Fourth race of the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Motor car race
The1988 Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 was the fourthstock car race of the1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 29th iteration of theevent . The race was held on Sunday, March 20, 1988, before an audience of 70,000 inHampton, Georgia , atAtlanta International Raceway , a 1.522 miles (2.449 km) permanent asphalt quad-oval intermediate speedway. The race took the scheduled 328 laps to complete. On the final restart of the race with three laps left in the race,Richard Childress Racing driverDale Earnhardt would manage to pull away from the field, completing a dominant performance where he would lead 270 laps. The victory was Earnhardt's 32nd careerNASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season.[ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] Blue Max Racing driverRusty Wallace andHendrick Motorsports driverDarrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.
The layout ofAtlanta International Raceway , the circuit where the race was held. Atlanta Motor Speedway (formerlyAtlanta International Raceway ) is a 1.522-mile race track inHampton, Georgia , United States, 20 miles (32 km) south ofAtlanta . It has annually hostedNASCAR Winston Cup Series stock car races since its inauguration in 1960.
The venue was bought bySpeedway Motorsports in 1990. In 1994, 46condominiums 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 theNASCAR circuit.
(R) - denotes rookie driver.Qualifying was originally scheduled to be split into two rounds. The first round was scheduled to be held on Friday, March 18, at 3:00 PMEST . Originally, the first 20 positions were going to be determined by first round qualifying, with positions 21-40 meant to be determined the following day on Saturday, March 19.[ 5] [ 6]
Geoff Bodine , driving forHendrick Motorsports , would win the pole, setting a time of 31.022 and an average speed of 176.623 miles per hour (284.247 km/h) in the first round.[ 7]
11 drivers would fail to qualify.
Full qualifying results [ edit ] Fin St # Driver Team Make Laps Led Status Pts Winnings 1 2 3 Dale Earnhardt Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 328 270 running 185 $67,950 2 4 27 Rusty Wallace Blue Max Racing Pontiac 328 2 running 175 $37,875 3 10 17 Darrell Waltrip Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 327 2 running 170 $26,150 4 13 11 Terry Labonte Junior Johnson & Associates Chevrolet 327 2 running 165 $19,575 5 21 21 Kyle Petty Wood Brothers Racing Ford 327 1 running 160 $18,750 6 22 8 Bobby Hillin Jr. Stavola Brothers Racing Buick 326 0 running 150 $13,300 7 18 88 Buddy Baker Baker–Schiff Racing Oldsmobile 326 0 running 146 $13,650 8 9 25 Ken Schrader Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 326 0 running 142 $16,950 9 5 15 Brett Bodine Bud Moore Engineering Ford 326 0 running 138 $19,675 10 32 4 Rick Wilson Morgan–McClure Motorsports Oldsmobile 325 0 running 134 $11,825 11 27 12 Bobby Allison Stavola Brothers Racing Buick 325 2 running 135 $11,020 12 16 30 Michael Waltrip Bahari Racing Pontiac 322 0 running 127 $10,000 13 8 90 Benny Parsons Donlavey Racing Ford 322 44 running 129 $8,930 14 25 98 Brad Noffsinger (R) Curb Racing Buick 321 0 running 0 $5,310 15 33 71 Dave Marcis Marcis Auto Racing Chevrolet 320 3 running 123 $7,880 16 42 10 Ken Bouchard (R) Whitcomb Racing Ford 320 0 running 115 $5,520 17 23 23 Eddie Bierschwale B&B Racing Oldsmobile 319 0 running 112 $4,410 18 34 2 Ernie Irvan (R) U.S. Racing Chevrolet 318 0 running 109 $6,100 19 3 9 Bill Elliott Melling Racing Ford 312 0 crash 106 $11,940 20 11 44 Sterling Marlin Hagan Racing Oldsmobile 311 0 running 103 $7,770 21 17 33 Harry Gant Mach 1 Racing Chevrolet 296 0 running 100 $5,985 22 31 75 Neil Bonnett RahMoc Enterprises Pontiac 289 1 running 102 $9,600 23 24 43 Richard Petty Petty Enterprises Pontiac 285 0 engine 94 $5,615 24 28 26 Ricky Rudd King Racing Buick 253 0 engine 91 $5,430 25 38 89 Jim Sauter Mueller Brothers Racing Pontiac 238 0 cylinder head 88 $2,945 26 36 68 Derrike Cope Testa Racing Ford 194 0 running 85 $5,255 27 26 97 Rodney Combs Winkle Motorsports Buick 172 0 cylinder head 0 $3,095 28 29 92 David Sosebee LC Racing Ford 165 0 clutch 79 $2,210 29 40 99 Dale Jarrett Ball Motorsports Chevrolet 164 0 brakes 76 $2,175 30 20 47 Morgan Shepherd Shepherd Racing Buick 143 0 grease seal 73 $2,090 31 7 6 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 142 0 crash 70 $2,060 32 19 29 Cale Yarborough Cale Yarborough Motorsports Oldsmobile 127 0 brakes 67 $2,030 33 1 5 Geoff Bodine Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 109 1 engine 69 $8,725 34 6 14 A. J. Foyt A. J. Foyt Racing Oldsmobile 85 0 engine 61 $2,430 35 30 77 Ken Ragan Ragan Racing Ford 84 0 engine 58 $1,930 36 35 31 Brad Teague Bob Clark Motorsports Oldsmobile 80 0 crash 55 $1,905 37 15 55 Phil Parsons Jackson Bros. Motorsports Oldsmobile 71 0 crash 52 $4,585 38 14 83 Lake Speed Speed Racing Oldsmobile 49 0 cylinder head 49 $1,865 39 12 7 Alan Kulwicki AK Racing Ford 29 0 engine 46 $4,515 40 41 28 Davey Allison Ranier-Lundy Racing Ford 29 0 crash 43 $11,160 41 37 36 H. B. Bailey Bailey Racing Pontiac 12 0 oil leak 40 $1,760 42 39 52 Jimmy Means Jimmy Means Racing Pontiac 3 0 engine 37 $4,410 Failed to qualify 43 67 Buddy Arrington Arrington Racing Ford 44 93 Charlie Baker Salmon Racing Chevrolet 45 01 Mickey Gibbs Gibbs Racing Ford 46 80 Jimmy Horton (R) S&H Racing Ford 47 1 Dale Jarrett Ellington Racing Buick 48 86 Rick Jeffrey Jeffrey Racing Chevrolet 49 63 Jocko Maggiacomo Linro Motorsports Chevrolet 50 22 Steve Moore Hamby Racing Chevrolet 51 03 Dave Pletcher Sr. Weaver Racing Ford 52 50 Greg Sacks Dingman Brothers Racing Pontiac 53 48 Tony Spanos Hylton Motorsports Buick Official race results
Standings after the race [ edit ] Drivers' Championship standings Note : Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.
^ Higgins, Tom (March 21, 1988)."Earnhardt Sparkles In Victory At Atlanta (Part 1)" .The Charlotte Observer . RetrievedJune 27, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ Higgins, Tom (March 21, 1988)."Earnhardt Sparkles In Victory At Atlanta (Part 2)" .The Charlotte Observer . RetrievedJune 27, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ Hinton, Ed (March 21, 1988)."Earnhardt breaks drought, turns Motorcraft 500 into 'boring' rout (Part 1)" .The Atlanta Constitution . RetrievedJune 27, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ Hinton, Ed (March 21, 1988)."Earnhardt breaks drought, turns Motorcraft 500 into 'boring' rout (Part 2)" .The Atlanta Constitution . RetrievedJune 27, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ "NASCAR Today" .The Charlotte Observer . RetrievedJune 27, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com .^ Pearson, Harold (March 19, 1988)."Rain at AIR forces trials to be switched" .Richmond Times-Dispatch . RetrievedJune 27, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com . ^ Higgins, Tom (March 20, 1988)."Bumper-Car Show Moves To Atlanta" .The Charlotte Observer . RetrievedJune 27, 2023 – viaNewspapers.com .
Points races Exhibition races
