The 1992 Champion Spark Plug 400 was the 19th stock car race of the

1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series file:Bill Elliott Champion 1985.jpg, Bill Elliott finished second in the championship. The 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series was the 44th season of Winston Cup Series, professional stock car racing in the United States and the 21st modern-era Cu ...

season and the 23rd iteration of the

event Event may refer to: Gatherings of people * Ceremony, an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion * Convention (meeting), a gathering of individuals engaged in some common interest * Event management, the organization of eve ...

. The race was held on Sunday, August 16, 1992, before an audience of 95,000 in

Brooklyn, Michigan Brooklyn is a village in Jackson County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,313 at the 2020 census. It is located in the Irish Hills region of southern Michigan, just north of U.S. Route 12 along M-50. The village is located w ...

, at

Michigan International Speedway Michigan International Speedway (formerly named as the Michigan Speedway from 1997 to 2000) is a D-shaped oval superspeedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. It has hosted various major auto racing series throughout its existence, including NASCAR, Cham ...

, a two-mile (3.2 km) moderate-banked D-shaped

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

. The race took the scheduled 200 laps to complete. Depending on fuel mileage, Leo Jackson Motorsports driver

Harry Gant Harold Phil Gant"Harry P. Gant"
(born January 10, 1940) is an American former

NASCAR Winston Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

victory and his second and final victory of the season. To fill out the top three, owner-driver

Darrell Waltrip Darrell Lee Waltrip (born February 5, 1947) is an American motorsports Color analyst, analyst, author as well as a former national television broadcaster and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series (known as the NAS ...

and

Junior Johnson & Associates Junior Johnson & Associates (formerly Johnson Hodgdon Racing) was a NASCAR team that ran in the Winston Cup Series from 1953 to 1995. The team was run by former driver Junior Johnson and was best known for fielding cars for legendary talents such ...

driver

Bill Elliott William Clyde Elliott Sr. (born October 8, 1955), also known as "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville", "Million Dollar Bill", or "Wild Bill" is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the Superstar Racing Experienc ...

would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

Michigan_International_Speedway_track_map

The race was held at Michigan International Speedway, a two-mile (3.2 km) moderate-banked D-shaped

located in

. The track is used primarily for

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

events. It is known as a "sister track" to

Texas World Speedway Texas World Speedway (TWS) was a motorsport venue located in College Station, Texas. The track was one of only eight superspeedways of or greater in the United States used for racing, the others being Indianapolis, Daytona, Pocono, Talladega ...

as MIS's oval design was a direct basis of TWS, with moderate modifications to the banking in the corners, and was used as the basis of

Auto Club Speedway Auto Club Speedway (known as California Speedway before and after the 2008–2023 corporate sponsorship by the Automobile Club of Southern California) was a , D-shaped oval superspeedway in unincorporated San Bernardino County, California, ne ...

. The track is owned by

International Speedway Corporation International Speedway Corporation (ISC) was a corporation whose primary business was the ownership and management of motorsports race tracks. ISC was founded by NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. in 1953 for the construction of Daytona International ...

. Michigan International Speedway is recognized as one of motorsports' premier facilities because of its wide racing surface and high banking (by open-wheel standards; the 18-degree banking is modest by stock car standards).

Entry list

* (R) denotes rookie driver.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, August 14, at 3:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 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, August 15, at 10:30 AM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time, 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 Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and "the Polish Prince", was an American auto racing driver and team owner. He started racing at local Short track motor racing, short tracks in Wisconsin bef ...

, driving for his own AK Racing team, would win the pole, setting a time of 40.405 and an average speed of in the first round. No drivers would fail to qualify.

Full qualifying results

Race results

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings *Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References

{{1992 Winston Cup

Champion Spark Plug 400 Stock car races events in the NASCAR Cup Series have been held annually at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan since 1969. The race, currently known as FireKeepers Casino 400 for sponsorship reasons, is currently held as a 200 ...

NASCAR races at Michigan International Speedway August 1992 sports events in the United States