1988 Miller High Life 400 (June)

Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long.[3] Opened in 1968, the track's turns are banked at eighteen degrees, while the 3,600-foot-long front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at twelve degrees.[3] The back stretch, has a five degree banking and is 2,242 feet long.[3]

Rusty Wallace defeated Bill Elliott by a time of 0.28 seconds in front of an audience of 68,000.[2] Wallace's first victory out of the five that he would accumulate at Michigan International Speedway would be credited to his methods of fuel conservation. Wallace ran out of fuel in turn 2 of lap 129. He had a large enough lead to coast back to the pits and not lose a lap.[4] Four cautions were given for 15 laps while 13 lead changes were made.[2] The race took two hours and thirty-six minutes to complete.[2] Elliott qualified for the pole position with a speed of 172.687 miles per hour (277.913 km/h) while the average race speed was 153.551 miles per hour (247.116 km/h).[2]

Rick Wilson was the last-place finisher due to an engine issue on lap 3 of 200 with two more engine failures happening on laps 44 and 167.[2] Dale Jarrett was the only driver to retire from an accident; he would crash his vehicle in turn 4 of lap 156.[2] Mike Alexander's first race subbing for Bobby Allison ends with a top-10 finish.[2] Richard Petty had a pretty fast car, running in the top-10 and top-5 for the majority of the race before the engine dropped a cylinder late causing him to limp to a disappointing 24th place finish.[2]

Elmer Simko would make his last appearance as a NASCAR team owner at this event.[2] He would go on to purchase the Owosso Speedway in Ovid, Michigan shortly after retiring from NASCAR. This would be the best career finish in four starts for Dana Patten with a 22nd-place finish.[2] There was a 41-driver grid of American-born males.[2] Only 25 of these drivers finished the race.[2][5]

David Simko would retire from NASCAR Cup Series racing after this event; finishing 40th in the process.[2] David Sosebee would also retire after this race; completing the race in 31st place.[2]

Notable crew chiefs in attendance for this race were Junie Donlavey, Darrell Bryant, Joey Arrington, Andy Petree, Jimmy Means, Dale Inman, Travis Carter, Elmo Langley among others.[6]

Jimmy Horton, Jay Sommers, J.D. McDuffie, and Connie Saylor would fail to qualify for this race.[2] Individual earnings for each driver ranged from the winner's share of $64,100 ($138,570.71 when adjusted for inflation) to the last-place finisher's share of $3,050 ($6,593.46 when adjusted for inflation). The total prize purse for this event was advertised at $440,975 ($953,295.14 when adjusted for inflation).[7]