1988 Goody's 500

Race details
Race 24 of 29 in the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1988 Goody's 500 program cover, featuring Richard Petty's wrecked car from the 1988 Daytona 500.
Date	September 25, 1988
Official name	40th Annual Goody's 500
Location	Ridgeway, Virginia, Martinsville Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.526 mi (0.847 km)
Distance	500 laps, 263 mi (423.257 km)
Scheduled Distance	500 laps, 263 mi (423.257 km)
Average speed	74.988 miles per hour (120.681 km/h)
Attendance	35,000
Pole position
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Blue Max Racing
Time	20.724
Most laps led
Driver	Ricky Rudd	King Racing
Laps	237
Winner
No. 17	Darrell Waltrip	Hendrick Motorsports
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 Goody's 500 was the 24th stock car race of the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 40th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, September 25, 1988, before an audience of 35,000 in Martinsville, Virginia at Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526 miles (0.847 km) permanent oval-shaped short track. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. Taking advantage of a misfortunate Ricky Rudd, Hendrick Motorsports' Darrell Waltrip dominated the late stages of the race, leading the final 80 laps of the race to take his 73rd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, owner-driver Alan Kulwicki and Blue Max Racing's Rusty Wallace would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Martinsville Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

Martinsville Speedway is an NASCAR-owned stock car racing track located in Henry County, in Ridgeway, Virginia, just to the south of Martinsville. At 0.526 miles (0.847 km) in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 by H. Clay Earles. It is also the only remaining race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, September 22, at 2:00 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 Friday, September 23, at 1:30 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-30 would be decided on time,^[3] 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, would win the pole, setting a time of 20.724 and an average speed of 91.372 miles per hour (147.049 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Five drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Bill Elliott 3,703 1 2 Rusty Wallace 3,579 (-124) 1 3 Dale Earnhardt 3,563 (-140) 4 Terry Labonte 3,221 (–482) 5 Geoff Bodine 3,203 (–500) 6 Ken Schrader 3,159 (–544) 7 Darrell Waltrip 3,103 (–600) 8 Sterling Marlin 3,008 (–695) 9 Phil Parsons 2,978 (–725) 10 Davey Allison 2,963 (–740) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References