1992 Tyson Holly Farms 400

Race details
Race 25 of 29 in the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1992 Tyson Holly Farms 400 program cover, featuring Dale Earnhardt.
Date	October 5, 1992
Official name	43rd Annual Tyson Holly Farms 400
Location	North Wilkesboro Speedway, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.625 mi (1.006 km)
Distance	400 laps, 250 mi (402.336 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 250 mi (402.336 km)
Average speed	107.36 miles per hour (172.78 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Alan Kulwicki	AK Racing
Time	19.209
Most laps led
Driver	Geoff Bodine	Bud Moore Engineering
Laps	181
Winner
No. 15	Geoff Bodine	Bud Moore Engineering
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett, Benny Parsons
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1992 Tyson Holly Farms 400 was the 25th stock car race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 43rd iteration of the event. The race was originally scheduled to be held on Sunday, October 4, 1992, but was delayed to Monday, October 5 due to rain.^[1] The race was held in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina at the North Wilkesboro Speedway, a 0.625 miles (1.006 km) oval short track. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete. At the race's end, Bud Moore Engineering driver Geoff Bodine would manage to dominate a majority of the race to take his 14th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.^[2][3] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and SABCO Racing driver Kyle Petty would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of North Wilkesboro Speedway, the venue where the race was held.

North Wilkesboro Speedway is a short oval racetrack located on U.S. Route 421, about five miles east of the town of North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, or 80 miles north of Charlotte. It measures 0.625 mi (1.006 km) and features a unique uphill backstretch and downhill frontstretch. It has previously held races in NASCAR's top three series, including 93 Winston Cup Series races. The track, a NASCAR original, operated from 1949, NASCAR's inception, until the track's original closure in 1996. The speedway briefly reopened in 2010 and hosted several stock car series races before closing again in the spring of 2011. It was re-opened in August 2022 for grassroots racing.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, October 2, at 3:00 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 15 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 Saturday, October 3, at 11:00 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 16-30 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 19.209 and an average speed of 117.133 miles per hour (188.507 km/h) in the first round.^[5]

Jimmy Means was the only driver to fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Bill Elliott 3,575 2 Davey Allison 3,508 (-67) 3 Alan Kulwicki 3,431 (-144) 4 Harry Gant 3,408 (–167) 5 Mark Martin 3,382 (–193) 6 Kyle Petty 3,364 (–211) 7 Ricky Rudd 3,254 (–321) 8 Darrell Waltrip 3,242 (–333) 1 9 Rusty Wallace 3,165 (–410) 1 10 Terry Labonte 3,134 (–441) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References