Davey, Alan, Bill, A King, And An Heir: The 1992 Hooters 500
7/12/2013
Kevin Abraham
Reading all the articles relating to Davey Allison this week here on RaceFansForever.com made me think about the first NASCAR race I ever watched. That race was the last race of the 1992 season, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I was only a child at that time, but there were things that stuck out to me from that race that hooked me into becoming a NASCAR fan, and I have been a fan since that day.
It was a cold November day in central Maine. I remember that only two months before this race we had cable installed in our home with a large eighteen channels to choose from. It was on a Sunday afternoon, and I was looking for something to watch on TV. I was changing channels until I got to channel 3, which on our cable provider was ESPN. The race had already started and one of the first things I remember seeing in this race was the announcers talking about this day being a special day in NASCAR. They were talking about the last race of 'The King' Richard Petty, and how he was involved in an accident earlier in the race, and at that time they were not sure if they would get his car repaired to finish the race.
The next thing I remember was the stats of the top three cars for the championship. They showed Davey Allison in the point lead with both Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki. Kulwicki in this race was shown to have the 'th' on the Thunderbird covered up with a Mighty Mouse sticker, since he was an underdog to win the championship, compared to the top teams of Robert Yates and Junior Johnson racing. There was something about Kulwicki being a small team competing against the giants that stuck out to me. I also liked Davey Allison because he was driving a black car.
The whole race changed when Ernie Irvan lost control of his Kodak Chevrolet, and collected the Havoline Ford of Davey Allison. I remember Benny Parsons being optimistic that Davey was not damaged too bad and could continue, but Ned Jarrett was the calm voice of reason in the booth. A few seconds later Davey tried to pull away from the accident scene, but something broke in the right front, so the car would not turn. Davey was now out of the championship picture. Did this stop the No. 28 team from fixing the car, and finish the race? No it did not. A few minutes later, ESPN did an interview with Davey and he gave one of the classiest interviews I have ever heard. Davey said that it was one of those racing deals, and that he was proud of his team, and that they were not giving up, even though they lost the championship. Davey did not complain about anything that had happened to him in this race. After I learned the story of his 1992 season, I knew there were many things Davey could have complained about, including the loss of his brother, Clifford, in an accident at Michigan. Davey said that he would get them in 1993, and that he was proud of his team for all their hard work. Sadly, Davey Allison never got that chance to contend for another championship, after passing away after his helicopter crashed in the Talladega infield in July 1993.
After the caution for Allison's accident, Kulwicki resumed with the race lead. Kulwicki knew that he needed to lead more laps than Bill Elliott to win the race, so he stayed out one more lap than what his crew said he could run in order to finish the race. When Kulwicki pitted, it gave the lead to Bill Elliott. Elliott pitted a couple of laps later, which left Terry Labonte out in the lead for one lap. Elliott re-took the lead from Labonte, and eventually won the race, leading 102 laps. Alan Kulwicki finished in second place, however he led 103 laps, and that one extra lap he stayed out to pit, along with the lap Terry Labonte led in the green flag exchange, gave Kulwicki the championship by ten points, which is the closest non-Chase finish in the points in history. Kulwicki then did a “Polish Victory Lap” to celebrate his championship win, and on that day I was a Kulwicki fan. Sadly, Alan Kulwicki passed away in a plane crash on April 1, 1993.
While Alan Kulwicki was celebrating his championship win, Richard Petty's crew had fixed his car, so he went back out on the track and did a fan appreciation lap around the track, complete with a music montage to pay tribute to the King of stock car racing. The car was missing the entire front end, but no one cared. Richard Petty was making his last lap as a Winston Cup driver.
This race hooked me on stock car racing. The race had it all, from accidents, to drama, pit strategy, along with drivers that drove their heart out every lap in Alan Kulwicki, Davey Allison and Bill Elliott. This race also has one other significant component to it at the time. This race was the first race of a young driver named Jeff Gordon. He wrecked early in the day, before I remember watching the race, but it was the changing of the guard from Petty to Gordon. I also had two drivers to cheer for in Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison, but less than a year later both of them had passed away.
I would like to hear from my readers your memories from this race. Please share your comments below.
I am on Twitter @kevdogg329