1988 Valleydale Meats 500
The 1988 Valleydale Meats 500 was the sixth stock car race of the 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 28th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, April 10, 1988, before an audience of 48,800, in Bristol, Tennessee, at Bristol International Raceway, a 0.533 miles permanent oval-shaped racetrack.
With nine laps left in the race, race Melling Racing driver Bill Elliott would spin after contact with second-place driver, Hendrick Motorsports' Geoff Bodine. After racing back to the line, putting out the caution with eight laps left in the race, Elliott would manage to maintain second place. After the race proceeded to restart with four laps left in the race, Elliott would manage to mount a comeback, passing for the lead with three laps left in the race. Elliott would manage to defend Bodine for the victory, completing a spin-and-win late in the race. The victory was Elliott's 24th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his first victory of the season. To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and the aforementioned Geoff Bodine would finish second and third, respectively.
Background
The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.Entry list
' denotes rookie driver.Qualifying
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, April 8, at 4:45 pm EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 15 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 Saturday, April 9, at 12:00 pm EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 16-30 would be decided on time, 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.Rick Wilson, driving for Morgan–McClure Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 16.323 and an average speed of in the first round.
No drivers would fail to qualify.