Once in a generation comes a driver who breaks every norm that has been established before him and sets new higher standards to suit his own. The Polish Prince Alan Kulwicki was one such driver.
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This is the story of how this bad-to-the-bone gentleman overcame the toughest of odds in 1992 to set in stone a legacy that has been matched by none four decades before and three decades since. But first, a short and sly touch of the rewind button.
The year was 1954 in Greenfield, Wisconsin. The play cries of a young Kulwicki filled the air surrounding the legendary Milwaukee Mile that was situated near his home. The suburb was known for its Polish-American diaspora and the little boy fit right in.
But the flutter of the hope that he was meant to achieve greatness latched itself onto his heart early on. Growing up near America’s Legendary Oval as the son of a USAC crew chief can do that to one.
But the path that fate took him on wasn’t an entirely conventional one. That little boy was enrolled in a Roman Catholic High School near home and later attended the University of Wisconsin. As much as he tried, he couldn’t let life run its course and set foot on the local race tracks while still in college.
He passed out from university in 1977 armed with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and invaluable experience as a dirt race driver. A highly successful one at the latter.
Kulwicki transitioned to pavements from there on and used his education to devise precise racing strategies. It would be an understatement to say that his wisdom helped him win races.
The nuances that he displayed in handling his cars led him to be noticed by a driver named Rusty Wallace after an event sanctioned by the American Speed Association (ASA) and there blossomed a deep friendship. It was roughly five years later, in 1985, that he went knocking on Lady Luck’s doors.
How Kulwicki set the stage for the greatest Cup Series season
Kulwicki had participated in four Busch races in 1984 and finished high up the order. His results in those four events gave him the opening he needed to fulfill the dream of greatness that’d been rooted in his heart as a child.
Car owner Bill Terry had watched him race in the feeder program and wanted to offer him the chance to drive in the Winston Cup Series. Without question, the driver lapped the opportunity up. He sold every belonging that he had to fund the move to Charlotte, North Carolina from home. The Mecca of Motorsports was the place to be for any aspiring NASCAR star.
But his arrival there was initially not met with the reaction that he hoped for. NASCAR was still a “Southern” sport at the time and a 30-year-old from Wisconsin of all places did not appeal to a lot.
He became the subject of further amusement when people learned that he was a university graduate. The question was obvious. What was a “nerd from the North” going to be capable of on the racing track?
They got the answer to that pretty quickly. Kulwicki was a determined and focused individual who knew exactly what he wanted to do. His grit set souls on fire and he secured his first victory in 1988 at Phoenix. He infamously took a victory lap in the opposite direction to celebrate the success and called it a “Polish Victory Lap”.
He won again in 1990 and 1991, but 1992 was the year that changed his image forever and ever. It gave birth to what is perhaps the greatest underdog story in NASCAR.
Kulwicki had become a team owner by the time the 1992 season began. How he did so is for another story, but the stress that he faced in becoming so is for this one.
Managing dual roles in the highest levels of stock car racing is no easy task. The toughness automatically removed any chance that he had of creating an impact in the season let alone win the title. Moreover, he’d also just lost a key sponsor in Maxwell House to rival Junior Johnson.
Kulwicki defeats fate from behind his wheel
No person in their right mind would have bet a dollar on the small and quiet Polish driver to win multiple races that season. He started the year with a hit after he was only given a provisional spot to start from the last row in the Daytona 500.
However, he rallied forward to finish the race in fourth place. It was his way of telling the world not to underestimate him. Just in case a few hadn’t heard him, he won at Bristol a few short weeks later to send the message again.
He cruised through the season with another win, in Pocono, and plenty of great results. But he still trailed the points leader Bill Elliott by 278 points with six races left to go. This was a mountain to climb.
But, once again, he had a chance encounter with Lady Luck who sent mechanical issues the way of Elliott in the next few races. And so, everything came down to the final race of the season. Six drivers including him, Elliott, and Johnson had a shot at the title in Atlanta.
The 1992 Hooters 500 is considered to be one of the greatest races ever to this day. Notably, it was the debut race of Jeff Gordon and the final race of Richard Petty. Over the course of 328 laps, four of the six championship contenders got knocked out and the final battle came down to Elliott and Kulwicki.
The duo were engaged in a tough fight at the end of which the former won the race. However, Kulwicki led a single lap more. This gave him five bonus points and he ended up getting crowned as the champion with a 10-point lead over Elliott. The upset stands tall as the greatest points deficit overcome in history.
Kulwicki once said, “If you don’t believe, you don’t belong.” He proved to the world when the sun set that day, he belonged in the sport. A Northerner breaking into the molds of stock car racing and winning a championship. Foundations were shaken and a new order was born.
But God didn’t grant him the pleasure of wallowing in his achievement for long. A plane crash en route to Kingsport took him from us on April 1, 1993, at the young age of 38.
He was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002. His name found itself on the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019.
The world hails his memory not willing to forget the abrupt manner in which he left it. But his job here was done. The prince came, he conquered, and he left. Thirty years on, we still wait for a driver who can live up to his scientific mastery of the car.
