Alan Kulwicki

Alan Kulwicki

NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement	1st - (1992)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 207 5 24 75
NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics
Best placement	27.- (1985)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 6th - 1 3

Alan Kulwicki (born December 14, 1954 in Greenfield , Wisconsin , † April 1, 1993 in Blountville , Tennessee ), also called Special K , was an American NASCAR racing driver. Most recently, he drove a # 7 Ford Thunderbird . His successes include winning the Winston Cup in 1992 and being named Rookie of the Year 1986. In 1998, Kulwicki was honored as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers and in In 2002 inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame . Alan Kulwicki died on April 1, 1993 in a plane crash near Blountville.

background

Alan Kulwicki was born in Greenfield , Wisconsin , a suburb of Milwaukee . He graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 1977 with a degree in mechanical engineering . Often his success is attributed to this knowledge, although at the time, experience and intuition were seen as more important on the racetrack.

In 1973 Kulwicki won the title of Rookie of the Year at the now closed Hales Cornes Speedway, a dirt track in Franklin, a suburb of Milwaukee. He won the Late Models Championship on the paved Wisconsin International Raceway in 1979 and 1980 .

At the same time he began to drive races on national racetracks. He competed in the USAC touring car series before moving to the American Speed ​​Association (ASA) in 1978 . There he was named rookie of the year in his first year. Within the series he also drove against Rusty Wallace , with whom he later developed a close friendship.

Winston Cup career

In 1984 Kulwicki competed in four races in the NASCAR Busch Grand National . In his first race in his hometown Milwaukee , he started the race from second on the grid and also finished second. In Charlotte , he came in seventh in Bristol in fifth. In January 1985 he started at Daytona International Speedway and even started from pole position in Milwaukee in August 1985, but finished the race in 14th place due to engine problems.

Due to his success in the Busch Grand National Series, Bill Terry became aware of Kulwicki and offered him the opportunity to compete in some of the races in the Cup series. He completed his first race in the Winston Cup on September 8, 1985 for Terry. He started in five races this season. His best result was a 13th place.

In 1986, Kulwicki sold most of his property and moved from Wisconsin to the southern United States. At first he was ridiculed by many racing veterans, for he was a trained mechanical engineer from Wisconsin who tried his hand at a sport in which many of his competitors had barely made it through high school . He often ran through the garages in his racing overalls and had a briefcase in hand at the same time. Kulwicki was the driver, owner and often his own crew chief. He also had problems putting together a crew for the team and keeping it together. Notable members of his crew included Paul Andrews, Bobby Norfleet, Tony Gibson and Brian Whitesell.

Since he had not got a seat in a car for the 1986 season, he accordingly founded his own team for the Winston Cup and was driver and team owner in one person. With only two cars, two engines and two full-time crew members for the entire season, he still won the title of rookie of the year .

In the 1988 season he won his first NASCAR race in the Winston Cup at Phoenix International Raceway . After the race he turned his car 180 degrees and showed his now famous “Polish lap of honor” for the first time when he completed the lap of honor in the opposite direction of travel. Because of this action, there was corresponding trouble with the NASCAR officials.

championship

The final race of the 1992 season was one of the most eventful in NASCAR history. It was Richard Petty's last race , Jeff Gordon’s first race and six drivers still had the chance to win the title. For this race, Kulwicki got NASCAR and Ford approval to change the “Thunderbird” lettering on his car to “Underbird” because he saw himself as an underdog in the title fight. After many of the top contenders for the title had bad luck early on in the race, Kulwicki and Bill Elliott dueled for the championship. Elliott won the race ahead of Kulwicki, who, however, had led one lap more than Elliott and was awarded five bonus points for this. With the help of these bonus points Kulwicki became the Winston Cup champion of the 1992 season with ten points ahead of Bill Elliott. After winning the title, he completed his second "Polish lap of honor" ever. Before he left the car to take the trophy, he took a comb from a specially installed glove compartment and combed his hair for the pleasure of those present. This was alluded to at the later winners' banquet, when Elliott Kulwicki presented a “Golden Kamm” award.

In the crucial phase of the championship of the 1992 season, Kulwicki made up a point deficit of 278 points in the last six races to win the championship by just ten points. This was the closest decision for the championship until the introduction of the Chase for the Sprint Cup in 2004. This championship decision is also worth mentioning for other reasons: Kulwicki was the last driver and team owner in personal union to win the championship, the first Driver with a university degree and the first master not to be born in a southern US state.

To celebrate the championship of the 1992 season, its sponsor, Hooters, produced a special "Alan Tribute Card" that was issued during all autograph sessions at the beginning of the 1993 season.

During his nine year career in the Winston Cup, Kulwicki won five races and took pole position 24 times.

death

Alan Kulwicki's tombstone

Alan Kulwicki died at the age of 38 in a plane crash on April 1, 1993 near Blountville , Tennessee , when he was returning from an event leading up to the Spring Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on a plane operated by sponsor Hooters . Three days after Kulwicki's death, he was honored by Bristol winner Rusty Wallace by completing his famous “Polish lap of honor”. In the remaining races of the season, the respective winner honored Kulwicki in this way. In addition, for the rest of the season all cars in both the Winston Cup and the Busch Grand National Series had a sticker with Kulwicki's stylized start number 7 on the B-pillars both sides. After Davey Allison's death on July 13, 1993, the number 7 was added by Allison with the stylized number 28. In the last race of the season, the winner of the race Rusty Wallace and the winner of the championship Dale Earnhardt drove side by side a Polish lap of honor in honor of their two deceased colleagues.

The championship decision in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup, the "Four Champions Challenge", is also named after the four victims of the plane crash of the main sponsor Hooters. The four masters killed can also be seen in all Hooters calendars in April.

Alan Kulwicki was posthumously inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002. Kulwicki received another honor with the "Alan Kulwicki Memorial Park" on the corner of Highway 100 and Cold Spring Road in Greenfield.

Kulwicki as a film theme

On April 1, 2005, the very shallow documentary Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story was released , which was made by fans of Kulwicki from Wisconsin. The film was produced for less than $ 100,000 and shown in 14 US states and 80 cities. It is about the events in Kulwicki's life that were responsible for his desire to become a master - whatever the cost. In the film itself, Humpy Wheeler and Bill Elliott can also be seen playing themselves.

Web links

Commons : Alan Kulwicki  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Driver statistics on racing-reference.info

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Patty Kay: Alan Kulwicki: Always a Champion . Insider Racing News. March 30, 2003. Archived from the original on April 18, 2007. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Alan Kulwicki . racingreference.info. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
3. ↑ Ryan Smithson: A decade later, Kulwicki's crew races on . NASCAR.com. April 1, 2003. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
4. ↑ Alan Kulwicki . NASCAR.com. April 4, 2003. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
5. ^ Alan Kulwicki story . Tom Roberts Public Relations. Retrieved July 8, 2007.
6. ^ Tribute to Alan Kulwicki . Laidback racing. Retrieved July 8, 2007.