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|January 22 || [[Winston Western 500]] || [[Riverside International Raceway]] || [[Cale Yarborough]]
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| rowspan="2" |February 16
| rowspan="2" |[[Twin 125s|125 Mile Qualifying Races]]
| rowspan="3" |[[Daytona International Speedway]]
|[[A. J. Foyt]]
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|[[Darrell Waltrip]]
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|February 19 || [[Daytona 500]]
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|June 3 || [[Music City USA 420
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|June 11 || [[Budweiser 400|
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|July 15 || [[Nashville 420
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|September 10 || [[
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*[[Carolina 500]] - Pearson reached a NASCAR milestone with his 100th Grand National win, running down [[Benny Parsons]] on a frigid raceday.
*[[Atlanta 500]] - NASCAR mandated larger spoiler sizes to combat the instability of the new racecars beginning with the Atlanta 500. [[Bobby Allison]] led 261 laps and put the entire field a lap down en route to the win. [[Darrell Waltrip]] blew his engine after 146 laps then publicly called out his pit crew; "Every time I pitted, I fell further behind."
*[[Southeastern 500]] - After his crew repaired damage in an early crash, [[Darrell Waltrip]] drove to victory at Bristol and praised his crew for their work. It was the first of his record 12 Cup Series wins at the circuit.
*[[Rebel 500]] - [[Benny Parsons]] grabbed his second win of the season, leading 83 laps after his team had to change engines before the race. "This one was a stick of dynamite," Parsons said of the new engine.
*[[Aarons 499|Winston 500]] - Rain delayed the Winston 500 from May 7 to [[Mother's Day]] May 14 - and also pushed back the scheduled [[Fairgrounds Speedway|Music City 420]] at Nashville as well. The Talladega race saw 44 official lead changes as [[Cale Yarborough]] battled [[Darrell Waltrip]], [[Richard Petty]], and others; [[Benny Parsons]] and [[Dick Brooks]] stormed to the lead on the opening lap and Parsons led it, but fell out with clutch failure 121 laps in. Petty battled for the lead but on a late caution (for [[Lennie Pond]]'s spin) his transmission acted up, and he lost five laps getting it fixed (he finished 11th). Yarborough drafted past [[Buddy Baker]] on the final lap for only his second win of the year.[[File:Darrell Waltrip 1978.jpg|thumb|upright|300px|Darrell Waltrip at the 1978 World 600.]]
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*[[Volunteer 500]] - Cale led 327 laps en route to the win, but the story of the race was an ugly set-to between pole-sitter [[Lennie Pond]] and [[Darrell Waltrip]]; Waltrip had declared before the race that he would drive the [[Ranier Racing]] car Pond presently drove in 1979 and would buy out his contract (running through 1982) with [[DiGard Motorsports|DiGard]]; on Lap 104 Waltrip sideswiped Pond's Chevy, and three laps later a tire blew, sending Pond hard into Waltrip; Pond was later eliminated when he collided with [[Cecil Gordon]] and climbed the frontstretch wall ("It was just an accident," Pond said of the crash with Gordon, "Cecil didn't see me"). The race was scheduled to Saturday night by new track promoter Gary Baker.
*Southern 500 - Cale led 203 laps en route to his fourth Southern 500 win, while finishing a distant fourth was [[Terry Labonte]], hired to drive [[Billy Hagan (racing driver)|Billy Hagan]]'s car after [[Skip Manning]], citing lack of sponsorship, left the team.
*[[Cook Out 400 (Richmond)|Capital City 400]] - [[Darrell Waltrip]]'s controversial career took a major popularity hit after winning at [[Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway]]. He spun out winless [[Neil Bonnett]], the race's defending champion, and was booed loudly by the crowd.
*Delaware 500 - [[Bobby Allison]] grabbed his first win since March, but his postrace interview centered on a trip to the [[Mayo Clinic]] days before the race. [[J.D. McDuffie]] won his only career pole, doing so on McCreary tires, a first for the tire company.
*Wilkes 400 - Unaided by yellows, [[Cale Yarborough]] erased a two-lap deficit and led the final 19 laps for his ninth win of the season.
*[[National 500]] - [[Richard Petty]] raced to the lead and battled [[Bobby Allison]] and company, looking for his first win of the season; Petty's Chevrolet led 102 laps but fell out when the ignition failed after 220 laps. Allison won by nearly a lap over [[Darrell Waltrip]]. [[David Pearson (NASCAR driver)|David Pearson]] led 35 laps after winning his 11th straight Charlotte pole but fell out of contention late, finishing fifth. The lead changed 40 times among nine drivers.
*[[Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400|American 500]] - By winning this race, [[Cale Yarborough]] clinches his third straight championship with two races remaining in the season, even with second place in the title hunt [[Bobby Allison]] finishing a strong second in the race.
*[[Dixie 500]] - NASCAR suffered an embarrassing scoring breakdown as [[Donnie Allison]] made up a lap and stormed past [[Richard Petty]] and [[Dave Marcis]] with three laps to go. Allison was flagged the winner, but NASCAR announced scoring showed Petty beating Marcis by a wheel for the win. Scorer [[Earl Sappenfield]], however, thought something still wasn't right; chief scorer [[Morris Metcalfe]] was told by one of his scorers - 16-year-old [[Brian France]]<ref>[http://www.mikemulhern.net/DailyBriefing/rethinking-nascar-s-handling-of-that-carl-edwards-deal-in-saturday-s-richmond-400 2012 Richmond 400 Story With NASCAR Scoring Controversies] from [[Mike Mulhern]]</ref> - that Donnie had in fact run a lap that hadn't been properly scored, and was thus the winner. When the announcement was made that Allison indeed had won, [[Bill France Jr.]] said, "First we need to wipe the egg off our face." Finishing fourth - following a strong second to [[Bobby Allison]] in a 300-mile [[Nationwide Series|Late Model Sportsman]] race at Charlotte the previous month - was [[Dale Earnhardt]] in a second [[Rod Osterlund]] car.
*[[Los Angeles Times 500]] - [[Cale Yarborough]] had to pit on the pace lap to correct ignition problems; he joined the field as the leaders were on the backstretch of the opening lap. The lead officially changed 11 times in the opening 21 laps and twice a lap several times; ultimately the lead changed 30 official times. [[Bobby Allison]] led 134 laps while [[Richard Petty]] was his strongest challenger, leading 30 laps before his engine failed. Allison took the win with Yarborough second. [[Dave Marcis]] finished 27th; his team owner [[Rod Osterlund]] entered two cars as he'd done at Atlanta; to preserve the rookie of the year status for 1979 for [[Dale Earnhardt]], West Coast ace [[Jimmy Insolo]] started the race in the second Osterlund car and Earnhardt drove in relief, finishing seventh. The hiring of Earnhardt upset Marcis, who was already upset with team manager [[Roland Wlodyka]]; Marcis disliked the rookie's attitude coming into the series and left Osterlund's team; Osterlund thus named Earnhardt full-time driver. This was the last race without [[Terry Labonte]] in the field until the [[2000 Brickyard 400]].
==Full Drivers’ Championship==
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