1992 Miller Genuine Draft 400

Race details
Race 22 of 29 in the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1992 Miller Genuine Draft 400 program cover, featuring Rusty Wallace. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.
Date	September 12, 1992
Official name	35th Annual Miller Genuine Draft 400
Location	Richmond, Virginia, Richmond International Raceway
Course	Permanent racing facility 0.75 mi (1.21 km)
Distance	400 laps, 300 mi (482.803 km)
Scheduled Distance	400 laps, 300 mi (482.803 km)
Average speed	99.917 miles per hour (160.801 km/h)
Attendance	69,000
Pole position
Driver	Ernie Irvan	Morgan-McClure Motorsports
Time	22.354
Most laps led
Driver	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Laps	231
Winner
No. 2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South
Television in the United States
Network	TBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Neil Bonnett
Radio in the United States
Radio	Motor Racing Network

The 1992 Miller Genuine Draft 400 was the 22nd stock car race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 35th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, September 12, 1992, before an audience of 69,000 in Richmond, Virginia, at Richmond International Raceway, a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) D-shaped oval. The race took the scheduled 400 laps to complete. At race's end, Penske Racing South driver Rusty Wallace would manage to dominate a majority of the race to take his 21st career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his only victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the top three, Roush Racing driver Mark Martin and owner-driver Darrell Waltrip would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

The layout of Richmond International Raceway, the venue where the race was at.

Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is a 3/4-mile (1.2 km), D-shaped, asphalt race track located just outside Richmond, Virginia in Henrico County. It hosts the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series. Known as "America's premier short track", it formerly hosted a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, an IndyCar Series race, and two USAC sprint car races.

Qualifying

Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Friday, September 11, at 5:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Saturday, September 12, at 3:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-34 would be decided on time,^[3] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.

Ernie Irvan, driving for Morgan–McClure Motorsports, would win the pole, setting a time of 22.354 and an average speed of 120.784 miles per hour (194.383 km/h) in the first round.^[4]

Two drivers would fail to qualify.

Race results

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 Bill Elliott 3,237 2 Davey Allison 3,103 (-134) 3 Alan Kulwicki 3,073 (-164) 4 Harry Gant 3,023 (–214) 5 Mark Martin 2,954 (–283) 1 6 Darrell Waltrip 2,873 (–364) 1 7 Kyle Petty 2,864 (–373) 8 Ricky Rudd 2,822 (–415) 9 Dale Earnhardt 2,806 (–431) 10 Morgan Shepherd 2,755 (–482) Official driver's standings Note: Only the first 10 positions are included for the driver standings.

References