Reigning Cup champion Chase Elliott‘s scheme for Darlington Raceway’s annual throwback weekend will pay tribute to the late 1992 Cup champion Alan Kulwicki.
Chase Elliott’s car will mimic Kulwicki’s No. 7 Hooters Ford Thunderbird that the Wisconsin native drove to the 1992 championship in dramatic fashion.
Entering the 1992 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Kulwicki and Chase’s father, Bill Elliott, were among six drivers with a shot at winning the title.
But in the end, it was settled between Kulwicki and Bill Elliott. The latter won the race at his home track, but Kulwicki finished second to clinch the title. Kulwicki was aided by leading one more lap than Bill Elliott, 103-102, which earned Kulwicki a critical five-point bonus.
On April 1, 1993, Kulwicki and three others were killed in a plane crash near Blountville, Tennessee ahead of that weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kulwicki would be the last owner/driver to be a Cup champion for nearly two decades, until Tony Stewart’s triumph for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2011.
Darlington will celebrate its throwback weekend May 7-9. The weekend had been celebrated alongside the Southern 500 since that race’s return to Labor Day weekend in 2015.
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Chase Elliott’s Darlington throwback to honor Alan Kulwicki originally appeared on NBCSports.com