Remembering Alan Kulwicki

[Bob Hubbard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apCZvRGbkuo

[TS FAN]

I certainly remember April of 1993. I was at a managers meeting in Madison Wisconsin. I was about to fly home and get ready for Bristol. A person who came in late for the meeting, told us of the plane crash. Since Alan was from Wisconsin it was big news. However I was the only one who really thought much about it. Since Alan was the driver I admired most, it was a very depressing weekend. I really am not much of a person who cries, but I had dark sunglasses on at the track the whole weekend/smile. Rusty won and honored him with the old Polish victory lap. That did it

[kidrock]

I still have a t-shirt that has never been worn the year Alan won the Championship!! He was good for the sport back in the day.

[over4T]

Had the pleasure of seeing him win his first at Phoenix and invented the Polish victory lap there. He was admired for doing it his way and not being a corporate clone like many of today's drivers. I'm pretty sure it was also the last Cup race I attended and certainly don't plan for that to change.

[CIRF]

We were lucky enough to have seen A.K. race many times. We got to see him race with the USAC Stock Car division 3 times at Springfield, Illinois, once at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a couple of times at Illiana Speedway near Chicago. I don't think A.K. liked the dirt tracks much but he was fast qualifier for the Alan Crowe Memorial 100 at Springfield and led the early stages of that race before losing an engine! By the time Alan had worked his way to the Cup Series we were attending 3 or 4 Cup races a year. Sadly we never got to see him win.

The 1992 season ending Atlanta race where Alan clinched the Cup Championship was one of the most exciting and historically significant events in NASCAR history. The King's final race, Jeff Gordon's first Cup race and the most dramatic points finale's in the history of the sport.

[Krooser]

I helped Alan a couple times when he was first running at Slinger Speedway. He had a reputation as being hard to work for but he was so focused he seemed to be aloof.

A few years later he asked me to help him do his PR stops at Madison, WI Hardee's after he picked up that deal.

Alan was never comfortable with big crowds but he did well with the folks that day. We hauled his T-bird around to three stores.

I went to his funeral and I spoke to Mark Martin there. He said you could tell how much respect Alan had by the number of drivers there to pay their respects.

Amen.

[kazual]

The sport would be better off today if there were more independent one car teams run by an owner / driver. One can only wonder what would have happened in NASCAR if he hadn’t been taken early, I for one believe it would have been better off than where it is now.

[Raceready]

We were lucky enough to have seen A.K. race many times. We got to see him race with the USAC Stock Car division 3 times at Springfield, Illinois, once at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a couple of times at Illiana Speedway near Chicago. I don't think A.K. liked the dirt tracks much but he was fast qualifier for the Alan Crowe Memorial 100 at Springfield and led the early stages of that race before losing an engine! By the time Alan had worked his way to the Cup Series we were attending 3 or 4 Cup races a year. Sadly we never got to see him win. The 1992 season ending Atlanta race where Alan clinched the Cup Championship was one of the most exciting and historically significant events in NASCAR history. The King's final race, Jeff Gordon's first Cup race and the most dramatic points finale's in the history of the sport.

Old " SPECIAL K " was indeed SPECIAL !