The 1988 Atlanta Journal 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on November 20, 1988, at Atlanta International Raceway (located in the Atlanta suburb of Hampton, Georgia). Background Atlanta International Raceway (now Atlanta Motor Speedway) is one of ten current intermediate track to hold NASCAR races; the others are Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway, Darlington Raceway, Homestead Miami Speedway, Kansas Speedway, Kentucky Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway. However, at the time, only Charlotte and Darlington were built. The layout at Atlanta International Speedway at the time was a four-turn traditional oval track that is long. The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, and the back stretch are banked at five. Race report One of the drivers who failed to qualify for this race was Bobby Coyle; who attempted to qualify in his #50 Pontiac machine. Bill Elliott would earn his only NASCAR Winston Cup championship here despite not finishing in the top ten. However, Elliott consistently placed in the other races of the 1988 season with six wins, 15 finishes in the top five, and 10 finishes in the top ten. The race took three hours and fifty-two minutes; resulting in a 4¼ second win by Rusty Wallace over Davey Allison. There was an unusually high attrition rate during this race; with 13 engine failures and only 20 of the 42 starters running at the finish. It would be contributed to the fact that the speedway was repaved since the previous race in the spring. Rusty Wallace was mad that Bill Elliott was running conservative since he only had to finish 18th to clinch the title. Rusty did everything that he could do, including leading the most laps. Elliott could've been more conservative than he was, over half the field blew motors or wrecked. Mike Alexander would finish third in this event; his best NASCAR Winston Cup Series performance. Neil Bonnett finished 13th in his final outing in the Rahmoc #75 Valvoline Pontiac. Seventy-two thousand fans would see an average speed of while Wallace qualified for the pole position with a speed of - the equivalent of 30.525 seconds. Tommy Ellis would finish last after encountering a transmission problem on lap 2 out of 328. Nine cautions slowed the race for 55 laps. Cale Yarborough's last