1992 Mello Yello 500

Race details
Race 26 of 29 in the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1992 Mello Yello 500 program cover, featuring Richard Petty. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	October 11, 1992
Official name	33rd Annual Mello Yello 500
Location	Concord, North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.5 mi (2.41 km)
Distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Scheduled Distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Average speed	153.537 miles per hour (247.094 km/h)
Attendance	162,500
Pole position
Driver	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing
Time	30.163
Most laps led
Driver	Kyle Petty	SABCO Racing
Laps	129
Winner
No. 6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The 1992 Mello Yello 500 was the 26th stock car race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 33rd iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 11, 1992, before an audience of 162,500 in Concord, North Carolina, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent quad-oval. The race took the scheduled 334 laps to complete. At race's end, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin would manage to make a late-race pass on eventual second-place finisher, owner-driver Alan Kulwicki with 32 laps to go to take his seventh career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, SABCO Racing driver Kyle Petty would finish third.

With poor finishes from the top two in the driver's championship standings, those being Bill Elliott and Davey Allison, the points battle had tightened to extreme margins, with the top five in the driver's championship all being within 100 points within the leader with three races left in the season, the first time of such an occurrence in NASCAR history.^[3]

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, October 7, at 5:00 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, October 8, at 1:30 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,^[4] 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.

Alan Kulwicki, driving for his own AK Racing team, would win the pole, setting a time of 30.163 and an average speed of 179.027 miles per hour (288.116 km/h) in the first round.^[5]

Five drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Bill Elliott 3,653 2 Davey Allison 3,614 (-39) 3 Alan Kulwicki 3,606 (-47) 1 4 Mark Martin 3,562 (–91) 1 5 Harry Gant 3,555 (–98) 6 Kyle Petty 3,539 (–114) 7 Ricky Rudd 3,409 (–244) 8 Darrell Waltrip 3,303 (–350) 3 9 Ernie Irvan 3,263 (–390) 10 Terry Labonte 3,261 (–392) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References