NASCAR’s Most Beloved Season
Ten years ago. It’s hard to believe it’s
been that long since the season that it seems we all most fondly remember. It
wasn’t the best as far as on-track competition. But it had the most dramatic
outcome of all the seasons of the 1990s, and the cruel sequel of 1993 made it
all the more poignant.
So on the tenth anniversary of The Season,
a look back:
Throughout NASCAR history racers raced to
win races. But for 1992 a noticeable change was in the air. "We’re going to
keep the championship in mind every race this year," Davey Allison said.
"You can’t afford to bury yourself in a hole."
The 1992 season also saw the debut of Gary
Nelson as Winston Cup’s chief inspector and competition director, and
inspections, already becoming more and more complicated, escalated in that
department right away. At Daytona all but four teams were cited and several
fined for inspection irregularities.
Ford and GM were gearing up for the season
in decidedly different ways. Ford was obsessed with winning the manufacturer
title, and had seen a marked increase in overall power in 1991 despite a dismal
first third. Ford was emphasizing depth more and more, and it had a potent
lineup of drivers and teams – Yates Racing and Davey Allison (the early
favorites for the title), Bill Elliott and Sterling Marlin with Junior Johnson,
Alan Kulwicki’s self-owned powerhouse, Geoff Bodine with Bud Moore, and Morgan
Shepherd in his first year with the Wood Brothers.
GM, in contrast, looked like walking
wounded – it had killed off Buick’s racing effort and cut Oldsmobile to two
teams – Harry Gant and Rick Mast – with the effort to be disbanded after 1992. A
new cylinder head was being force-fed to teams despite continued popularity and
efficiency with Pontiac’s Brodix-made heads. The money went to Hendrick
Motorsports and to a lesser extent to RCR and Morgan-McClure, with Pontiac
getting substantially less. Pre-season testing showed the GM camp at a
performance disadvantage.
A newcomer was with the GM squad –
Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, fielding Hendrick’s former R&D team
with Interstate Batteries sponsorship and Dale Jarrett as driver. Few thought
the coach was really serious about racing.
Also in the GM camp was Richard Petty
beginning his final season as a driver. His team had shown some flashes of
muscle in 1991 but the years of struggling to win after 1984 had finally
convinced The King to hang up the helmet.
Speedweeks promptly showed the GM camp was
in trouble. The Clash was a thriller of a race won by Geoff Bodine. The 125s, in
contrast, were unremarkable affairs – the first saw several crashes; Alan
Kulwicki was involved in a big crash early on, and after the 125s fired one of
his crewmen, a former Modified driver named Ray Evernham. Sterling Marlin won
the 500 pole but was taken out by Earnhardt in the first race. "Earnhardt
hit me in the quarter panel. I don’t know why he has to drive like that."
With Ford showing more muscle than GM, the
500 became a dull affair, except for a 14-car melee when Elliott and Marlin got
side by side and Ernie Irvan passed them both, but didn’t clear Marlin and all
three squeezed together. Jarrett was among those with wrecked cars after the
125s and the 500 and Joe Gibbs ripped his driver: "My guys won $36,000 each
for winning the Super Bowl; you cost me that much in one race." Davey
Allison cruised to the win; Alan Kulwicki from a provisional finished fourth.
The Carolina 500 at Rockingham was next,
and Bill Elliott slaughtered the field for his first win with Junior Johnson. He
did it again at Richmond, but had to sweat out a stunning race-ending challenge
by Kulwicki, who kept falling back due to pit stops – "That was mainly
because I’m so slow changing rear tires," crew chief Paul Andrews confessed
– but made a race of it at the end, coming up inches short at the stripe.
At the Atlanta 500 Davey Allison led the
most laps, but when Kulwicki short-pitted for fresh tires, everyone else
-"Alan set the stage," Larry McReynolds said: "When he pitted, we
all had to; we couldn’t stand around and let him gain (on new tires)" –
except Elliott did the same, and it paid off big when Mike Wallace spun and the
yellow trapped everyone but Elliott a lap down. "Boy, they just gave this
one to us," Elliott confessed afterward.
Elliott’s win streak hit four at
Darlington, but his Daytona crash left him so far down in points that he was not
the point leader, trailing Allison by 48.
Kulwicki’s engine cooked at Darlington,
but at Bristol he led 282 laps and engaged in a stirring late-race shootout with
Dale Jarrett, giving Joe Gibbs his first top ten finish as a car owner.
Kulwicki’s win was his fourth career. Bill Elliott got tagged by Kyle Petty –
this after his teammate Sterling Marlin crashed and stopped in Richard Petty’s
path – and later crashed with Ted Musgrave, but despite finishing 20th he gained
a surprising amount on Davey Allison, penalized a lap after a pit infraction –
which caused a shouting match between NASCAR officials and Robert Yates and
Larry McReynolds that almost got Allison’s car parked – and who crashed after an
oil fitting snapped; his ribs needed to be X-rayed.
Allison won at North Wilkesboro, bruised
his ribs again after a crash at Martinsville, and overcame that to win handily
at Talladega, and his point lead stood at 67 over Bill Elliott. He was the
defending champion of The Winston, a race now being run on Saturday night (to
the detriment of area short tracks) and which now had three segments ending in a
ten-lap sprint. He dominated the race’s first segment and worked his way through
the inverted second segment to position in the shootout. Earnhardt jumped the
start of the final segment and held a slim lead, but on the final lap he threw a
monster block on Kyle and got tagged into a spin; Davey roared alongside and
beat Kyle by four feet, but was snagged at the stripe and socked the quad-oval
wall. He was knocked unconscious for several minutes. "I knew I’d beaten
Kyle and I remember getting turned around. Then the lights went out," Davey
said after he was released from the hospital.
Despite his injuries Allison ran in the
World 600 and finished fourth, won the Michigan 400, and after the Firecracker
400 at Daytona (where he led three laps but drifted back to finish tenth) his
lead was only 46 points over Elliott; Alan Kulwicki won at Pocono in June
despite getting waylaid by James Hylton late in the race, but in the Firecracker
he was eliminated in a seven-car melee and fell to 134 points behind, but
solidly in third in the chase.
Allison looked like he would lead the
points wire to wire, but it all disappeared at the Summer 500 at Pocono. Davey
led 115 of the first 139 laps but fell to mid-pack after a long stop. He was
three-wide underneath traffic off the Tunnel Turn when Darrell Waltrip tried to
squeeze underneath with no room. Waltrip hooked Allison and Davey shot off the
ground and tumbled violently to the third turn. Elliott took the point lead
despite finishing 13th in the Summer 500 and Kulwicki finished third in the race
– a sure win disappeared in fuel mileage from Waltrip and Harry Gant.
At Allison’s home track Talladega, Darrell
Waltrip got an appropriate reception – the worst booing the sport had seen in
maybe decades. Bobby Hillin Jr. became Allison’s relief driver, and after a
quick sprinkle of rain after the start Hillin got into the Yates #28, rocketed
from the back, and led 26 laps in mid-race, ultimately finishing third. Elliott
finished fifth and Allison retook the point lead by one marker. Kulwicki
finished 25th and was 120 points down.
The next race, at Watkins Glen, Dorsey
Schroeder relieved Allison but the tandem managed only 20th, while Elliott
finished 14th and Kulwicki seventh, so Elliott retook the point lead by 17 over
Allison while Kulwicki was now within 94 of the lead. The race winner at The
Glen was Kyle Petty – several weeks earlier the SABCO Pontiac team hit on an
aero rake job on the nose, widening it enough that the car’s balance improved by
a startling measure, and with the win Kyle began to creep into the point race.
Allison’s painful season got still worse
at Michigan, as his brother Clifford was killed in a head-on crash during Grand
National practice. Michigan had been the last major track to phase in radial
tires, and the result was a substantial increase in crashes – Michael Waltrip
broke his nose in June. In the Yankee 400 Allison put aside his grief enough to
finish fifth while Harry Gant conserved fuel enough to steal what would be his
final win; that he won on fuel mileage caused other drivers to growl, "Yep,
the strokers won again (Marlin)" and "It burns me up…the fans
deserve to see a good race (Petty)."
Elliott led the most laps at Michigan and
finished third; he held the point lead by 37, and as the season wore on it
appeared Elliott was now assured of the title. At the Delaware 500 Elliott led
261 laps and escaped numerous crashes – in one Dick Trickle was blasted into
traffic: "(Someone) knocked the hell out of me. I don’t know who it was but
he drove a black car with a number 3 on it," while in another Rusty Wallace
foolishly tried a three-wide move and wiped out himself, Brett Bodine, Ernie
Irvan, and the aforementioned number 3: "I don’t know what Rusty was
thinking," Brett said, "He must have fallen out of a tree or
something." Alan Kulwicki won the pole and led one lap, but at Lap 93 he
was sent head-on into the wall by Chad Little. "He just ran into me.
Realistically this probably finishes us off in the championship deal." On
Elliott’s final pit stop Junior Johnson overruled Tim Brewer and mandated a
four-tire change, while Ricky Rudd got gas only. Elliott made up a seven-second
gap but ran out of laps. "(Elliott’s guys) gave that one away,"
third-place Kyle Petty said.
Elliott now led Allison by 158 points
while Kulwicki was in fourth place, 278 points down. But at Martinsville Elliott
lasted only 158 laps and blew up. Alan Kulwicki led three laps and pounded out a
fifth place finish. Kyle Petty led 135 laps from the pole, ran out of gas, lost
a lap in a scuffle with Geoff Bodine, got swept into a spin by Davey Allison and
Rusty Wallace, and was two laps down as late as Lap 400, but with an epidemic of
crashes Kyle erased the gap and salvaged fourth place. Geoff Bodine won the race
when it was over, while Kulwicki was now 191 points out.
At North Wilkesboro Kulwicki won the pole
and led the first 34 laps, but drifted to 12th while Bodine routed everyone in a
caution-free event. Kyle took third, Davey 11th, and Elliott squandered more
points by finishing 26th. His freefall accelerated at Charlotte when he broke a
sway bar late and finished 30th; he now led Davey Allison by only 39 points
while Mark Martin won the race over Alan Kulwicki and Kyle Petty, and all three
were now within 114 points of the lead. But Allison looked finished, getting
lapped four times and finishing only 19th at Charlotte. At Rockingham
communications broke down and the team got into a dispute with Allison
afterward. Kyle Petty, meanwhile, led all but eight laps – this despite getting
shoved onto the first turn apron after the first yellow by Earnhardt – en route
to an absurdly easy win, while Elliott finished fourth. He now led Kulwicki by
85 points. "If we can do this two more times we’ll be spraying champagne
and catching roses," Tim Brewer said.
But it all turned upside down at Phoenix.
Rusty Wallace won the pole and completely dominated before the battery suddenly
died. Elliott fought engine problems almost start to finish, while Davey Allison
caught a fortunate late yellow: "That caution was such a big break it put
us in shock," Allison said. He won the race while Kulwicki finished fourth.
Davey now led the points by 30 over Kulwicki, and all he needed to do was finish
in the top five and the title was his. He was one of six drivers within less
than 100 points of the lead with one race to go.
The point race was one half of the magic
entering the Dixie 500 at Atlanta. Richard Petty had spent 1992 on the Fan
Appreciation Tour, and it was a huge success as far as his interaction with
fans. The final race of his driving career was the other half of the
unprecedented hype wrapping up the 1992 season. Rick Mast won the pole in
Oldsmobile’s final start as a Winston Cup player, as the Atlanta track cracked
180 for the first time in NASCAR competition. Allison timed 17th, Elliott 11th,
Kulwicki 14th, Petty 20th, Harry Gant 29th, and Mark Martin fourth.
With a squad of Apache gun ships flying in
formation over the field on its parade laps, the energy of the day exploded on
the start. Brett Bodine led the opening lap, then in Turn One of Lap Two
Earnhardt punted Bodine into Rick Mast; Bodine and Mast hit the wall, then
Bodine slid into Hut Stricklin’s path on the apron. Stricklin T-boned through
Bodine’s Ford full-throttle; it was pure luck that Bodine wasn’t hit closer to
the driver area, as the impact would have been fatal.
The point contenders did what they had to
do – Elliott and Kulwicki raced for the win, at times going door to door for the
lead for multiple laps, while Davey Allison stayed in the top five, a strategy
proving more difficult than expected. Another multi-car melee erupted at Lap 94
when Ken Schrader and Dick Trickle slammed the inside wall at the stripe;
Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip, Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Rich Bickle slammed
together and Petty’s Pontiac erupted in flame. "I think all them
(firefighter) cats wanted an autograph because none of them brought a fire
extinguisher," Petty cracked afterward.
The next heart-stopper of the day came at
Lap 251. Ernie Irvan, running second, spun to the fourth turn apron, then shot
into Davey Allison hard, enough that Irvan was knocked unconscious. "It
just wasn’t meant to happen this year," Davey said afterward; he was more
concerned with Ernie, who awoke after about an hour.
Kulwicki and Paul Andrews kept an obsessive
count over number of laps led, and clocked it down to where they knew when the
pit for the final time. Kulwicki pitted with 24 to go after leading 103
laps. Bill Elliott led four laps after Alan pitted, then pitted himself.
Terry Labonte led a lap before pitting, and that cinched the five bonus points
for most laps led for Kulwicki. He finished eight seconds behind Elliott in the
race, but he kept his ten point lead over Elliott for the championship.
"The ultimate satisfaction is if you
can win it on your own," Kulwicki said. Paul Andrews, Ron Viccaro, and the
team had maintained that same focus, and it had paid off in the top prize in
stock car racing.
But the epilogue for all three title
contenders would not be a good one. Alan would die in a plane crash in April of
1993. Davey Allison went through a tumultuous 1993 season and would himself die
in a helicopter crash. The Junior Johnson team was torn asunder when crew chief
Tim Brewer was fired by Junior Johnson, reportedly after siding with Flossie
Johnson in a bitter divorce from Junior; Elliott failed to win in 1993 and won
just one more race with Junior, the 1994 Southern 500. He would go through six
winless seasons and almost a seventh before he scored with the crewman Alan
Kulwicki had fired before the ’92 Daytona 500 – Ray Evernham.
But on one glorious day, the 1992 season
came together into the sport’s greatest day – ten years ago this season.