1992 Mountain Dew Southern 500 Darlington Event Car

    The 1992 Mountain Dew Southern 500 was held on September 6th, 1992~ Sterling Marlin won the pole for the event, and finished 28th~ Davey Allison, who had a chance at the Winston Million coming into the race, was let down once again by crew chief Larry McReynolds when McReynolds called Davey into the pits with rain coming on strong~ Larry mentioned after the race that it was in fact another crew member he had sent to check the weather radar who fouled up the call.. but we all know this is the crew chief's responsibility, and Larry loves to make excuses and blame others instead of placing the blame on himself~

    The first driver out of the race was John McFadden, driving for Jimmy Means Racing~ He ended his day after only 3 laps of competition~ The first caution came on lap 38, for debris, with the second coming on lap 139 due to a crash involving Chad Little and Geoff Bodine~ The crash ended Little's day, and he finished in the 34th position, while Bodine continued the race, finishing 19th~ The next caution came out on lap 184 due to a crash in turn 3 involving Morgan Shepherd and pole winner Sterling Marlin~ This would end Shepherd's day, which resulted in a 31st finishing position, while Marlin continued, and finished the race in 28th~

                                        Program for the 1992 Mountain Dew Southern 500~

    On lap 228, the caution flag flew again, this time due to a crash in turn 4 involving Dick Trickle, Geoff Bodine (again), Jimmy Means, and Ted Musgrave~ Caution came out again on lap 278, and most of the field came in to pit.. but Darrell Waltrip stayed out~ Shortly after this caution, the rain began to fall~ Laps 295-298 were ran under caution, and the race was then put on hold~

    Waltrip celebrated ahead of NASCAR calling the race official, saying the win was "worth a million dollars to him".. mocking the fact that Davey had lost the Winston Million~ This was Darrell's second win in a row, and 3rd of 1992~ This would also be the final victory of his career~ The race would also be the final race for Hut Stricklin in the #12 Raybestos Brakes car, as he was replaced by Jeff Purvis, and later Jimmy Spencer for the rest of the season~

                                           1992 Mountain Dew Southern 500 Event Car~

                                                           Click pics to enlarge~

    This may very well be one of my favorite event cars of all time~ The simple off-red and white paint scheme, along with the white cone tires, just make this car beam on any display shelf or case~ Most event cars up to this point were mostly all black or white, which makes this one stand out even more~ Overall, I give this car an A- on the Racing Champions quality scale~ It could have easily been an A+ if not for the card, which I find just a bit dull~

    Some of the opinions used in this post may offend some of you... please remember that these are my opinions, and are not meant to be facts~ If you like McReynolds, that's your opinion, and I won't hold it against you~ To me, he was one of the whiniest people I've ever seen in NASCAR, and I for one was happy when he threw the towel in on his career as a crew chief~ That being said, I thank each and every one of you for visiting the blog~ There are no videos whatsoever on this specific race, so I'll leave you with some highlights from some other races at Darlington~ :)

                                                      Top 5 moments from Darlington~

                                                  Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch - 2003~

                                                   1985 Southern 500 - Bill Elliott win~     

            
                                                    Last laps of the 1979 Southern 500~