1991 Budweiser at The Glen

The layout of Watkins Glen International NASCAR used at the time.

Watkins Glen International (nicknamed "The Glen") is an automobile race track located in Watkins Glen, New York at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980), but the site has been home to road racing of nearly every class, including the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the International Motor Sports Association and the IndyCar Series.

Initially, public roads in the village were used for the race course. In 1956 a permanent circuit for the race was built. In 1968 the race was extended to six hours, becoming the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. The circuit's current layout has more or less been the same since 1971, although a chicane was installed at the uphill Esses in 1975 to slow cars through these corners, where there was a fatality during practice at the 1973 United States Grand Prix. The chicane was removed in 1985, but another chicane called the "Inner Loop" was installed in 1992 after J.D. McDuffie's fatal accident during the previous year's NASCAR Winston Cup event.

The circuit is known as the Mecca of North American road racing and is a very popular venue among fans and drivers. The facility is currently owned by International Speedway Corporation.

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, August 9, at 1:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be 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, August 10, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,[9] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified on time but were high enough in owner's points; up to two provisionals were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.

Terry Labonte, driving for Hagan Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 1:11.851 and an average speed of 121.652 miles per hour (195.780 km/h) in the first round.[10][11]

No drivers would fail to qualify.

As the field entered the Loop on lap 5, the left front wheel spindle on driver J. D. McDuffie's car broke, causing the wheel that was attached to it to come off the car and McDuffie to lose his brakes. He then made contact with the #52 of Jimmy Means, which caused both cars to leave the racing surface at the exit to turn five, heading down a grassy embankment where a tire barrier was placed in front of an Armco guard rail. Since his brakes had failed, and also that there was no gravel trap at the Loop to help him scrub off some speed, McDuffie could not slow or stop his Pontiac. Moments later, he struck the tire barrier with enough force to propel his car into the air and rotate 180 degrees before landing back on the grass, upside down; McDuffie was killed upon impact. Means was able to get his car slowed enough to where he did not make as hard a hit as McDuffie did; in fact, he actually went underneath McDuffie's car as it was in the air before he came to rest just alongside the tires.[4]

As Means emerged from his race car, he went over to the wrecked car of McDuffie to try to assist McDuffie to get out of his racecar. A few seconds after looking inside the cockpit of McDuffie's car, Means began frantically waving for track safety officials to come to the scene. Means then spoke to Ned Jarrett, who as mentioned before was stationed on the track just behind where the accident occurred, on the ESPN broadcast moments later that he hoped his fellow driver was okay but conceded the situation did not look good.[12]

Just as the drivers completed the fifth lap, NASCAR threw the red flag and stopped the drivers on the front stretch. The race was red-flagged for one hour and 48 minutes, first to extract McDuffie from his vehicle, and then to allow time for track workers to repair the guardrail in turn five.[7] Later, as the race was restarting, Jerry Punch of ESPN and Bill Bowser of MRN were both present for the official statement from Winston Cup Media Director Chip Williams that McDuffie had died from his injuries sustained in the crash. On ESPN, Bob Jenkins then eulogized McDuffie before Benny Parsons spoke directly to McDuffie's widow, Ima Jean.[13]

As he had mentioned, Parsons had his own experience in having to deal with a spousal death. Earlier that season, during the Winston Cup’s June race weekend at Pocono, he had stayed behind at his North Carolina home to be with his wife Connie as she battled a terminal illness. On the day of the race, which Jenkins and Jarrett called without him, Connie Parsons died.[14]

McDuffie was credited with a last-place finish of 40th, while Means was credited with a 39th place finish.

This incident was the second serious accident at Turn 5 that year. During June's Camel Continental sports car race, Tommy Kendall crashed in the same area after losing control of his vehicle; he, like McDuffie, lost a wheel before crashing, and Kendall would break both of his legs in the incident.[15]

In the wake of both serious incidents, Watkins Glen International track officials decided to reconfigure the Loop and added a chicane to the entrance of the turn which was dubbed the Inner Loop. They did not, however, make this a permanent change and left the Loop turn as a whole in place, choosing to leave it to the sanctioning bodies of the racing series as to whether or not they wanted to use the chicane.[16]