The 1998 NAPA 500 was the 33rd and final championship event of the 1998 season of the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, held on November 8, 1998, at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia. Won by series champion Jeff Gordon, the race was delayed both before its start and twice during the race due to rain showers, causing it to be shortened to 221 laps from its scheduled distance of 325 laps. This was the last race without Tony Stewart on the grid until the 2013 Cheez-It 355 at The Glen. Background Atlanta Motor Speedway is one of ten intermediate 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. The standard track at Atlanta Motor Speedway is a four-turn quad-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. The scheduled race distance was 325 laps, totalling . Going into the race, Jeff Gordon had clinched the 1998 Winston Cup Series championship the previous weekend at North Carolina Motor Speedway, winning the AC Delco 400 for his 12th win of the season. Rookie driver Harris DeVane, a regular on the ARCA Racing Series, attempted to make his Winston Cup Series debut at the event. The support race for the event, run on Saturday afternoon, was a 102-lap event sanctioned by the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series; Mike Swaim Jr. was the winner of the race. Qualifying Series rookie Kenny Irwin Jr., driving the No. 28 Ford Taurus for Robert Yates Racing, led 48 drivers in qualifying on Friday, November 6, winning his first pole position in the Winston Cup Series. Irwin's qualifying time was . Ward Burton qualified second in the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Pontiac; Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin, and Mike Skinner filled out the remainder of the top five positions in qualifying; the top 25 drivers in the session were locked into the field, with Ted Musgrave as the 25th and final driver guaranteed a starting spot at the end of the first day of time trials. Second round qualifying, to set starting positions 26th through 36th on the grid, was held on Saturday, November 7. Gary Bradberry set the fastest time in the session