The 1987 Summer 500 was the 16th stock car race of the 1987 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 15th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, July 19, 1987, before an audience of 90,000 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, at Pocono Raceway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) triangular permanent course. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete.

Heading into the final lap of the race, Richard Childress Racing's Dale Earnhardt and owner-driver Alan Kulwicki engaged in a battle for the victory. Earnhardt and Kulwicki went side-by-side heading into the second turn; Kulwicki over-drove the turn, leading to Earnhardt gaining the lead for the victory. The victory was Earnhardt's 28th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his eighth victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, the aforementioned Alan Kulwicki and owner-driver Buddy Baker finished second and third, respectively.

The race was held at Pocono International Raceway, which is a three-turn superspeedway located in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. The track hosts two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, as well as one Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series event. Until 2019, the track also hosted an IndyCar Series race.

Pocono International Raceway is one of a very few NASCAR tracks not owned by either Speedway Motorsports, Inc. or International Speedway Corporation. It is operated by the Igdalsky siblings Brandon, Nicholas, and sister Ashley, and cousins Joseph IV and Chase Mattioli, all of whom are third-generation members of the family-owned Mattco Inc, started by Joseph II and Rose Mattioli.

Outside of the NASCAR races, the track is used throughout the year by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and motorcycle clubs as well as racing schools and an IndyCar race. The triangular oval also has three separate infield sections of racetrack – North Course, East Course and South Course. Each of these infield sections use a separate portion of the tri-oval to complete the track. During regular non-race weekends, multiple clubs can use the track by running on different infield sections. Also some of the infield sections can be run in either direction, or multiple infield sections can be put together – such as running the North Course and the South Course and using the tri-oval to connect the two.

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Saturday, July 18, at 10:00 AM EST. Each driver had one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 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, at 3:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver had one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 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.

Tim Richmond, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 57.700 and an average speed of 155.979 miles per hour (251.024 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Three drivers failed to qualify.