By Zane Miller
First round
(8) #55 Phil Parsons v. (1) #9 Bill Elliott
(7) #44 Sterling Marlin v. (2) #27 Rusty Wallace
(6) #5 Geoffrey Bodine v. (3) #3 Dale Earnhardt
(5) #11 Terry Labonte v. (4) #25 Ken Schrader
As per usual, the playoffs kicked off in the Southern 500 at Darlington, where Bill Elliott nabbed the victory after leading the final 37 circuits. Rusty Wallace followed closely behind in second, taking an early lead over Sterling Marlin, who had a strong, but not strong enough, run in fifth. Dale Earnhardt, looking to back up his championship from the previous year, also got off to a good start by grabbing a third-place finish to Geoffrey Bodine’s seventh, while Terry Labonte outlasted future teammate Ken Schrader with an eighth-place run to Schrader’s 11th.
In the ensuing race at Richmond, Phil Parsons limped to a disappointing 24th-place finish following an accident, enabling Elliott to advance to the semifinals with the seventh spot. Earnhardt moved on to next round as well thanks to a runner-up finish and mediocre 22nd-place run from Bodine, with a similar situation playing out with Labonte as he came home third and Schrader finished 18th to put Labonte onto the next round. However, one driver that could not close the deal was Wallace, as he crashed out in the very early going. In the first-round finale at Dover, all eyes were fixed upon the remaining Marlin-Wallace matchup, but Marlin would not be able to put up much of a fight after suffering a blown engine 42 laps from the finish. Wallace came in third and was now on to the semifinals.
Semifinal
(5) #11 Terry Labonte v. (1) #9 Bill Elliott
(3) #3 Dale Earnhardt v. (2) #27 Rusty Wallace
At Martinsville, Elliott successfully held off Labonte with a sixth-place finish as Labonte took seventh, while Wallace took an early win over Earnhardt, finishing third to The Intimidator’s eighth. However, both Labonte and Earnhardt would be taken care of relatively easily in the second (and ultimately final) race of the semifinal at Charlotte. Wallace scored the race win after leading 35 laps, as Earnhardt ended a difficult afternoon in 17th, six laps down. Elliott captured the fourth spot with Labonte in 10th, good enough to have a chance for his second Cup Series championship.
Final
(2) #27 Rusty Wallace v. (1) #9 Bill Elliott
In the round’s opening race at Rockingham, Wallace would be the one to conquer The Rock as he led 200 of the day’s 492 laps on the way to a race win by 13 and a half seconds over runner-up Ricky Rudd. Elliott had a strong day in fourth after leading over 200 laps himself, though this would be of little consolation. The Cup Series’ first-ever trip to Phoenix International Raceway (now simply Phoenix Raceway) saw Wallace appear ready to clinch the title after leading a total of 68 laps. However, Elliott had other ideas and got around Wallace for the fourth spot in the closing laps, forcing the title to instead be decided in Elliott’s home state.
When the teams got to Atlanta for the finale, however, Elliott did not receive any home track advantage as he would be starting deep in the field after a poor qualifying run. Wallace started from the pole and proved to be difficult to get by, leading 166 laps. On the event’s final run, Wallace got by Ken Schrader for the lead and never looked back, winning the race while Elliott was not a significant factor, finishing 11th. With that, Wallace had his first career Cup Series championship under his belt after years of bouncing between different teams.
Rusty Wallace’s stats for 1988 were an impressive six victories, 19 top-fives and 23 top-10s as he finished second in the real-life standings to Bill Elliott.
1988 Cup Series standings in real life: https://scorum.com/en-us/nascar/@zmiller82/1988-nascar-cup-series-season-recap
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