (1.006 km) and features a unique uphill backstretch and downhill frontstretch. It has previously held races in NASCAR's top three series, including 93 Winston Cup Series races. The track, a NASCAR original, operated from 1949, NASCAR's inception, until the track's original closure in 1996. The speedway briefly reopened in 2010 and hosted several stock car series races before closing again in the spring of 2011. It was re-opened in August 2022 for grassroots racing.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, October 2, at 4:30 PM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 10 drivers in the round were 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, October 3, at 12:15 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 11-30 were decided on time,[3] 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 were given.
Bill Elliott, driving for Melling Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 19.532 and an average speed of 115.196 miles per hour (185.390 km/h) in the first round.[4]
