Hello all, this is my first thread here so we will see how this goes. I am simulating from the year 1988 and up. All drivers and teams are the same as historical 1988. The main changes are a few part-time drivers like Rick Hendrick are attempting a full season. All of the driver contracts have also been redone so this will allow for some nonhistorical driver movement. I will be simulating the cup series with NR2003 with races being 10-20% length. The majority of rookies in the coming season will be historical but the teams they will start with may not be.
Contracts up following 1988: Bill Elliott, Davey Allison, Neil Bonnett, Hershel McGriff, Larry Pearson, Chad Little, Ken Ragen
Week 1: Jimmy Means holds off Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin to win the Daytona 500 and gets his first career NASCAR win.
Week 2: Terry Labonte holds off Bill Elliott to win at Richmond.
Week 3: Coors announces they will follow Bill Elliott to whatever car he runs in 1989. Melling Racing is already in the works to resign him. Buddy Baker dominates the race beating Kyle Petty by .78 seconds.
Week 4: Brad Noffsinger injured in T-bone accident on lap 19. Brad has a concussion and will be out for the next two weeks. Short Track hero Dick Trickle will be making his NASCAR debut in replacement of Brad. Rusty Wallace leads 50/65 laps en route to his first win of 1988.
Week 5: Dick Trickle qualifies 30th but has carb issues when the green flag drops. He finishes 39th two laps down. Dick had this to say “The car was decent, I think I could have finished somewhere around 25th-27th but unfortunately we had issues. Onto next week where we can hopefully get a better run. All in all, I had a lot of fun this weekend.” Rusty Wallace would win back to back taking home the checkered. Dale Earnhardt finished on Wallace’s tail in second.
Week 6: Bill Elliott wins in a dominating fashion by 6.7s. Being at Bristol everyone knew Dick Trickle would be better than the week prior, but no one could have imagined at 17th place starting position and a highest running position of 2nd. Trickle would come home 8th in the Mike Curb Sunoco 98 car. Rookie Brad Noffsinger will be taking the car back over next weekend but Trickle turned some heads this week.
Week 7: Bill Elliott goes back to back. Ken Schrader in second and Earnhardt in 3rd.
Week 8: Rusty Wallace dominates Martinsville lapping up to 14th place. Wallace takes the points lead from Elliott by 3 points.
Week 9: Lake Speed sits on the pole! Bobby Allison holds off Texas Terry Labonte and Sterling Marlin to pick up the win.
Week 10: Terry Labonte wins the 1988 Coca Cola 600! Earnhardt fought back from 26th to finish 4th barely beating out Kyle Petty at the line.
Week 11: Bill Elliott holds off 10+ pass attempts from Rusty Wallace in the last 15 laps to pick up win number three in the 1988 season. This expands his point lead over Wallace to 219 points.
Week 12: Earnhardt breaks through picking up his first win of 1988. Earnhardt took the lead on lap one and never looked back leading all 21 laps at Riverside.
Week 13: Bill Elliott holds off Dale Earnhardt to pick up win number four and expand his championship lead to 253 points over Rusty Wallace.
Week 14: Rusty Wallace holds of Bill Elliott to get his fourth win on the season. This cuts a small amount out of the points lead bringing it to 238 points.
Mid-Season Write Up: Halfway through the season Bill Elliott has a 238 point lead over Rusty Wallace. Elliott has 11 top fives and 12 top tens in fourteen races so this is Elliott’s championship to lose. As long as Bill keeps consistent, I think he has this one in the bag. The closest battle is for fourth, Dale Earnhardt finds himself 5 points behind Terry Labonte and Earnhardt has finished better than him in the last four races. Elliott, Melling, and Coors say that they are on the verge of signing a deal to keep all three teamed up. Davey Allison sits 11th in the standings and Havoline is pressuring Harry Rainer to extend his contract. Phil Parsons signs a two-year extension with Leo Jackson Racing and Crown-Skoal. Parsons currently sits 8th in the championship standings.
Week 15: Terry Labonte makes a last-lap pass on Bobby Allison to win.
Week 16: Darrell Waltrip holds off a hard-charging Terry Labonte on the last lap to pick up his first win of the 1988 season. Waltrip led every lap but lap one.
Week 17: Dale Jarrett holds off Ken Schrader by .06 to get his first career NASCAR win!
Week 18: Rust Wallace walked the field winning in dominant fashion. Dale Jarrett Worked to hold off Terry Labonte in the battle of the beers blue light v bud for seventh place. Labonte would get by and Jarrett would fall back to 10th. Two amazing runs by Jarrett in the past two weeks definitely turned some heads. Labonte is under a 3 year deal with Hoss-Ellington but with some more funding, they could make a huge impact.
Week 18 1/2: Blue Light had this to say following week 18, ” We are very happy with Jarrett’s performance and we will be upping our funding next season to make the car more competitive. We think Jarrett has the skills to win more than once a year and were ready to back him fully.”
Week 19: Bill Elliott looked to have the race wrapped up but on lap 17/20 his motor blew ending his day. Rust Wallace goes back to back getting his 6th win on the season and Bill Elliott finishes last. This makes the point separation between the two go from 215 to 72 with 10 races left in the season!
Week 20: Alan Kulwicki gets his first career NASCAR win!
Week 20 1/2: Harry Rainer announces he is looking at selling his team after the end of the season. The team currently has 27-year-old driver Davey Allison but his contract is up at the end of the season. Davey had shown interest in resigning as he is in 10th place in the standings with 3 top 5s 11 top 10s and 2 poles.
1988 Cup Season
Rookie drivers: Ken Bouchard, Ernie Irvan, Larry Pearson, Brad NoffsingerContracts up following 1988: Bill Elliott, Davey Allison, Neil Bonnett, Hershel McGriff, Larry Pearson, Chad Little, Ken Ragen
Week 1: Jimmy Means holds off Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin to win the Daytona 500 and gets his first career NASCAR win.
Week 2: Terry Labonte holds off Bill Elliott to win at Richmond.
Week 3: Coors announces they will follow Bill Elliott to whatever car he runs in 1989. Melling Racing is already in the works to resign him. Buddy Baker dominates the race beating Kyle Petty by .78 seconds.
Week 4: Brad Noffsinger injured in T-bone accident on lap 19. Brad has a concussion and will be out for the next two weeks. Short Track hero Dick Trickle will be making his NASCAR debut in replacement of Brad. Rusty Wallace leads 50/65 laps en route to his first win of 1988.
Week 5: Dick Trickle qualifies 30th but has carb issues when the green flag drops. He finishes 39th two laps down. Dick had this to say “The car was decent, I think I could have finished somewhere around 25th-27th but unfortunately we had issues. Onto next week where we can hopefully get a better run. All in all, I had a lot of fun this weekend.” Rusty Wallace would win back to back taking home the checkered. Dale Earnhardt finished on Wallace’s tail in second.
Week 6: Bill Elliott wins in a dominating fashion by 6.7s. Being at Bristol everyone knew Dick Trickle would be better than the week prior, but no one could have imagined at 17th place starting position and a highest running position of 2nd. Trickle would come home 8th in the Mike Curb Sunoco 98 car. Rookie Brad Noffsinger will be taking the car back over next weekend but Trickle turned some heads this week.
Week 7: Bill Elliott goes back to back. Ken Schrader in second and Earnhardt in 3rd.
Week 8: Rusty Wallace dominates Martinsville lapping up to 14th place. Wallace takes the points lead from Elliott by 3 points.
Week 9: Lake Speed sits on the pole! Bobby Allison holds off Texas Terry Labonte and Sterling Marlin to pick up the win.
Week 10: Terry Labonte wins the 1988 Coca Cola 600! Earnhardt fought back from 26th to finish 4th barely beating out Kyle Petty at the line.
Week 11: Bill Elliott holds off 10+ pass attempts from Rusty Wallace in the last 15 laps to pick up win number three in the 1988 season. This expands his point lead over Wallace to 219 points.
Week 12: Earnhardt breaks through picking up his first win of 1988. Earnhardt took the lead on lap one and never looked back leading all 21 laps at Riverside.
Week 13: Bill Elliott holds off Dale Earnhardt to pick up win number four and expand his championship lead to 253 points over Rusty Wallace.
Week 14: Rusty Wallace holds of Bill Elliott to get his fourth win on the season. This cuts a small amount out of the points lead bringing it to 238 points.
Mid-Season Write Up: Halfway through the season Bill Elliott has a 238 point lead over Rusty Wallace. Elliott has 11 top fives and 12 top tens in fourteen races so this is Elliott’s championship to lose. As long as Bill keeps consistent, I think he has this one in the bag. The closest battle is for fourth, Dale Earnhardt finds himself 5 points behind Terry Labonte and Earnhardt has finished better than him in the last four races. Elliott, Melling, and Coors say that they are on the verge of signing a deal to keep all three teamed up. Davey Allison sits 11th in the standings and Havoline is pressuring Harry Rainer to extend his contract. Phil Parsons signs a two-year extension with Leo Jackson Racing and Crown-Skoal. Parsons currently sits 8th in the championship standings.
Week 15: Terry Labonte makes a last-lap pass on Bobby Allison to win.
Week 16: Darrell Waltrip holds off a hard-charging Terry Labonte on the last lap to pick up his first win of the 1988 season. Waltrip led every lap but lap one.
Week 17: Dale Jarrett holds off Ken Schrader by .06 to get his first career NASCAR win!
Week 18: Rust Wallace walked the field winning in dominant fashion. Dale Jarrett Worked to hold off Terry Labonte in the battle of the beers blue light v bud for seventh place. Labonte would get by and Jarrett would fall back to 10th. Two amazing runs by Jarrett in the past two weeks definitely turned some heads. Labonte is under a 3 year deal with Hoss-Ellington but with some more funding, they could make a huge impact.
Week 18 1/2: Blue Light had this to say following week 18, ” We are very happy with Jarrett’s performance and we will be upping our funding next season to make the car more competitive. We think Jarrett has the skills to win more than once a year and were ready to back him fully.”
Week 19: Bill Elliott looked to have the race wrapped up but on lap 17/20 his motor blew ending his day. Rust Wallace goes back to back getting his 6th win on the season and Bill Elliott finishes last. This makes the point separation between the two go from 215 to 72 with 10 races left in the season!
Week 20: Alan Kulwicki gets his first career NASCAR win!
Week 20 1/2: Harry Rainer announces he is looking at selling his team after the end of the season. The team currently has 27-year-old driver Davey Allison but his contract is up at the end of the season. Davey had shown interest in resigning as he is in 10th place in the standings with 3 top 5s 11 top 10s and 2 poles.