Kulwicki's influence is still felt, both in the garage, and on occassion, with a "Polish Victory Lap" tribute. (Photos: Getty Images)

When the race began, a panicked Roberts realized that the spotter's stand under the press box on the frontstretch was useless, so he ran to the tall hill east of the track overlooking turns 3 and 4 and spent the race spotting from among the race fans and Saguaro cacti.

It was there that Roberts first received word that the engine in leader Ricky Rudd's car was failing late in the race. "I told him just to ease it by," Roberts recalls telling Kulwicki on the radio. And Kulwicki did exactly that. Rudd had led 183 laps in his Kenny Bernstein-owned Buick, and Kulwicki led only 41. But Kulwicki led the only lap that paid the money, the 312th and final circuit around the 1.0-mile PIR oval. His margin of victory was an astonishing 18.5 seconds, with the win worth $54,100, in those days a small fortune.

It had taken Alan Kulwicki 85 races and nearly three full seasons to win his first NASCAR Winston Cup race. And he had had more than enough time to plan how he was going to celebrate it. Months earlier, his friend and mentor H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, then general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway had told him that when he finally wins his first race to do something original and make his mark.

And that mark would forever come to be known as the Polish victory lap. Cars race counterclockwise, but Kulwicki went slowly around PIR in a clockwise direction, so the fans could see his face and he could see theirs.' It was a stroke of sheer genius.

"He told me months before that he was going to do this," Roberts said. "He was scared to death that NASCAR was going to really come down on him, maybe even take the victory away from him."

"He had wanted to do something special and something different for his first win and only his first," Andrews recalled. "That's why he didn't do it the next time he had won. When it came time to do it, he was worried that he might be in trouble with NASCAR. But he decided to take the chance and go ahead and do it, and everybody loved it. It was really cool."

Indeed it was. Kulwicki's Polish Victory Lap made headlines from coast to coast and it ensured that even though the race itself wasn't exactly riveting, the event was a huge success.

"The first race in Phoenix has to go down in NASCAR lore as one of its greatest moments," said Waid, the journalist. "Not one of the greatest races, but certainly one of the most memorable." And, he added, it laid the groundwork for the donuts, burnouts and post-race parties that race winners would do in years to come. "I guarantee you none of that - and I mean none of that - would have ever happened without Alan doing the Polish victory lap," Waid said.

"That was Alan all over," said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton, who in 1988 was the crew chief for Jack Roush's first-year Winston Cup team and driver Mark Martin. "Alan marched to a different beat than most, and that was just typical."

As for Kulwicki, he was understandably ebullient in victory lane. "It's been a long road and it's taken a lot of hard work to get here," he told Grand National Scene. "But this has made it all worthwhile. When you work for something so hard for so long, you wonder if it's going to be worth all of the anticipation. Believe me, it certainly was.

"And what do you think of my Polish victory lap? There will never be another first win and you know, everybody sprays champagne or stands up on the car. I wanted to do something different for the fans."

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There would be but two more Polish victory laps ever done by Kulwicki and his team. The first would be when he captured his only championship in the final race of the 1992 season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he won the title by leading one more lap than Bill Elliott, which gave him five bonus points for leading the most laps.

The second would be less than half a year later, in April 1993, when Peter Jellen drove Kulwicki's hauler clockwise around Bristol Motor Speedway just hours after Kulwicki was killed in the crash of a small plane near the Tennessee track in one of NASCAR's saddest days.

And although Kulwicki is no longer here, his influence is still felt in the Nextel Cup garage, where many of his former crew members have gone on to succeed with other teams.

And for those few who were with him in Phoenix in 1988, the memories are indelible. "It was so emotional," said Roberts, smiling just a little as he recalled that first victory. "We had the damnedest party that night."