Alan Kulwicki started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series.
77 Facts About Alan Kulwicki
2.
Alan Kulwicki won the 1992 Winston Cup Championship by what was then the closest margin in NASCAR history.
3.
Alan Kulwicki died early in 1993 in a light aircraft accident and therefore never defended his championship.
4.
Alan Kulwicki was known for being a perfectionist and doing things his own way.
5.
Alan Kulwicki grew up in Greenfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee known for its Polish-American neighborhoods, near the Milwaukee Mile racetrack.
6.
Alan Kulwicki first raced on local tracks as an amateur while in college before becoming a full-time professional racer in 1980.
7.
Alan Kulwicki began his racing career as a 13-year-old kart racer.
8.
Alan Kulwicki's father built engines as the crew chief for Norm Nelson and Roger McCluskey's United States Automobile Club racecars.
9.
Alan Kulwicki started driving stock cars at the local level at the Hales Corners Speedway and Cedarburg Speedway dirt oval tracks.
10.
Alan Kulwicki moved from dirt tracks to paved tracks in 1977.
11.
Alan Kulwicki teamed up with racecar builder Greg Krieger to research, model, engineer and construct an innovative car with far more torsional stiffness than other late models.
12.
In 1978, Alan Kulwicki returned to Slinger; that same year he started racing a late model at Wisconsin International Raceway, finishing third in points in his rookie season at the track.
13.
In 1979, Alan Kulwicki began competing in regional to national level events sanctioned by the USAC Stock Car series and the American Speed Association, while remaining an amateur racer through 1980.
14.
In 1985, Alan Kulwicki sold most of his belongings, including his short track racing equipment, to move approximately 860 miles to the Charlotte area in North Carolina.
15.
Alan Kulwicki kept only a few things; his pickup truck was loaded to tow a trailer full of furniture and tools.
16.
Alan Kulwicki was described as very studious, hard working, no-nonsense and something of a loner.
17.
Alan Kulwicki frequently walked the garage area in his racing uniform carrying a briefcase.
18.
Alan Kulwicki made his first career Winston Cup start at Richmond on September 8,1985, for Bill Terry's No 32 Hardee's Ford team.
19.
Alan Kulwicki had difficulty acquiring and keeping crew members because he found it difficult to trust them to do the job with the excellence that he demanded and because he was hands-on in the maintenance of racecars to the point of being a "control freak".
20.
Alan Kulwicki sought out crew members who had owned their own racecars, believing they would understand what he was going through: working long hours and performing his own car maintenance with a very limited budget.
21.
Alan Kulwicki finished 21st in the Winston Cup points standings for the season.
22.
Alan Kulwicki picked up his first career pole position in the season's third race, at Richmond.
23.
Alan Kulwicki came close to winning his first Winston Cup race at Pocono, finishing second after winner Dale Earnhardt passed him on the last lap.
24.
In 1988 Alan Kulwicki hired Paul Andrews as his crew chief after Andrews was recommended by Rusty Wallace at the 1987 NASCAR Awards banquet.
25.
That year Alan Kulwicki won his first NASCAR Winston Cup race in the season's second-to-last race at Phoenix International Raceway after race leader Ricky Rudd's car had motor problems late in the race.
26.
Alan Kulwicki finished 14th in the Winston Cup points standings for the season.
27.
Alan Kulwicki started his own engine-building program for the 1989 season.
28.
Alan Kulwicki declined, stating that he was more interested in running his own team.
29.
Alan Kulwicki received an offer from Junior Johnson, this time for $1 million, but as he had before he rejected the overture.
30.
Part of the reason for Alan Kulwicki's decision was tied to a sponsorship deal with Kraft General Foods to carry the company's Maxwell House Coffee brand, which had yet to be finalized.
31.
Johnson, angry at being spurned again by Alan Kulwicki, then went to Maxwell House himself and obtained the sponsorship for his new car, which Sterling Marlin was hired to drive instead.
32.
Alan Kulwicki was forced to begin the season without a sponsor, paying all of the team's expenses out of his own pocket.
33.
Alan Kulwicki went on to finish in eighth place, climbing from 27th.
34.
Alan Kulwicki then finished fifth at Richmond and seventeenth at Rockingham, running a plain white car carry only his team's insignia on it.
35.
The next race, the Motorcraft Quality Parts 500, was at Atlanta, and Alan Kulwicki caught a break that would result in a long-term partnership.
36.
Since Hooters executives desired a spot in the race, and Alan Kulwicki needed a sponsor, both sides met to discuss terms for the polesitter.
37.
The principals agreed to at least a one-race deal, which became a much longer term deal when Alan Kulwicki recorded an eighth-place finish in the race.
38.
Later in the season, Alan Kulwicki won the Bristol night race for his third career win.
39.
Alan Kulwicki started out the year by having to take one of two provisional starting positions at the Daytona 500; he ended up finishing fourth.
40.
Alan Kulwicki did not and remained in the top 5 in the series standings.
41.
However, Alan Kulwicki was able to benefit from bad fortune that would befall Elliott in the weeks ahead.
42.
Alan Kulwicki followed that up with a twelfth-place run at North Wilkesboro, a second place at Charlotte, and another twelfth-place finish at Rockingham.
43.
Allison won the race, retaking the points lead, but Alan Kulwicki's performance left him within striking distance of the points lead.
44.
Alan Kulwicki had finished fourth in the spring race won by Elliott.
45.
Alan Kulwicki needed to outpace both Elliott and Allison and put as much distance as he could between the two drivers because he not only had to make up the thirty points on points leader Allison, but needed to put distance between himself and Elliott, who trailed him by only ten points.
46.
Alan Kulwicki narrowly avoided an incident on the second lap of the race as front row starters Rick Mast and Brett Bodine spun out.
47.
Alan Kulwicki got a push start from his crew and upshifted into fourth gear, which enabled him to refire the car and head back out.
48.
However, despite the possibility for more caution periods, Alan Kulwicki would have to pit at some point to get enough fuel in the car to make it to the advertised distance.
49.
Once the race resumed, Alan Kulwicki was able to maintain his lead on Elliott despite the best efforts of the latter.
50.
On lap 310, after leading 101 consecutive laps and 103 overall, Alan Kulwicki came down pit road for a fuel-only stop.
51.
Alan Kulwicki came back onto the track in third place, behind front runner Elliott and second place Terry Labonte.
52.
Alan Kulwicki had not fully secured the five bonus points for leading the most laps, since Elliott had an opportunity to tie Kulwicki's total.
53.
Alan Kulwicki was told that he had clinched the five extra points several laps later.
54.
Andrews warned him of the fuel relay issue and told Alan Kulwicki to conserve whatever fuel he could as no one knew for certain whether or not Gibson had done the job.
55.
Alan Kulwicki was running in second, far enough ahead of third place Geoff Bodine that he was not a factor, and thus all he had to do was hold position in order to win the championship.
56.
Elliott won the race and Alan Kulwicki stretched his fuel to finish second.
57.
Alan Kulwicki won the 1992 Winston Cup Championship by maintaining his 10-point lead over Elliott.
58.
Alan Kulwicki celebrated the championship with his second Polish victory lap.
59.
Always conscious of his appearance for potential sponsors, Alan Kulwicki combed his hair, making a national television audience wait for him to emerge from his car.
60.
Alan Kulwicki won the championship because of his consistent high finishes.
61.
Alan Kulwicki was the last owner-driver to win the title for nearly two decades, the first Cup champion with a college degree, and the first Cup champion born in a northern state.
62.
Alan Kulwicki started from the pole position six times during the season, which was the most for any driver.
63.
Alan Kulwicki did not significantly change his spending habits after winning the 1992 championship.
64.
The Swearingen Merlin III twin turboprop Alan Kulwicki leased was painted with Hooters livery, and its FAA registry changed from N300EF to N300AK.
65.
Alan Kulwicki had concerns about how often he was being allowed to use the airplane he had leased, and other financial concerns he wanted to bring up with his sponsor, Hooters.
66.
Alan Kulwicki died in an airplane crash on Thursday April 1,1993.
67.
Alan Kulwicki was returning from an appearance at the Knoxville Hooters on the Kingston Pike, in a Hooters corporate plane on a short flight across Tennessee before the Sunday spring race at Bristol.
68.
Alan Kulwicki was buried at St Adalbert's Cemetery in Milwaukee; the funeral was attended by NASCAR President Bill France Jr.
69.
Alan Kulwicki's car was driven by road course specialist Tommy Kendall on road courses and by Jimmy Hensley at the other tracks.
70.
Alan Kulwicki had been selected to compete in the 1993 International Race of Champions series as the reigning Winston Cup champion.
71.
Davey Allison died on July 13,1993; competitors who had been carrying a No 7 sticker in memory of Alan Kulwicki added a No 28 sticker for Allison.
72.
Alan Kulwicki finished 41st in the final points standings despite competing in only five races.
73.
In October 2009, the Alan Kulwicki family donated nearly $1.9 million to benefit motorsports engineering education at UNC Charlotte.
74.
Alan Kulwicki was posthumously inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002.
75.
Alan Kulwicki was inducted in the Lowe's Motor Speedway Court of Legends in 1993, the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993, Talladega-Texaco Hall of Fame in 1996, Bristol Motor Speedway Heroes of Bristol Hall of Fame in 1997, the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2010.
76.
Alan Kulwicki was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019.
77.
The book was the basis for a low-budget feature film, Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story, released on April 1,2005.