The 1990 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 1990 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 32nd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 18, 1990, in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete. On the final lap of the race, Whitcomb Racing driver Derrike Cope would manage to take advantage of a misfortunate Dale Earnhardt, when Earnhardt suffered a flat tire on the final turn of the race, allowing Cope to take the lead. The victory was Cope's first career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.^[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three, Precision Products Racing driver Terry Labonte and Melling Racing driver Bill Elliott would finish second and third, respectively.

Daytona International Speedway is one of three superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the other two being Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.

Qualifying was set by the 1990 Twin 125 Qualifiers. The top two positions were set by qualifying speeds held for the Twin 125 Qualifiers held on Saturday, February 10, with the top two qualifiers in the session earning the top two positions for the Daytona 500. The rest of the starting was set in the Twin 125 Qualifiers, held on Thursday, February 15 during two races. The top 14 finishers in the first race, excluding the pole position winner, would set the inside row from rows two to 15, and the top 14 finishers in the second race, excluding the outside pole position winner, would set the outside row from rows two to 15. The remaining non-qualifiers would set positions 31-40 based on qualifying speeds from the first qualifying session held on Saturday. If needed, up to two extra provisionals were given to teams high enough in the previous season's owner's standings that did not qualify for the race by either qualifying speed or from the Twin 125 Qualifiers.

Ken Schrader, driving for Hendrick Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 45.798 and an average speed of 196.515 miles per hour (316.260 km/h) in Saturday's session.^[5][6]

19 drivers would fail to qualify.

On the Busch Pole for the third year in a row, Ken Schrader quickly passed several cars at the start after beginning the race in his backup car due to a practice crash.^[7] By the first caution flag, Schrader had driven up to second place. Geoff Bodine led the first lap of the race and the season. Two cars used to create film footage for the upcoming movie Days of Thunder, driven by Bobby Hamilton and Tommy Ellis, started the race in the last row, completing 100 miles before parking. Those cars were not listed in the official race results.

On Lap 27, Richard Petty (who started a promising 11th) spun ahead of Phil Parsons while running 13th. The spin left him with all four tires flat, meaning The King would need a wrecker to take him to the pits for new tires, and he would finish well down the order in 34th. During the yellow, Davey Allison (running 6th) pitted with the leaders and hit the pit wall. This was unnoticed by the television broadcast for several minutes; no injuries were reported but Mike Joy confirmed left front toe damage.

On Lap 43, an accident occurred between the tri-oval and Turn 1 involving Mike Alexander, Alan Kulwicki (who would continue), Phil Parsons, and 1989 NASCAR Busch Series champion and Winston Cup rookie Rob Moroso. Moroso said he touched Phil Parsons' left rear with his own right front after Parsons came down on him, and Parsons explained that he was attempting a pass on A. J. Foyt. After 58 laps, Schrader's run to the front was halted by an engine failure. Shortly after halfway, 1972 winner A. J. Foyt quit after experiencing a bizarre problem: In a mid-race interview with CBS's David Hobbs, Foyt claimed he had become intoxicated by fumes produced by his new racing helmet.^[8]

Dale Earnhardt dominated the race. He led 155 of the 200 laps, relinquishing the lead briefly to Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Derrike Cope, Davey Allison, Geoff Bodine, Terry Labonte, and Bobby Hillin Jr. Daytona 500 rookies Jimmy Spencer and Jack Pennington led yellow flag laps early in the race.

Dale Earnhardt had the race in his grasp with a lead of more than 40 seconds with ten laps to go. On lap 193, Rick Wilson's car was experiencing engine trouble, and was reported to be leaking oil on the track. Geoff Bodine's car spun between turns 1 and 2, possibly due to the oil, which brought out the third and final caution of the day. Most of the leaders - including Earnhardt - ducked into the pits for tires and fuel. Earnhardt took on four fresh tires, as did Terry Labonte, Ricky Rudd and others. Geoff Bodine was able to change his flat-spotted tires and get back in the race, but not before he fell a lap down. Derrike Cope and Bobby Hillin Jr., however, stayed out during the caution, and cycled up to the front of the field. Cope's crew chief Buddy Parrott made the call to not pit and instead stay out on old tires, gambling on track position.

Seven cars were on the lead lap for the final restart. The top five were Derrike Cope, Bobby Hillin Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Terry Labonte, and Bill Elliott. As the cars were lining up for the restart, Earnhardt complained that Hillin bumped his left-rear fender. The green came back out with five laps to go. Earnhardt, with drafting help from Geoff Bodine, quickly dispatched of both Hillin and Cope simultaneously going into turn three. Earnhardt pulled out to a slight lead, with Cope (on old tires) tucking into second. Labonte passed Hillin for third.

Rick Wilson's sputtering engine finally let go, and a piece of the metal bell housing broke off and tumbled to a stop on the backstretch unnoticed. The white flag came out as the top four cars (Earnhardt, Cope, Labonte, Elliott) had broken away from the main draft. Going down the backstretch, with less than half a lap to go, Earnhardt ran over the bell housing debris and shredded the right rear tire. He held the wheel straight, let off the throttle and his car climbed up the banking of turn three. The pieces of the bell housing flew through the air, and ended up imbedded in Ricky Rudd's radiator. Spanaway, Washington's Derrike Cope dove under Earnhardt to shockingly take the lead in turn three. With only one turn remaining, Cope held off a last second challenge by Labonte and won his first ever Winston Cup victory. His previous best career finish was a 6th place at Charlotte in 1989. Earnhardt would manage to limp around to the finish line, and placed 5th. His crew later took the shredded tire and hung it on the wall of the race shop using the loss as motivation to win the 1990 Winston Cup championship. Meanwhile, Cope would become an overnight sensation appearing on The Late Show a week or so later to talk about his big win. Although it is considered one of the biggest upsets in NASCAR history, the ratings did not quite show it, as it drew a 7.3, the lowest in Daytona 500 history.