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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Cope's crew chief Buddy Parrott made the call to not pit and instead stay out on old tires, gambling on track position.

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.

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.