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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
SPEED To Revisit 1992 Hooters 500 In One-Hour Special Thursday
SPEED and NASCAR Media Group chronicle 1992 Hooters 500 at 8 p.m. ET...
Megan Englehart  |  Posted September 01, 2011   Charlotte, NC
Alan Kulwicki's 1992 Winston Cup title win came down to the final race of the season, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta, where his second place finish behind Bill Elliott earned him the Cup championship. (Photo: Getty Images)
SPEED™ AND NASCAR MEDIA GROUP CHRONICLE 1992 HOOTERS 500, ONE OF NASCAR’S MOST DRAMATIC SEASON FINALES

ONE-HOUR DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES THURSDAY AT 8 P.M. ET

1992 HOOTERS 500 SPECIAL IS THIRD IN THE DAY SERIES

Gibson: “Here is this group of guys that pushed lawn mowers in and out all day long, and we go out and win this championship. It'll never be done like that again.”

Ask most NASCAR fans and industry insiders to name the best NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points battle in history and you’ll likely hear the 1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

That memorable season finale had it all – six drivers with a mathematical chance of clinching the title, a nail-biting race considered one of the best of all time, the sport’s closest championship points margin to-date, the points leader’s crash into a spinning car, Richard Petty’s final NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start and Jeff Gordon's debut with a less-than-championship-caliber pit crew.

With all eyes on who will move a step closer to realizing their own championship dreams this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway with two races remaining to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, SPEED and NASCAR Media Group will flash back to the track’s 1992 Hooters 500 in a one-hour special premiering Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on SPEED.

The Day: 1992 Hooters 500, produced by Emmy Award-winning NASCAR Media Group, relives the legendary Nov. 15, 1992 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, known as one of the most dramatic days in NASCAR history. The series championship went down to the wire that afternoon with six drivers in mathematical contention for the championship at the green flag. Davey Allison, Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki were the frontrunners, but Harry Gant, Kyle Petty and Mark Martin were still in the hunt, although not for long.

“There were more stories going on in that single day of racing than one can count,” said SPEED EVP of Programming and Production Patti Wheeler. “There was the King Richard Petty's last race and the ‘Wonderboy’ Jeff Gordon's debut, plus an epic battle for the championship that came down to the season finale between Bill Elliott, Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison, just to name three. An entire season of storylines played out in one race.”

The program, third in a series that began in February with The Day: Remembering Dale Earnhardt, tells the story of NASCAR’s closest championship battle and quite possibly its greatest race through the eyes of Petty, Gordon, Larry McReynolds, Tim Brewer, Peter Jellen, Paul Andrews, Tony Gibson, Ryan Pemberton, Ray Evernham and Robbie Loomis.

“Telling great stories, past, present and future, is what NASCAR Media Group is all about,” said Jay Abraham, chief operating officer of NASCAR Media Group. “And if you’re a sports fan, a championship battle that comes down to the last event of the season makes for a great story. As this year’s Race to the Chase winds down and NASCAR’s points battle heats up, we’ll look back at the 1992 Hooters 500, giving fans an inside look at what many remember to be the greatest championship points battle of all time.”

The special chronicles Allison’s roller coaster streak of “checkers or wreckers;” Junior Johnson’s powerhouse No. 11 team led by Elliott and crew chief Brewer, who won the race but lost the title by 10 points to Kulwicki; the race-long points swing among the contenders; and underdog Kulwicki and his No. 7 crew utilizing pit strategy to lead one more lap than Elliott, thus claiming the crucial five bonus points for most laps led en route to grabbing the championship.

“We were the underdogs, we were the underbirds and we did it,” said Tony Gibson, car chief for Kulwicki, in The Day: 1992 Hooters 500. “We went out and beat these guys with multi-million dollar sponsorships, and here is this group of guys that pushed lawn mowers in and out all day long, and we go out and win this championship. It'll never be done like that again …”

“The only part that I really fit into was that I didn't want to screw their day up,” Gordon said in the SPEED special. “They were battling for a championship so I didn't want to interfere with that, so that was definitely a message that was clear to me.”

“We were the keystone cops on pit road really,” said Ray Evernham, Gordon’s crew chief. “It was a tough day. We left a roll of duct tape (on the hood) and it fell off on the track … and Davey Allison and them had to fix the air dam. I thought to myself, ‘Of all people to hit this roll of duct tape,’ and I think Jeff finally spun again and it was really not our finest hour. What it did was prepare us for going into the following year … We were so scared after we left that place we worked our butts off all winter to make sure we were better prepared so it was absolutely the right thing because we had no idea how much we didn't know.”

The Day: 1992 Hooters 500 also examines how TV producers orchestrated network coverage of the unprecedented title chase and kept up with the ever-changing points fluctuation throughout the 500-mile race.

About SPEED™
SPEED, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in nearly 84 million homes in North America, SPEED, a member of the FOX Sports Media Group, is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services, including SPEED2, a groundbreaking new broadband network featuring live, streaming and on-demand events complementing offerings of the linear network. For more information, please visit SPEED.com, the online motor sports authority.

About FOX Sports Media Group
FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) is the umbrella entity representing News Corporation’s wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets under Chairman & CEO David Hill. Built with brands that are capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, FSMG includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships. FSMG now includes FOX Sports, the sports television arm of the FOX Broadcasting Company; Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, their affiliated regional web sites and FSN national programming; SPEED and SPEED2; Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus; FUEL TV; and Fox College Sports. In addition, FSMG also includes FOX Sports Interactive Media, which comprises FOXSports.com on MSN, whatifsports.com and scout.com, reaching over 20 million unique visitors monthly. Also included are Fox’s interests in joint-venture businesses FOX Deportes, Big Ten Network and STATS, LLC, as well as licensing agreements that establish the FOX Sports Radio Network, FOX Sports Skybox restaurants and FOX Sports Grills.

About NASCAR Media Group
NASCAR Media Group is a media, marketing and entertainment company that creates and produces programming related to the sport, manages its media partnerships, and forges relationships to integrate the sport into mainstream entertainment. As the internal production and creative media services company of NASCAR, NASCAR Media Group is the exclusive rights holder of NASCAR event footage, race data and content. Award-winning NASCAR Media Group leverages The Sight, Sound and Emotion of NASCAR through TV and film production, home video, licensed consumer products and premiums for the sports' sponsors, tracks, teams and fans. To learn more, visit www.nascarmediagroup.com.
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