From: pmh2962@tamsun.tamu.edu (Pat Hayes)
Subject: Only 92 days left til ....... Daytona! <spoilers -- NASCAR>
Organization: Meteorology, TAMU, CS, TX
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 1992 22:35:36 GMT

Howdy!
	May I borrow some fingernails, please?
<results of Hooters 500 follow>

	Wow!  What a race!  I have to stop and catch my breath.

	Sad day for Mark Martin and, most of all, Davey Allison.
Mark arguably had the car to beat, he pulled another of his first-
to-worst-to-first; then lost something in his TBird's engine.
	Davey was steadily 'surviving' the run in around 9th
position when Ernie Irvan, all by himself, lost the rear end on
the 4 car and spun -- taking Davey out. Davey had been rapped
in the rear by Hut Stricklin earlier, but was able to continue
in lead-lap form. The Havoline crew patched the 28 car back
together to run a couple laps, but the championship was lost.
	Harry Gant had the flu -- he ran in the second 5 most
of the day, got as high as third once. I think Harry finished
on the lead lap?
	Kyle ran well early, but got a lap down after his first
green flag stop, when the TBirds of Elliot, Martin, and Kulwicki
stayed out to catch a lucky CAUTION FLAG. Late in the race Kyle
lost something in the motor (looked like the smoke job Bill laid
down at Phoenix).
	It came down to Kulwicki and Elliot. Elliot led a lot of
laps after Martin fell out -- with Alan right behind in second.
Kulwicki tried several times to pass, got up alongside Bill,
but just couldn't get by. Alan lost first gear while exiting
the pits on his first pitstop, he lost time to Elliot on every
stop after that. But the Hooters car appeared a tad faster
and always made up the difference on the track.
	Kulwicki got a good set of tires near mid-race and
blew by Bill, who got a set of tires that wasn't as good
until they had a bunch of laps on 'em.  Bill dropped way back
to about 7th, but then moved back up to 2nd after 30-40 
green-flag laps. It became evident (the ESPN guys didn't
pick this up til later) that the Bill and Alan were
gonna finish 1-2 (or 2-1) and the championship was gonna
come down to who got the 5 points for leading the most
laps. During Alan's lead-run, Bill had led 85 laps, 
and Alan steadily added to _his_ number. 50 ... 60 ...
70 ... then some cars started pitting for gas. Bodine,
in 5th, then Wallace, in 3rd. Kulwicki was supposed
to stop around 302. He motored on by. 80 ...
	The ESPN guys were certain Kulwicki would
run himself outta gas. 85 ... Kulwicki kept leading
until around lap 310, then he came in for a gas-n-go.
Elliot took the lead for a couple laps, then came in
for his gas-n-go, had an excellent stop, and came
out ahead of Kulwicki! But -- he didn't have the lead,
'cause Terry Labonte still hadn't stopped and had
taken over the lead. Kulwicki ran in the position
behind Elliot, and had made sure he stayed out leading
laps so that when he came in, Elliot couldn't get
get the lead and get more laps-led than Alan. Smart!
And ....
	It worked! Labonte pitted, Bill took the lead,
hung on to win the race, Kulwicki hung on to finish
2nd in the race -- and won his 1st WC championship!

	Way to go, Alan!

BTW, Geoff Bodine finished 3rd, Jimmy Spencer did well. I
don't recall the rest of the race finish. The King was
taken out in a "blaze" of glory, as the TV guys so aptly
put it. A couple cars tangle on the front stretch and
Richard smacked the rear of the quickly-stopping car in
front of Richard. Clipped the 43 car's oil cooler, put
oil on the headers and Woosh! Fire on the 43 car! Richard
coolly (!) drove over, on fire, over to a handy fire truck
to get "curdside service" to get the fire put out!
Great job by the STP crew to get Richard patched up and
back out in time to circle the track for the last two laps!
Very cool! And after the race, Richard drove a special
farewell-victory lap, waved farewell to all the fans,
and took that last checkered flag of his driving career.
Not a dry eye in the house.

	Whew! What a race, what a season! And, yep, only
92 more days to Daytona! Can't wait ......... 


-- 
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Pat Hayes, Meteorology, Texas A&M University...<whoop!>...phayes@tamu.edu 
O&M 1008, TAMU, CS, TX 77843-3150....days:(409)845-1680 fax:(409)845-6331 
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport