This Sunday, NASCAR will run 500 miles at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  This race will not decide the championship, but it used to.  Let's turn back the clock to the days when there was no COT, no lucky dog, no Chase, and no huge 4 and 5- teams...back to the days of racing back to the caution flag, days when they didn't throw phanton debris cautions, and the days when an owner/driver could still make it in NASCAR...........

The date is November 15, 1992.  For the last few weeks, Bill Elliott has seen his championship lead evaporate thanks to horrendously awful finishes in 4 of the last 5 races.  Davey Allison won last week at Phoenix and has the points lead.  He has to finish 6th or better to win his first Winston Cup Championship.  6 drivers have a mathematical chance to win the 1992 Winston Cup Championship.  This is a NASCAR Flashback to the 1992 Hooters 500, the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

6 drivers have a shot at the title, and all but 1 is looking to win a championship for the first time in their career.  Out of the 6, the only former champion is the man from just up the road in Dawsonville, GA, Bill Elliott, the 1988 Winston Cup Champion.  The other 5 drivers are points leader Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki, Kyle Petty, Harry Gant, and Mark Martin.  This race marks the end for The King.  It's Richard Petty's final race.  It's also the debut of a 21-year-old driver named Jeff Gordon.  Rick Mast has won his first career pole, and will start along side Brett Bodine.

On lap 2, the front row starters tangle in turn 1 and create a mess that takes out a few cars.  None of the championship contenders are involved, but Hut Stricklin plows into Brett Bodine.  Dale Earnhardt leads lap #2.  He's has an abysmal 1992 season.  By day's end he will have run out of gas, spun on the track, finished 26th in the race, and finished 12th in points.

Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki make their way to the front, and begin trading the lead back and forth for much of the race.  As the day progresses, Richard Petty is involved in a huge crash on the front stretch.  Also involved in this incident are Wally Dallenbach, Dick Trickle, Darrell Waltrip, among others.  Petty would, however, return with a couple of laps remaining and take the checkered flag for the final time in his career.  Mark Martin's championship hopes fade just as they did in 1989 when he blows an engine on lap 160.  Harry Gant begins to fade and will not be a factor.  He will finish 4 laps down in 13th position.

Getting later into the race, Davey Allison is running in 6th position, exactly where he needs to be in order to win a championship.  Kyle Petty is currently a lap down, and would not finish on the lead lap.  He would lose an engine with just 8 laps to go, finishing in 16th.  Meanwhile, Ernie Irvan breaks loose off of turn 4 and spins into the outside wall.  As he hits the wall, he collects Davey Allison.  Allison't championship dreams vanish, and we're left with 2 drivers to battle it out for the championship.

Those 2 drivers are Alan Kulwicki and Bill Elliott.  In the closing laps, Kulwicki pits for a splash of fuel.  He returns to the track and is running in 2nd position after the completion of the splash-and-go pit stops.  Bill Elliott is now the race leader.  If Kulwicki doesn't lead another lap, he will have led 103 laps.  If Elliott leads the rest of the way, he will have led 102.  Kulwicki will earn the 5 bonus points for leading the most laps.  Bob Jenkins makes the memorable call as Elliott wins and Kulwicki comes home in 2nd...

"Bill Elliott comes off the 4th corner.  He wins the Hooters 500!  But Alan Kulwicki is coming off of corner number 4 knowing that he's winning the championship.  There's the checkered flag for Alan, he's the champion for '92!"

Alan Kulwicki beat Bill Elliott for the title by just 10 points, the smallest margin of victory in NASCAR history prior to the 2004 Chase when Kurt Busch won by 8 points over Jimmie Johnson.  But don't forget, there was no Chase in 1992, and this points battle developed all by itself.  This race came down to the very last lap, and it's a race that will never be forgotten.

Until next time, I'm your NASCAR VP returning you to 2008.  This has been a NASCAR Flashback, now back to this weekend's race where the party has just begun.

BK over and out