| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 8 of 29 in the1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series | |||
 The 1988 Pannill Sweatshirts 500 program cover. | |||
| Date | April 24, 1988 (1988-04-24) | ||
| Official name | 39th Annual Pannill Sweatshirts 500 | ||
| Location | Martinsville, Virginia,Martinsville Speedway | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility | ||
| Course length | 0.526 miles (0.847 km) | ||
| Distance | 500 laps, 263 mi (423.257 km) | ||
| Average speed | 74.74 miles per hour (120.28 km/h) | ||
| Attendance | 42,000 | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | King Racing | ||
| Time | 20.734 | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Laps | 182 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 3 | Dale Earnhardt | Richard Childress Racing | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | SETN | ||
| Announcers | Eli Gold,Jerry Punch | ||
| Radio in the United States | |||
| Radio | Motor Racing Network | ||
The1988 Pannill Sweatshirts 500 was the eighthstock car race of the1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 39th iteration of theevent. The race was held on Sunday, April 24, 1988, before an audience of 42,000 inMartinsville, Virginia atMartinsville Speedway, a 0.526 miles (0.847 km) permanent oval-shaped short track. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. At race's end,Richard Childress Racing driverDale Earnhardt would manage to dominate the latter stages of the race, leading the final 182 laps to take his 33rd careerNASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season.[1][2][3][4] To fill out the top three,Hagan Racing driverSterling Marlin andStavola Brothers Racing driverBobby Hillin Jr. would finish second and third, respectively.
Martinsville Speedway is aNASCAR-owned stock car racing track located inHenry County, inRidgeway, Virginia, just to the south ofMartinsville. At 0.526 miles (0.847 km) in length, it is the shortest track in theNASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first pavedoval tracks in NASCAR, being built in 1947 byH. Clay Earles. It is also the only remaining race track that has been on the NASCAR circuit from its beginning in 1948.
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, April 21, at 2:00 pmEST. 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, April 22, at 1:30 pmEST. 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,[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.
Ricky Rudd, driving forKing Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 20.734 and an average speed of 91.328 miles per hour (146.978 km/h) in the first round.[6]
Four drivers would fail to qualify.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Previous race: 1988 First Union 400 | NASCAR Winston Cup Series 1988 season | Next race: 1988 Winston 500 |
