The 1987 Southern 500 was the 21st stock car race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 38th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 6, 1987, before an audience of 75,000 in Darlington, South Carolina, at Darlington Raceway, a 1.366 miles (2.198 km) permanent egg-shaped oval racetrack. The race was shortened from its scheduled 367 laps to 202 laps due to rain.

Racing until the 198th lap, Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt managed to fend off challenges for the lead by owner-driver Richard Petty until a caution period was declared on lap 198. Four laps later, the race was red-flagged and not resumed, earning Earnhardt his 30th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his 10th victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Blue Max Racing's Rusty Wallace and the aforementioned Richard Petty finished second and third, respectively.

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is nicknamed "The Lady in Black" and "The Track Too Tough to Tame" by many NASCAR fans and drivers and advertised as "A NASCAR Tradition." It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that is effective at both ends.

Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, September 3, at 3:00 pm EST. Originally, the first 20 positions were going to be determined by first round qualifying, with positions 21–40 meant to be determined the following day on Friday, September 4.^[5] However, due to rain, the second round was cancelled. As a result, the rest of the starting lineup was set using the results from the first round. 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.^[6]

Davey Allison, driving for Ranier-Lundy Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 31.276 and an average speed of 157.232 miles per hour (253.040 km/h).^[7]

J. D. McDuffie was the only driver to fail to qualify, as he signed up later than U. S. Racing owner D. K. Ulrich. In the battle for the last position to qualify, four cars out of the 41-car entry list did not run laps during the first round. Two provisionals were given to Dale Jarrett and Brett Bodine for the 38th and 39th positions, leaving the 40th position to be determined by whichever car owner signed up for the race earlier. Due to Ulrich signing up earlier, his entry, driven by Connie Saylor, was given the 40th position.^[3]