1992 Coca-Cola 600

Race details
Race 10 of 29 in the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1992 Coca-Cola 600 program cover, with artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	May 24, 1992
Official name	33rd Annual Coca-Cola 600
Location	Concord, North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.5 mi (2.41 km)
Distance	400 laps, 600 mi (965.606 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 600 mi (965.606 km)
Average speed	132.98 miles per hour (214.01 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Bill Elliott	Junior Johnson & Associates
Time	30.773
Most laps led
Driver	Kyle Petty	SABCO Racing
Laps	141
Winner
No. 3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The 1992 Coca-Cola 600 was the 10th stock car race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 33rd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, May 24, 1992, in Concord, North Carolina, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent quad-oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete. At race's end, Richard Childress Racing driver Dale Earnhardt would manage to make a late-race pass with 54 to go for the lead to take his 53rd career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Ernie Irvan and SABCO Racing driver Kyle Petty would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Charlotte Motor Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports complex located in Concord, North Carolina, United States 13 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina. The complex features a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) quad oval track that hosts NASCAR racing including the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend and the NEXTEL All-Star Challenge, as well as the UAW-GM Quality 500. The speedway was built in 1959 by Bruton Smith and is considered the home track for NASCAR with many race teams located in the Charlotte area. The track is owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) with Marcus G. Smith (son of Bruton Smith) as track president.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Wednesday, May 20, at 3:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Thursday, May 21, at 2:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,^[3] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.

Bill Elliott, driving for Junior Johnson & Associates, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.773 and an average speed of 175.479 miles per hour (282.406 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Six drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Davey Allison 1,564 2 Bill Elliott 1,453 (-111) 3 Harry Gant 1,444 (-120) 4 Alan Kulwicki 1,432 (–132) 1 5 Dale Earnhardt 1,420 (–144) 1 6 Terry Labonte 1,378 (–186) 2 7 Morgan Shepherd 1,333 (–231) 8 Geoff Bodine 1,248 (–316) 1 9 Dick Trickle 1,245 (–319) 1 10 Mark Martin 1,217 (–347) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References