1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series

Bill Elliott, won the championship.
Rusty Wallace finished runner up in 1988.
Dale Earnhardt finished third in the championship.

The 1988 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 40th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 17th modern-era Cup series. The season began on February 7 at Daytona International Speedway and ended on November 20 at the Atlanta International Speedway. Bill Elliott of Melling Racing won the championship.

The 1988 season was notable for hosting the first of two NASCAR tire wars between Goodyear and Hoosier notably unless a team was under an exclusive tire contract teams were allowed to switch tire manufacturers from race to race so no team ran a full season on the same tire like in other motorsports where teams tend exclusively run one tire manufacturer during a tire war.[1]

1988 was the first season without NASCAR legend Tim Richmond since 1980.

  1. ^ Bruce, Kenny (September 29, 2016). "How the tire war was won at North Wilkesboro". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Digital Media, LLC. Retrieved January 28, 2019.