1992 Daytona 500 By STP

Race details
Race 1 of 29 in the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1992 Daytona 500 program cover, featuring Ernie Irvan.
Date	February 16, 1992
Official name	34th Annual Daytona 500 By STP
Location	Daytona Beach, Florida, Daytona International Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.0 km)
Distance	500 laps, 400 mi (804.672 km)
Scheduled Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Average speed	160.256 miles per hour (257.907 km/h)
Attendance	140,000
Pole position
Driver	Sterling Marlin	Junior Johnson & Associates
Time	46.823
Most laps led
Driver	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing
Laps	127
Winner
No. 28	Davey Allison	Robert Yates Racing
Television in the United States
Network	CBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett, Ned Jarrett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1992 Daytona 500 was the first stock car race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 34th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, February 16, 1992, before an audience of 140,000 in Daytona Beach, Florida at Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5 miles (4.0 km) permanent triangular-shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete.

Leading for over half of the race, Robert Yates Racing's Davey Allison managed to avoid a major wreck in the first half of the race that took out several contenders. Afterwards, Allison managed to dominate the latter stages of the race, leading the final 98 laps en route to his 14th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory, his first victory of the season, and his only career Daytona 500 victory.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Wood Brothers Racing's Morgan Shepherd and Bud Moore Engineering's Geoff Bodine finished second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Daytona International Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

Daytona International Speedway is one of three superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the other two being Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. The standard track at Daytona International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 31 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at 18 degrees.

Qualifying

Qualifying was set by the 1992 Gatorade Twin 125 Qualifiers. The top two positions were set by qualifying speeds held for the Twin 125 Qualifiers held on Sunday, February 9, with the top two qualifiers in the session earning the top two positions for the Daytona 500. The rest of the starting was set in the Twin 125 Qualifiers, held on Thursday, February 14, during two races. The top 14 finishers in the first race, excluding the pole position winner, set the inside row from rows two to 15, and the top 14 finishers in the second race, excluding the outside pole position winner, set the outside row from rows two to 15. The remaining non-qualifiers set positions 31-40 based on qualifying speeds from the first qualifying session held on Sunday. If needed, up to two extra provisionals were given to teams high enough in the previous season's owner's standings that did not qualify for the race by either qualifying speed or from the Twin 125 Qualifiers.

Sterling Marlin, driving for Junior Johnson & Associates, managed to win the pole, setting a time of 46.823 and an average speed of 192.213 miles per hour (309.337 km/h) in Sunday's session.^[3]

15 drivers failed to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Davey Allison 185 2 Morgan Shepherd 175 (-10) 3 Geoff Bodine 165 (-20) 4 Alan Kulwicki 160 (–25) 5 Dick Trickle 155 (–30) 6 Kyle Petty 150 (–35) 7 Terry Labonte 146 (–39) 8 Ted Musgrave 142 (–43) 9 Dale Earnhardt 138 (–47) 10 Phil Parsons 134 (–51) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References