POLISH VICTORY LAP REMEMBERED (Steve Knudtson, AutoGeek Motorsports Team)
Many fans of NASCAR, such as myself, for many years have seen drivers come and go. Car owners, crew members, crew chiefs, sponsors change, nothing out of the ordinary in racing. But one driver to me always will stand out and that was Alan Kulwicki. Alan was a man that did it all as far as racing goes. He was his own engineer, shop cleaner, numbers man and oh yes, the driver...we can't forget that. I remember watching him race in Busch Series, SCCA and he finally made it to the big time Winston Cup, a dream for any driver.
In 1992 Kulwicki changed NASCAR history running his own team with one sponsor that people would know which was Hooters Restaurant. He came back from an almost 300 point deficit to win the Championship in 1992. He was racing against names such as Davey Allison with Robert Yates, Bill Elliot who at the time was on top of the world racing for the legendary Junior Johnson who at the time was one of the few car owners running multi-car teams. With 6 races left to go in the season Alan Kulwicki was trailing Bill Elliot by 278 points, a large point spread for any driver. Paul Andrews at the time was crew chief and said remembering Kulwicki, "You can't talk about the '92 season without mentioning Dover." At Dover Kulwicki had torn up three racecars that year. Andrews followed up with, "Heck you know we replaced five clips in 1992 and they were all from Dover. We wrecked four cards in two race weekends." (Clips are the racecar's very front and back sections, welded onto the chassis tubing.)
After those two miserable weekends, Kulwicki was able to change history. He was able to get close enough to give point leader Davey Allison a run for his money. Atlanta that year was the showdown of the south; the Civil War was about to begin again with Kulwicki being from Wisconsin as the Yankee and Bill Elliot being the Confederate. It came down to Kulwicki out-driving Elliot by one lap; he led 103 laps to Elliot's 102 laps. It was a nail biter. Kulwicki got bonus points for leading the most laps that clinched the Championship over Elliot. If he hadn't gotten those five extra points it would have been a tie in number of points, but Elliot would have been the champion because that would have made his fifth victory of the season to Kulwicki's four. After the win at Atlanta, Alan Kulwicki did something never before seen by race people. He went the opposite direction of the track, which was nicknamed the "Polish Victory Lap" in honor of his polish heritage.
