1991 Pontiac Excitement 400

The 1991 Pontiac Excitement 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Nextel Cup) race held at Richmond International Raceway on February 24, 1991. Dale Earnhardt claimed his first victory of the year in dominating fashion, leading 150 laps and holding off Ricky Rudd by a carlength and a half. Earnhardt also took the early season points lead by 22 markers on Rudd.

Background
Richmond International Raceway is a four-turn D-shaped oval track that is 0.75 mi long. The track's turns are banked at fourteen degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is eight degrees. The back stretch, opposite of the front, is at only two degrees. The racetrack has a seating capacity for 94,063 spectators. Kyle Busch was the defending race winner after winning the event four consecutive times, most recently in 2012.

This was the first live flag-to-flag Winston Cup Series race televised on TNN. Both races at Rockingham, along with Dover, and the series penultimate race at Phoenix, switched from ESPN to TNN starting in 1991. This was after ESPN moved some races to tape delay at the last minute in 1990. ESPN likewise decided to drop some of the longer, less-prestigious events, in favor of freeing up their schedules in favor of other sports (which they were rapidly gaining rights to at the time). This was not the first race ever on TNN, however. Previous Winston Cup races had been shown tape-delayed on American Sports Cavalcade.