1992 Daytona 500

1992 Daytona 500

Race details
Race 1 of 29 in the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Track map of Daytona International Speedway showing mainly the speedway.
Date	February 16, 1992
Official name	Daytona 500 by STP
Location	Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.02336 km)
Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching up to 82.9 °F (28.3 °C); wind speeds approaching 8.9 miles per hour (14.3 km/h)[1]
Average speed	160.256 miles per hour (257.907 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Sterling Marlin	Junior Johnson & Associates
Qualifying race winners
Duel 1 Winner	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Duel 2 Winner	Bill Elliott	Junior Johnson & Associates
Most laps led
Driver	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing
Laps	127
Winner
No. 28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing
Television in the United States
Network	CBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett and Ned Jarrett
Nielsen Ratings	9.2/25 (13.4 million viewers)

The 1992 Daytona 500, the 34th running of the event, was held February 16 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida as the first race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup season.Davey Allison won the race. Sterling Marlin won the pole, driving the #22 Ford for Junior Johnson & Associates. Richard Petty gave the command to start the engines from the cockpit of the famous #43 Pontiac for his team in his final appearance in the race as a driver. This would also be the final Daytona 500 start for 1972 winner A.J. Foyt, who would also start his final Indianapolis 500 later that year. This marked the debut of Joe Gibbs Racing in the green and black #18 Chevrolet with Dale Jarrett as the driver.

The start

The initial part of the race was clean, though Geoff Bodine and Morgan Shepherd touched exiting Turn 4 with no further incident. Brett Bodine and Ricky Rudd fell out in the first half of the race with separate engine failures, as the Junior Johnson cars of Sterling Marlin and Bill Elliott established themselves as the cars to beat. Davey Allison's crew gambled with a two-tire change, but caught a lucky break when Geoff Bodine was penalised for speeding, and gained a drafting partner.

The Big One

Rain fell after 80 laps, and when the race restarted Ernie Irvan went for the lead on lap 92. He came up in front of Sterling Marlin, but had not cleared him, and also moved him up the track into his teammate Bill Elliott who was on the outside. The ensuing mayhem collected polesitter Sterling Marlin, Ernie Irvan, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Ken Schrader and Dale Earnhardt. Also, Bobby Hillin Jr., Dale Jarrett, Alan Kulwicki, Chad Little, Richard Petty, Hut Stricklin, Rusty Wallace, and Darrell Waltrip were involved.

The wreck ended the race for Jarrett, Schrader, Marlin, Hillin, and Little, with their cars being terminally damaged.

The finish

On Lap 144 Rick Wilson was planning to pit the Stavola Brothers Ford, but Kerry Teague did not realise it and ran into him. This brought out the third yellow flag in the race. On Lap 166 Ernie Irvan's crippled car spun to bring out the fourth caution flag. Leaders Allison, Shepherd, and Michael Waltrip made their final stops. Waltrip fell back after the restart with an engine that was quitting. This left the two Ford Thunderbirds of Allison and Shepherd to race for the win, finishing in this order. This win made the Allisons the second father-son duo to win the Daytona 500, joining Lee and Richard Petty. Alan Kulwicki finished a quiet fourth which kicked off an unlikely championship run.

Results

Pos	Grid	Car	Driver	Team	Make	Laps	Led	Status
1	6	28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	200	127	Running
2	4	21	Morgan Shepherd	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	200	7	Running
3	16	15	Geoff Bodine (W)	Bud Moore Engineering	Ford	200	0	Running
4	41	7	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
5	28	75	Dick Trickle	RahMoc Enterprises	Oldsmobile	200	0	Running
6	33	42	Kyle Petty	SABCO Racing	Pontiac	200	0	Running
7	34	94	Terry Labonte	Hagan Racing	Oldsmobile	199	0	Flagged
8	40	55	Ted Musgrave	RaDiUs Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	0	Flagged
9	3	3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	199	0	Flagged
10	19	9	Phil Parsons	Melling Racing	Ford	199	0	Flagged
11	24	47	Buddy Baker (W)	Close Racing	Oldsmobile	199	0	Flagged
12	11	33	Harry Gant	Leo Jackson Motorsports	Oldsmobile	199	0	Flagged
13	13	1	Rick Mast	Precision Products Racing	Oldsmobile	199	0	Flagged
14	9	41	Greg Sacks	Larry Hedrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	199	0	Flagged
15	37	16	Wally Dallenbach, Jr. (R)	Roush Racing	Ford	198	0	Flagged
16	32	43	Richard Petty (W)	Petty Enterprises	Pontiac	198	0	Flagged
17	25	73	Phil Barkdoll	Barkdoll Racing	Oldsmobile	198	0	Flagged
18	10	30	Michael Waltrip	Bahari Racing	Pontiac	197	3	Flagged
19	31	90	Dorsey Schroeder (R)	Donlavey Racing	Ford	196	0	Flagged
20	23	71	Dave Marcis	Marcis Auto Racing	Chevrolet	195	0	Flagged
21	39	14	A. J. Foyt (W)	B&B Racing	Chevrolet	195	0	Flagged
22	30	49	Stanley Smith (R)	BS&S Motorsports	Chevrolet	195	0	Flagged
23	38	8	Rick Wilson	Stavola Brothers Racing	Ford	195	0	Flagged
24	42	12	Hut Stricklin	Bobby Allison Motorsports	Chevrolet	188	0	Flagged
25	27	0	Delma Cowart	H. L. Waters Motorsports	Ford	188	0	Flagged
26	12	17	Darrell Waltrip (W)	Darrell Waltrip Motorsports	Chevrolet	180	1	Flagged
27	2	11	Bill Elliott (W)	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	178	23	Flagged
28	8	4	Ernie Irvan (W)	Morgan-McClure Motorsports	Chevrolet	166	0	Handling
29	5	6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	162	0	Flagged
30	29	77	Mike Potter (R)	Kenova Motorsports	Chevrolet	151	0	Fuel Pump
31	17	2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South	Pontiac	150	0	Flagged
32	22	68	Bobby Hamilton	TriStar Motorsports	Oldsmobile	125	0	Piston
33	21	03	Kerry Teague (R)	KT Motorsports	Oldsmobile	122	0	Contact T4
34	20	10	Derrike Cope (W)	Whitcomb Racing	Chevrolet	120	0	Radiator
35	1	22	Sterling Marlin	Junior Johnson & Associates	Ford	91	0	Contact BS
36	35	18	Dale Jarrett	Joe Gibbs Racing	Chevrolet	91	0	Contact BS
37	15	25	Ken Schrader	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	91	6	Contact BS
38	26	31	Bobby Hillin, Jr.	Team Ireland	Chevrolet	91	0	Contact BS
39	14	66	Chad Little	Cale Yarborough Motorsports	Ford	90	0	Contact BS
40	8	5	Ricky Rudd	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	79	0	Engine
41	18	26	Brett Bodine	King Racing	Ford	13	0	Distributor
42	36	95	Bob Schacht (R)	Sadler Brothers Racing	Oldsmobile	7	0	Engine
Failed to Qualify
		99	Brad Teague	Ball Motorsports	Chevrolet
		59	Andy Belmont (R)	Rissi Racing	Ford
		89	Jim Sauter	Mueller Brothers Racing	Pontiac
		23	Eddie Bierschwale	B&B Racing	Oldsmobile
		83	Lake Speed	Speed Racing	Chevrolet
		13	Dave Mader III (R)	Seal-Tech Motorsports	Chevrolet
		98	Jimmy Spencer	Travis Carter Enterprises	Chevrolet
		20	Mike Wallace (R)	Moroso Racing	Oldsmobile
		62	Ben Hess	Gray Racing	Ford
		13	Mike Skinner (R)	Mansion Motorsports	Chevrolet
		88	Joe Booher	88 Racing	Pontiac
		50	Clay Young (R)	Young Motorsports	Pontiac
		48	James Hylton	Hylton Motorsports	Chevrolet
		52	Jimmy Means	Means Racing	Pontiac
		97	Mark Gibson (R)	Collins Racing	Oldsmobile
Source:[2]

Promotion and aftermath

• Racing Champions ran a promotion for the race and gave out a 3-car gift set of the top 3 finishers, Davey Allison, Morgan Shepherd, and Geoff Bodine in a blister pack. There are some packs that came with errors that had Bodine listed in second but in the same order on the box. The package is considered rare today, but can still be found in some novelty shops.
• Richard Petty ran a promotion where he ran a diecast car of each race he ran in 1992 season, including the Daytona 500.
• A.J. Foyt ran diecast cars for both the Daytona 500 and his final Indy 500 that year.
• The winning car Davey Allison used was auctioned off at Barrett-Jackson car auction complete with the winning driver's trophy and driving uniform.

Additional facts

• Since this Daytona 500, the leader of lap 100 has never gone on to win the race.

References

1. "Weather of the 1992 Daytona 500". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
2. "1992 Daytona 500". Racing-Reference.info. 1993-02-16. Retrieved 2013-12-21.