Motor Racing Roundup : Earnhardt Runs Like ‘87, Gets First Victory of ’88

Dale Earnhardt, who has dominated NASCAR the last two years, ran away from the field Sunday to win the Motorcraft 500 stock car race at Atlanta International Raceway in Hampton, Ga., for his first victory of 1988.

Earnhardt, who won the unofficial Busch Clash earlier this year, had not won a NASCAR race since winning at Richmond last September, the last of his 11 victories en route to a second consecutive Winston Cup points championship.

“We sort of set the pace all day,” Earnhardt said. “It put the pressure on the field all day.”

The victory snapped Neil Bonnett’s streak of three straight victories. Bonnett, who started 31st in the 42-car field, was never in contention, finishing 22nd.

Geoff Bodine, whose Chevrolet broke the race qualifying speed with a lap of 176.623 m.p.h. on Saturday, had problems with a burned piston after about 150 miles and never was a factor.

Rusty Wallace, in a Pontiac, was the only car on the lead lap with Earnhardt, 1.05 seconds behind. Earnhardt, 35, led for 269 of the 328 laps and averaged 137.588 m.p.h. in his victory.

Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte, both in Chevrolets, were third and fourth, followed by Kyle Petty in a Ford.

Eddie Hill of Wichita Falls, Tex., picked up the first National Hot Rod Assn. victory of his career by winning the top fuel title at the Motorcraft Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

A record crowd of 45,000 saw Hill run the quarter-mile strip in 5.218 seconds at 268.57 m.p.h., beating Joe Amato of Old Forge, Pa., who had mechanical difficulties and finished in 13.295 at 54.44 m.p.h.

Hill, 52, also had the quickest time and fastest speed in NHRA history with a 288.73 m.p.h. in Saturday’s qualifying and 5.066 seconds in Sunday’s semifinals.

Kenny Bernstein of Dallas defeated Mark Oswald of Cincinnati to win the funny car title. Bernstein ran an elapsed time of 5.358 seconds at 278.12 m.p.h. to score his 25th career victory. Oswald smoked his tires and ran an elapsed time of 8.154 seconds at 105.18 m.p.h.

Bernstein set a national performance record of 5.314 seconds in the semifinals, breaking John Force’s record of 5.365 seconds.

Bruce Allen of Arlington, Tex., won the pro stock title from Butch Leal of Blacklick, Ohio. Allen had an elapsed time of 7.419 seconds at 187.22 m.p.h. to Allen’s 7.363 at 189.67 m.p.h.