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Alan Kulwicki
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Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and the "Polish Prince", was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) racecar driver. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget, and only a racecar and a borrowed pickup truck.
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Alan Dennis Kulwicki (December 14, 1954 – April 1, 1993), nicknamed "Special K" and the "Polish Prince", was an American NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) racecar driver. He started racing at local short tracks in Wisconsin before moving up to regional stock car touring series. Kulwicki arrived at NASCAR, the highest and most expensive level of stock car racing in the United States, with no sponsor, a limited budget, and only a racecar and a borrowed pickup truck. Despite starting with meager equipment and finances, he earned the 1986 NASCAR Rookie of the Year award over drivers racing for well-funded teams.
After Kulwicki won his first race at Phoenix International Raceway, he debuted what would become his trademark "Polish Victory Lap". Kulwicki won the 1992 Winston Cup championship by the then-closest margin in NASCAR history. He was unable to defend his championship because he died early in 1993 in a light aircraft accident. He has been inducted into numerous racing halls of fame and was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers.
Kulwicki was known for being a perfectionist and doing things his own way. An engineer by trade, his scientific approach to NASCAR racing inspires the way teams are now run.
He was insistent on driving for his own race team during most of his NASCAR career, despite lucrative offers from top car owners. Described by his publicist as "a real hard type of person to get to know", he remained a bachelor throughout his life.
Background
Alan Kulwicki grew up in Greenfield, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee known for its Polish-American neighborhoods, near the Milwaukee Mile racetrack. After his mother died, his family moved in with his grandmother, who died when Kulwicki was in seventh grade. A year later, his only brother died of a hemophilia-related illness. Kulwicki attended Pius XI High School, a Roman Catholic high school in Milwaukee, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1977. His knowledge of engineering is often cited as contributing to his success as a driver because it helped him better understand the physics of a racecar. He first raced on local racetracks as a hobby while in college before becoming a full-time professional racer in 1980. A devout Roman Catholic, Kulwicki always competed with a Saint Christopher devotional medal in his car.
Racing career
Early racing career
Kulwicki began his racing career as a 13-year-old kart racer. His father built engines for Norm Nelson and Roger McCluskey's United States Automobile Club (USAC) racecars. Because his father's work involved travel, he was unable to help Kulwicki at most kart races, so Kulwicki's resourcefulness was often tested trying to find someone to transport his kart to the track. When Kulwicki asked his father for advice, he typically ended up doing most of the work himself. "I showed him how", Gerry Kulwicki said. "And he said: 'Why don't you do it? You can do it better.' And I said, 'Well, if you do it for a while, you can do it better.'"
Many local-level American racetracks host their own season championships. Numerous locations in Wisconsin held dirt and asphalt short track racing. Kulwicki started racing stock cars at the local level at Hales Corners Speedway and Cedarburg Speedway dirt oval tracks. In 1973, he won the Rookie of the Year award at Hales Corners Speedway in the Milwaukee suburb of Franklin, and the next year started racing late models there. Late model cars are the fastest and most complicated type of stock cars raced on the local level. That season, he won his first feature race at Leo's Speedway in Oshkosh.
Kulwicki moved from dirt tracks to paved tracks in 1977. He also 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. The increased stiffness allowed the car to handle better in the corners, which increased its speed. Racing at Slinger Super Speedway, he won the track championship in 1977. In 1978, Kulwicki returned to Slinger; that same year he started racing a late model at Wisconsin International Raceway (WIR), finishing third in points in his rookie season at the track. In 1979 and 1980, he won the WIR late model track championships.
Kulwicki began competing in regional to national level events sanctioned by the USAC Stock Car series and the American Speed Association (ASA) in 1979, while remaining an amateur racer through 1980. When Kulwicki raced against future NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace in the ASA series, the two became friends. Kulwicki's highest finish in the ASA season points championship was third place, which he accomplished in both 1982 and 1985, with five career victories and twelve pole positions.
Winston Cup career
1980s
Kulwicki raced in four NASCAR Busch Grand National Series (now Nationwide Series) races in 1984. At the time, the Busch Grand National Series was considered NASCAR's feeder circuit, a proving ground for drivers who wished to step up to the organization's premiere circuit, the Winston Cup. It is comparable to Formula One's relationship with Formula 2/Formula 3000/GP2 Series. Kulwicki qualified second fastest and finished in second place at his first career NASCAR race, which took place at the Milwaukee Mile, several city blocks from where he grew up. Later that year, he finished seventh at Charlotte and fifth at Bristol. The following year, Kulwicki placed sixteenth in the season-opening Busch Series race at Daytona. Although he won the pole position at that year's event in Milwaukee, he finished fourteenth because of engine problems. Kulwicki's Busch Series successes caught car owner Bill Terry's eye and he offered Kulwicki a chance to race for him in a few Winston Cup events.
In 1985, Kulwicki sold most of his belongings (so that he could not change his mind), including his short track racing equipment, to move halfway across the nation to the Charlotte area in North Carolina. He kept only a few things; his pickup truck was loaded to tow a trailer full of furniture and tools. An electrical fire two days before he left destroyed his truck, so Kulwicki had to borrow one to pull the trailer. After arriving in the Charlotte area, he showed up unexpectedly at Terry's shop ready to race. Veteran NASCAR drivers were initially amused by Kulwicki's arrival on the national tour: He was a driver from the northern United States when the series was primarily a southern regional series, had an mechanical engineering degree when few other drivers had completed college, and with only six starts, had limited driving experience in the junior Busch series. Kulwicki was described as very studious, hard working, no-nonsense, and something of a loner. He frequently walked the garage area in his racing uniform carrying a briefcase. Kulwicki made his first career Winston Cup start at Richmond on September 8, 1985, for Bill Terry's #32/#35 Ford team sponsored by Hardee's. That season he competed in five races for Terry, with his highest finish being thirteenth.
Kulwicki started his rookie season in 1986 with Terry. After Terry decided to end support for his racing team mid-season, Kulwicki fielded his own team. He started out as essentially a one-man team in a time when other teams had dozens of people in supporting roles. Initially the driver, owner, crew chief, and chief mechanic, 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". He 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, all within a very limited budget. Notable crew members included his crew chief, Paul Andrews, and future Cup crew chiefs, Tony Gibson and Brian Whitesell. Future crew chief and owner, Ray Evernham, lasted six weeks with Kulwicki in 1992. Evernham later said, "The man was a genius. There's no question. It's not a matter of people just feeling like he was a genius. That man was a genius. But his personality paid for that. He was very impatient, very straightforward, very cut-to-the-bone." With one car, two engines, and two full-time crew members, Kulwicki won the 1986 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year award. He had competed in 23 of 29 events, with four Top 10 finishes, three Did Not Finishes (DNF), and an average finish of 15.4, ending only one race worse than 30th place.
For the 1987 season, Kulwicki secured primary sponsorship from Zerex Antifreeze and changed his car number to #7. He picked up his first career pole position in the season's third race at Richmond. Later that season, he again qualified fastest at Richmond and Dover. Kulwicki came close to winning his first Winston Cup race at Pocono, finishing second after winner Dale Earnhardt passed him on the last lap. With nine Top 10 finishes, eleven DNFs, and an average finish of 18.2 in 29 events, Kulwicki finished fifteenth in the Winston Cup points for the season.
In 1988, Kulwicki hired Paul Andrews as his crew chief after Andrews was recommended by Rusty Wallace at the 1987 NASCAR Awards banquet. That year 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. Kulwicki led 41 laps and won by 18.5 seconds. After the race finished, he turned his car around and made a Polish Victory Lap by driving the opposite way (clockwise) on the track, with the driver's side of the car facing the fans. "This gave me the opportunity to wave to the crowd from the driver's side", Kulwicki explained. Andrew recalled, "He had wanted to do something special and something different for his first win and only his first." He finished the 1988 season with four pole positions in 29 events, nine Top 10 finishes including two second place finishes, twelve DNFs, and an average finish of 19.2.
Kulwicki started his own engine-building program for the 1989 season, and the team suffered nine DNF results in sixteen races because of engine problems. He had four second place finishes that season and held the points lead after the fifth race of the season. In 29 races, he had six pole positions, nine Top 10 finishes, and finished fourteenth in season points. The team had a new workshop built during the season.
1990s
Junior Johnson, owner of one of the top NASCAR teams, approached Kulwicki at the beginning of the 1990 season to ask Kulwicki to drive one of his cars. Kulwicki declined, stating that he was more interested in running his own team. He won his second Cup race at Rockingham on October 21, 1990, and finished eighth in points that year, his first finish in the Top 10 points in a season. In 29 races, he had thirteen Top 10 finishes and one pole position.
Before the 1991 season, Zerex ended their sponsorship of Kulwicki's team. Johnson was expanding his operation to a two-car team and offered Kulwicki a ride in his second car. Kulwicki turned down Johnson's $1,000,000 offer, thinking that he had secured a sponsorship deal with Maxwell House coffee. Instead, Johnson ended up securing that sponsorship for his second team, so Kulwicki began the season without a sponsor, paying expenses out of his own pocket. At the opening race of the season, the 1991 Daytona 500, five cars raced with paint schemes representing different branches of the United States military to show support for the American forces involved in the Gulf War. It was the first use of special paint schemes in NASCAR history. Kulwicki's car was sponsored by the United States Army in a one-race deal. After running the second and third races of the season in a plain white unsponsored car, Kulwicki was approached by Hooters for a one-race sponsorship deal for the fourth race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Hooters had been sponsoring Mark Stahl's car, but Stahl did not qualify for the race. Kulwicki had qualified on the pole position for the upcoming race. Hooters and Kulwicki signed a one-race sponsorship agreement, followed by a long-term deal after Kulwicki finished eighth in the race. Later in the season, Kulwicki won the Bristol night race for his third career win. In 29 races, he had eleven Top 10 finishes, four poles, and finished thirteenth in the points.
1992 NASCAR Winston Cup championship
Kulwicki passed Dale Jarrett with 27 laps left at the Food City 500 race on April 5th at Bristol to take a narrow victory. It was his fourth Winston Cup victory. After that race, he never left the Top 5 in season points. Andrews attributed Kulwicki's consistently strong finishes to the steady performance of newly adopted radial tires throughout their lifespan. He said, "It was hard to control them, and the driver's ability to work with that car during practice in order to get the car set up meant so much more than it ever did." Kulwicki's only other victory in the season was at the first race at Pocono. Discounted as a contender for the season championship during the year, Kulwicki was expected to fade from contention. He qualified on the pole position for the Peak AntiFreeze 500 race on September 20 at Dover, but crashed early in the race and finished 34th.
Kulwicki was quite vocal that his 278-point deficit would probably be his undoing, and that the Dover race result would keep him from contending for the season title. He was quoted as saying, "This probably finishes us off in the championship deal." On October 11, Mark Martin had a narrow victory over Kulwicki at the Mello Yello 500 at Charlotte. For the second race in a row, points leader Bill Elliott had problems, which left six drivers within reach of the lead with three races left to go. Elliott had problems again at the second-to-last race, and his cracked cylinder head allowed race winner Davey Allison to take the points lead, with fourth place finisher Kulwicki second in season points and Elliott third.
The 1992 Hooters 500, the final race of the 1992 season, is considered one of the most eventful races in NASCAR history. It was the final race for Richard Petty and the first for Jeff Gordon. Six drivers were close enough in the points standings to win the championship that day. Allison led second-place Kulwicki by 30 points, Bill Elliott by 40, Harry Gant by 97, and Kyle Petty by 98 and needed to finish sixth or better to clinch the championship. Kulwicki received approval from NASCAR and Ford to change the "Thunderbird" lettering on his bumper for the race to "Underbird" because he felt like the underdog in the contention for the championship. Allison was racing in sixth place, closely behind Ernie Irvan, when Irvan's tire blew with 73 (of 328) laps left in the event. As a result, Allison ran into the side of Irvan's spinning car and was unable to continue. Kulwicki and Elliott were left to duel for the title. During Kulwicki's first pit stop, the first gear in the car's transmission broke. Andrews said, "We had to leave pit road in fourth gear, because we had broken metal parts in there, and only by leaving it in fourth are you not going to move metal around as much. We could only hope that the loose piece of metal didn't get in there and break the gears in half. We had three or four pit stops after it broke. I held my breath all day long." While leading late in the race, Andrews calculated the exact lap for his final pit stop so that Kulwicki would be guaranteed to lead the most laps and would gain five bonus points. Kulwicki made his final pit stop only after leading enough laps to guarantee the bonus points. To save time, the pit crew did a fuel-only pit stop. Not changing tires allowed them to be available to push the car to prevent it from stalling, since the car had to start moving in very high gear. Because the team's fuel man hurried to add the gasoline during the quick stop, he did not add the desired amount into the tank. As a result, Kulwicki had to conserve fuel to ensure that his car was still running at the end of the race. Elliott won the race and Kulwicki stretched his fuel to finish second. Kulwicki won the 1992 Winston Cup Championship by maintaining his 10-point lead over Elliott. He celebrated the championship with his second Polish Victory Lap. Always conscious of his appearance for potential sponsors, Kulwicki combed his hair, making a national television audience wait for him to emerge from his car.
Kulwicki had overcome the 278-point deficit in the final six races of the season by ending with a fifth, a fourth, and two second place finishes. Kulwicki won the championship because of his consistent high finishes. It was the closest title win in NASCAR Cup Series history until the implementation of the Chase for the Cup format in 2004. The championship was noteworthy for other reasons: Kulwicki was the last owner/driver to win the title, the first Cup champion with a college degree, and the first Cup champion born in a Northern state. The song that played during a short salute to Kulwicki at the year-end awards banquet was "My Way".
Championship honors
Kulwicki returned to his hometown, Greenfield, for Alan Kulwicki Day in January 1993. The gymnasium at Greenfield High School was filled and surrounded by four to five thousand people. Local television crews filmed the event. Kulwicki signed autographs for six hours.
In celebration of his championship, sponsor Hooters made a special "Alan Tribute Card" that was used at all of the autograph sessions during the 1993 season. Kulwicki did not change his spending habits after winning the 1992 championship. "The only thing I really wanted to buy was a plane", he said, "but it turns out Hooters has a couple I can use."
Death
Kulwicki died in an airplane crash on Thursday April 1, 1993. He was returning from an appearance at the Knoxville Hooters in a Hooters corporate plane on a short flight across Tennessee before the Sunday spring race at Bristol. The plane slowed and crashed just before final approach at Tri-Cities Regional Airport near Blountville. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to the pilot's failure to use the airplane's anti-ice system to clear ice from the engine inlet system.
Kulwicki was buried in his family plot at Saint Adalbert Cemetery in Milwaukee, as is traditional in this Polish-American cemetery. Kulwicki's racecar transporter was driven from the rainy track later that Friday morning while other teams and the media watched it travel slowly around the track with a black wreath on its grille. In 2008, Kyle Petty described the slow laps as "the saddest thing I've ever seen at a racetrack... We just sat and cried." He had competed in five NASCAR races that season with three Top 6 finishes, and was ranked ninth in points at his death. In his career, he had won five NASCAR Winston Cup races, 24 pole positions, 75 Top 10 finishes, and one championship in 207 races.
His car was driven by road course specialist Tommy Kendall on road courses and by Jimmy Hensley at the other tracks. It was raced for most of the 1993 season until the team was sold to Geoff Bodine, who operated it as Geoff Bodine Racing.
Kulwicki had been selected to compete in the 1993 International Race of Champions (IROC) series as the reigning Winston Cup champion. He competed in two IROC races before his death, finishing ninth at Daytona and eleventh at Darlington. Dale Earnhardt raced for Kulwicki in the final two IROC races, and the prize money for those races and their fifth place combined points finish was given to the Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxiliary, Brenner Children's Hospital and St. Thomas Aquinas Church charities.
Legacy
Three days after Kulwicki's death, Bristol race winner Rusty Wallace honored his former short track foe by performing Kulwicki's trademark Polish Victory Lap. After Davey Allison's death on July 13, 1993, a Kulwicki #7 sticker on competitor's cars was joined by Allison's #28 sticker. After the final race of the season, series champion Dale Earnhardt and race winner Wallace drove a side-by-side Polish victory lap carrying flags for Kulwicki and Allison. Kulwicki finished 40th in the final points standings despite competing in only five races.
The USAR Hooters Pro Cup championship, the "Four Champions Challenge", is named in memory of the four victims of Kulwicki's plane crash. Established in 1997, the challenge is a four-race series, with each race named after one of the four who died in the crash: Kulwicki, Mark Brooks (son of Hooters owner Bob Brooks), Dan Duncan, and pilot Charles Campbell.
Milwaukee County honored Kulwicki in 1996 by creating Alan Kulwicki Memorial Park, located near the corner of Highway 100 and Cold Spring Road in Greenfield (). Hooters chairman Robert Brooks donated $250,000 to build the park, which features a Kulwicki museum inside the Brooks Pavilion.
Bristol Motor Speedway named its grandstand in Turns 1 and 2 in honor of Kulwicki, as well as a terrace above the grandstand. The 2004 Busch Series race at the Milwaukee Mile was named the "Alan Kulwicki 250" in honor of Kulwicki. Wisconsinite Paul Menard turned his car around after winning the 2006 Busch Series event and performed a Polish Victory lap to honor Kulwicki. Slinger Super Speedway has held an annual Alan Kulwicki Memorial race since 1994.
Kulwicki was posthumously inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2002. He 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,, and the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame in 2001,
Kulwicki's success as an owner/driver sparked a small fad among NASCAR veterans. Geoff Bodine, his younger brother Brett, Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott, and Joe Nemechek all began racing teams after Kulwicki's death. However, none were as successful as Kulwicki. NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon are the only owner/drivers who attempted to run the full schedule for the 2008 season. Robby Gordon frequently mentions Alan as an inspiration for him as an owner/driver, and selected car #7 as a tribute to Kulwicki.
Media
As of April 2004, Father Dale Grubba, the priest who had presided over Kulwicki's funeral, was writing a biography of his friend entitled Alan: Against all Odds. The book was the basis for a low-budget feature film, Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story, released on April 1, 2005. The film chronicles Kulwicki's life from racing late models at Slinger Super Speedway, through his rise to NASCAR champion, and ends with his death. The movie was created by Kulwicki's Wisconsin fans for less than $100,000. The star of the film, Brad Weber, was a Kulwicki fan and credits the late driver with being his inspiration to become an actor.
Career results
- 1985: NASCAR Winston Cup: 40th (partial season)
- 1986: NASCAR Winston Cup: 21st
- 1987: NASCAR Winston Cup: 15th
- 1988: NASCAR Winston Cup: 14th
- 1989: NASCAR Winston Cup: 15th
- 1990: NASCAR Winston Cup: 8th
- 1991: NASCAR Winston Cup: 13th
- 1992: NASCAR Winston Cup: champion
- 1993: NASCAR Winston Cup: 41st (partial season), IROC: 5th*
*Dale Earnhardt raced the 3rd and 4th IROC races in 1993 for Kulwicki
Additional reading
External links
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