The race was held under the cumulative points system introduced to NASCAR in 1975, in which drivers accumulated points across the full season to determine the championship. Six drivers entered Atlanta mathematically eligible to win the Winston Cup. Davey Allison led the standings in the Robert Yates Racing No. 28 Texaco Havoline Ford, having won five times during the season. Alan Kulwicki in his self-owned No. 7 Hooters Ford trailed Allison by 30 points. Bill Elliott, driving Junior Johnson's No. 11 Budweiser Ford, was 40 points back. Harry Gant, Kyle Petty, and Mark Martin were also still alive, trailing by 97, 98, and 113 points respectively.
The race also marked the conclusion of Richard Petty's "Fan Appreciation Tour," a season-long send-off for the sport's most decorated driver. Petty had announced his retirement on October 1, 1991, and ran the full 1992 schedule. A record crowd estimated at 160,000 attended Atlanta Motor Speedway to witness his final start. The weekend equally drew attention for Jeff Gordon's Winston Cup debut, the 20-year-old driving the No. 24 Chevrolet prepared by Ray Evernham.
Allison was the only contender who fully controlled his destiny: a fifth-place finish would clinch the title outright, and if he led a lap, a seventh-place finish would suffice. His season had been marked by dramatic highs and personal tragedy. He had won the season-opening Daytona 500, but endured serious crashes at several points during the year and lost his brother Clifford, who was killed during a Busch Series practice at Michigan in August.
Kulwicki had built his campaign on consistency rather than wins. He carried only two victories but had sixteen top-ten finishes in the prior 28 races. His personal rivalry with Junior Johnson — Kulwicki had twice declined seven-figure offers to drive for Johnson, who then poached the Maxwell House Coffee sponsorship Kulwicki had been negotiating — gave the championship fight an additional dimension. Kulwicki marked his underdog status by placing Mighty Mouse decals on his car's nose, covering the "TH" in "Thunderbird" so it read "Underbird." His relationship with Hooters had begun after he qualified on pole at the spring Atlanta race and was approached by the brand's executives, who were based in the city.
Elliott had won four consecutive races mid-season but suffered a late-year collapse, including an engine failure at Phoenix that gifted Allison the points lead with one race to go.
The race began with a first-lap incident when pole-sitter Rick Mast and front-row companion Brett Bodine tangled in Turn 1 on lap 2. Allison was tagged from behind by Hut Stricklin, bending his left rear fender without puncturing the tire. The incident set the tone for an afternoon of shifting fortunes.
Kulwicki's car developed a gearbox problem early in the race when first gear failed as he exited his pit stall. Drawing on experience from a similar failure at Charlotte earlier in the season, he shifted the No. 7 into fourth gear and ran the remainder of the event without the ability to climb through lower gears — a restriction that required conservative restarts and careful pit stop procedures to avoid stalling.
On lap 95, a multi-car incident on the frontstretch collected Richard Petty, whose car caught fire. Petty coasted to the infield with the front end destroyed and an oil-fed fire burning underneath. His crew spent hours repairing the car, and with two laps remaining, Petty pulled back out of the pits with no sheet metal on the front end and no hood, crossing the finish line in 35th place. He had wanted, in his own words afterward, to "go out in a blaze of glory — I just forgot about the glory part."
Mark Martin led twice for 47 total laps but was eliminated by engine failure on lap 160. Harry Gant fell multiple laps behind while battling his car and a case of influenza. Kyle Petty's engine trouble removed him from championship contention. By mid-race, the title fight had narrowed to three: Allison, Kulwicki, and Elliott.
An incident on lap 254 proved decisive. Ernie Irvan, three laps down and struggling, lost control exiting Turn 4 and came back up across the track. Rusty Wallace avoided him, but Allison could not. The No. 28 T-boned the No. 4, breaking Allison's steering column and a tie rod. His crew repaired the car well enough to return to the track, but he ultimately finished 27th, ceding the championship lead to his rivals.
With 74 laps remaining after the lap 254 caution, Kulwicki led the points standings over Elliott by 15 with the bonus for most laps led not yet secured. Kulwicki and crew chief Paul Andrews calculated that staying on track longer was worth the risk of a tight fuel situation. Kulwicki stayed out until lap 310, surrendering the lead but banking 103 laps led. Elliott's crew called him in on lap 314, expecting to match Kulwicki's tally, but Terry Labonte led lap 315 while Elliott was on pit road, denying him the tie.
Elliott led the final 13 laps and won the race. Kulwicki held second to the checkered flag, clinching the Winston Cup Championship by 10 points — the narrowest margin in series history at the time. His winning total was 4,078 points to Elliott's 4,068. After taking a cool-down lap, Kulwicki stopped before the flagstand, reversed direction, and drove a clockwise "Polish victory lap" around the speedway — a tradition he had begun after his first win at Phoenix in 1988 — waving to the crowd.
Allison finished third in the final championship standings, 63 points behind Kulwicki. Junior Johnson immediately fired crew chief Tim Brewer after the race; this would prove the veteran owner's last serious championship run. Elliott remained with the team two more seasons. Kulwicki died in a plane crash the following April.
The 1992 Hooters 500 is frequently cited as the defining race of NASCAR's modern era. Its three simultaneous storylines — the narrowest championship in history, the retirement of the sport's most famous driver, and the debut of its future cornerstone — converged at a single event in a way that has not been replicated. The race also spotlighted the Hooters sponsorship's role in keeping Kulwicki's self-owned operation financially viable during the 1990 and 1991 seasons, without which AK Racing would likely not have survived long enough to compete for a championship. Alan Kulwicki remains the last owner-driver to win the NASCAR Winston Cup championship.
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