1988 Atlanta Journal 500

Race details
Race 29 of 29 in the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1988 Atlanta Journal 500 program cover, featuring Bill Elliott.
Date	November 20, 1988
Official name	29th Annual Atlanta Journal 500
Location	Hampton, Georgia, Atlanta International Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.522 mi (2.449 km)
Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Scheduled Distance	328 laps, 499.216 mi (803.41 km)
Average speed	140.229 miles per hour (225.677 km/h)
Attendance	70,000
Pole position
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Time	30.525
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Laps	166
Winner
No. 27	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Gary Nelson
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1988 Atlanta Journal 500 was the 29th and final stock car race of the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 29th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, November 20, 1988, before an audience of 70,000 in Hampton, Georgia, at Atlanta International Raceway, a 1.522 miles (2.449 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 328 laps to complete.

For the battle of the race's victory, Blue Max Racing's Rusty Wallace managed to dominate a majority of the race, leading 166 laps en route to his tenth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series and his sixth and final victory of the season, earning the maximum points possible for a driver to gain in a race.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Ranier-Lundy Racing's Davey Allison and Stavola Brothers Racing's Mike Alexander finished second and third, respectively.

In the battle for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship, championship leader Bill Elliott was able to defend his lead in the championship, needing an 18th place or better finish in order to guarantee the championship.^[3] While Elliott was not a contender for the race's victory, suffering numerous problems during the race, he was able to maintain a consistent position running around 11th-15th position, finishing 11th to secure the championship, winning the championship over Wallace by 24 points.^[4]

Background

The layout of Atlanta Motor Speedway, the circuit where the race was held.

Atlanta International Raceway is a 1.522-mile race track in Hampton, Georgia, United States, 20 miles (32 km) south of Atlanta. It has annually hosted NASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.

The venue was bought by Speedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track. In 1997, to standardize the track with Speedway Motorsports' other two intermediate ovals, the entire track was almost completely rebuilt. The frontstretch and backstretch were swapped, and the configuration of the track was changed from oval to quad-oval, with a new official length of 1.54-mile (2.48 km) where before it was 1.522-mile (2.449 km). The project made the track one of the fastest on the NASCAR circuit.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, November 18, at 2:00 PM 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, November 19, at 10:30 AM 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,^[5] 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.

Rusty Wallace, driving for Blue Max Racing, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 30.525 and an average speed of 179.499 miles per hour (288.876 km/h) in the first round.^[6]

11 drivers failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Bill Elliott 4,488 2 Rusty Wallace 4,464 (-24) 3 Dale Earnhardt 4,256 (-232) 4 Terry Labonte 4,007 (–481) 5 Ken Schrader 3,858 (–630) 6 Geoff Bodine 3,799 (–689) 7 Darrell Waltrip 3,764 (–724) 2 8 Davey Allison 3,631 (–857) 1 9 Phil Parsons 3,630 (–858) 1 10 Sterling Marlin 3,621 (–867) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References