FANTASY NASCAR Racin

nicknamed "Special K" and the "Polish Prince", was an American Cup Series race car driver. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget, and only a race car and a borrowed pickup truck. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, he earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award over drivers racing for well-funded teams. Kulwicki raced in four NASCAR Nationwide Series races in 1984. At the time, the Nationwide Series was considered NASCAR's feeder circuit, a proving ground for drivers who wished to step up to the organization's premiere circuit, the Sprint Cup. Kulwicki qualified second fastest and finished in second place at his first career NASCAR race, which took place at the Milwaukee Mile,

several city blocks from where he grew up. Kulwicki's Nationwide Series successes caught car owner Bill Terry's eye and he offered Kulwicki a chance to race for him in a few Winston Cup events. In 1985, Kulwicki sold most of his belongings, including his short track racing equipment, to move approximately 860 miles to the Charlotte area in North Carolina. He kept only a few things; his pickup truck was loaded to tow a trailer full of furniture and tools. An electrical fire two days before he left destroyed his truck, so Kulwicki had to borrow one to pull the trailer. After arriving in the Charlotte area, he showed up unannounced

at Terry's shop ready to race. Veteran NASCAR drivers were initially amused by Kulwicki's arrival on the national tour: He was a driver from the northern United States when the series was primarily a southern regional series, he had an mechanical engineering degree when few other drivers had completed college, and, with only six starts, had limited driving experience in the junior Nationwide series. Kulwicki was described as very studious, hard working, no-nonsense, and something of a loner. He frequently walked the garage area in his racing uniform carrying a briefcase. Kulwicki made his first career Winston Cup start at Richmond on September 8, 1985, for Bill

Terry's #32 Hardee's Ford, and ran five races that season. Kulwicki started his rookie season in 1986 with Terry. After Terry decided to end support for his racing team mid-season, Kulwicki fielded his own team. He started out as essentially a one-man team in a time when other teams essentially a one-man team in a time when other teams had dozens of people in supporting roles. Kulwicki had difficulty acquiring and keeping crew members because he found it difficult to trust them to do the job with the excellence that he demanded, and because he was hands

on in the maintenance of race cars to the point of being a "control freak". He sought out crew members who had owned their own race cars, believing they would understand what he was going through: working long hours and performing his own car maintenance with a very limited budget. Notable crew members included his crew chief, Paul Andrews, and future Cup crew chiefs, Tony Gibson and Brian Whitesell. Future crew chief and owner, Ray Evernham, lasted six weeks with Kulwicki in 1992. Evernham later said, "The man was a genius. There's no question. It's not a matter of people just feeling like he was a genius. That man was a genius. But his personality paid for that. He was very impatient, very straightforward, very

cut-to-the-bone." With one car, two engines, and two full-time crew members, Kulwicki won the 1986 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year award. For the 1987 season, Kulwicki secured primary sponsorship from Zerex Antifreeze and changed his car number to #7. Kulwicki came close to winning his first Winston Cup race at Pocono, finishing second after winner Dale Earnhardt Sr. passed him on the last lap. In 1988, Kulwicki hired Paul Andrews as his crew chief after Andrews was recommended by Rusty Wallace at the 1987 NASCAR Awards banquet. That year Kulwicki won his first NASCAR Winston Cup race in the season's second-to-last race at Phoenix International Raceway after race leader Ricky Rudd's car had motor problems late in the race. Kulwicki led 41 laps and won by 18.5 seconds. After the race finished, he turned his car around and made a Polish Victory Lap by driving the opposite way (clockwise)

on the track, with the driver's side of the car facing the fans. "This gave me the opportunity to wave to the crowd from the driver's side", Kulwicki explained. Andrew recalled, "He had wanted to do something special and something different for his first win and only his first". Junior Johnson, owner of one of the top NASCAR teams, approached Kulwicki at the beginning of the 1990 season to ask Kulwicki to drive one of his cars. Kulwicki declined, stating that he was more interested in running his own team. He won his second Cup race at Rockingham on October 21, 1990, and finished eighth in points that year. Before the 1991 season, Zerex ended their sponsorship of Kulwicki's team. Johnson was expanding his operation to a two-car team and offered Kulwicki a ride in his second car. Kulwicki turned down Johnson's $1 million offer, thinking that he had secured a sponsorship deal with Maxwell

House coffee. Instead, Johnson ended up securing that sponsorship for his second team, so Kulwicki began the season without a sponsor, paying expenses out of his own pocket. Kulwicki was approached by Hooters for a one-race sponsorship deal for the fourth race at Atlanta Motor Speedway (Atlanta is the corporate home of Hooters). Kulwicki qualified on the pole position for the race. Hooters and Kulwicki signed a one-race sponsorship agreement, followed by a long-term deal after Kulwicki finished eighth in the race. In 1992 Kulwicki passed Dale Jarrett with 27 laps left at the Food City 500 race on April 5 at Bristol to take a narrow victory. Discounted as a contender for the season championship during the year, Kulwicki was expected to fade from contention. Kulwicki was quite vocal that his 278-point deficit would probably be his undoing, and that the Dover race result would keep him from contending for the season title. He was quoted as

saying, "This probably finishes us off in the championship deal." On October 11, Mark Martin had a narrow victory over Kulwicki at the Mello Yello 500 at Charlotte. For the second race in a row, points leader Bill Elliott had problems, which left six drivers within reach of the title with three races left to go. Elliott had problems again at the second-to-last race, and his cracked cylinder head allowed race winner Davey Allison to take the points lead, with fourth place finisher Kulwicki second in season points and Elliott third. The 1992 Hooters 500, the final race of the 1992 season, is considered one of the most eventful races in NASCAR history. It was the final race for Richard Petty and the first for Jeff Gordon. Allison led second-place Kulwicki by 30 points, Bill Elliott by 40, Harry Gant by 97, and Kyle Petty by 98 and needed to finish sixth or better to clinch the championship. Allison was racing in sixth place, closely behind Ernie Irvan, when Irvan's tires blew with 73 (of 328) laps left in the event. As a result, Allison ran into the side of Irvan's spinning car and his car was too damaged to continue. While leading late in the race, Andrews calculated the exact lap for his final pit stop so that Kulwicki would be guaranteed to lead the most laps and would gain five bonus points. Kulwicki made his final pit stop only after leading enough laps to guarantee the bonus points. If Kulwicki had not stayed out one extra lap to lead the most laps, the five point bonus would of went to Elliott, thus making a ten point swing in the

final points. Bill Elliott won the race and Kulwicki stretched his fuel to finish second. Kulwicki won the 1992 Winston Cup Championship by maintaining his 10-point lead over Elliott. BY running one extra lap, Kulwicki won the championship. If Elliott would of led the most laps, the points would of been tied. If the points had been tied, Elliott would of been the 1992 Champion because the tie-breaker (most wins for the season) and would of been in Elliott's favor. He celebrated the championship with his second Polish Victory Lap. Always conscious of his appearance for potential sponsors, Kulwicki combed his hair, making a national television audience wait for him to emerge from his car. Kulwicki was the last owner/driver to win the title, the first Cup champion with a college degree,

and the first Cup champion born in a Northern state. The song that played during a short salute to Kulwicki at the year-end awards banquet was "My Way". Kulwicki died in an airplane crash on Thursday April 1, 1993. He was returning from an appearance at the Knoxville Hooters in a Hooters corporate plane on a short flight across Tennessee before the Sunday spring race at Bristol. Killed in the crash was Kulwicki, Mark Brooks (son of Hooters owner Bob Brooks), Dan Duncan, and pilot Charles Campbell. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to the pilot's failure to use the airplane's anti-ice system to clear ice from the engine inlet system. Kulwicki's race car transporter was driven from the rainy track later that Friday morning while other teams and the media watched it travel slowly around the track with a black wreath on its grille.

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

ALAN DENNIS KULWICKI - 12/14/1954 - 04/01/1993