PHOTO: Phil Combs
SEASON IN REVIEW
Forrest City, North Carolina driver John McFadden scored his first LASTCAR Cup Series Championship in 1992, scoring four last-place finishes in just five starts during a twenty-nine-race season. It was the fewest starts by a LASTCAR Cup Series Champion since 1978, when John Kennedy started just four races.
McFadden was competing in his fourth season on the Cup Series tour, having made just six previous starts. His best finish prior to 1992 was a 24th in his Cup debut for owner Will Cronkite at Bristol, Tennessee on March 14, 1982, when he drove a #86 Setzer Well Company Buick that crashed after 368 laps. McFadden’s other five starts came as an owner-driver, including a last-place finish in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona Beach, Florida on July 1, 1989 where his #24 Alliance Training Centers Pontiac crashed with the #45 Buick of Patty Moise on the first lap.
In 1992, McFadden was tabbed to drive a second car out of Means Racing, operated by owner-driver and 1988 LASTCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmy Means. Means’ fleet of Cup cars were outdated by 1992, as he ran Pontiacs with a first-generation body most other Pontiac teams changed in 1991. In order to update his team’s equipment, Means would continue to run full races while other drivers would qualify his renumbered backup cars, then park in the early laps to collect last-place money. This “start-and-park” strategy was assigned to McFadden’s #53, whose number was changed from #52 by fashioning a “3” from the top halves of two “2” decals.
McFadden’s five starts came in both races at Rockingham, North Carolina and Darlington, South Carolina, plus the spring race at Talladega, Alabama, driving a #53 Pontiac that sometimes carried sponsorship from Voyles Auto Salvage. He finished last in every one of those races except the March 29 running of the TranSouth 500 at Darlington, where he came home 37th out of 39 starters ahead of Kerry Teague and James Hylton. In all five starts, the listed reason was “quit.” McFadden finished last in the March 1 running of the GM Goodwrench 500 at Rockingham after eight laps, the May 3 Winston 500 at Talladega after five laps, the September 6 Southern 500 at Darlington after three laps, and the October 25 AC Delco 500 at Rockingham after four laps. In that October race at Rockingham, Means actually entered three cars, lending another #77 Pontiac for Mike Potter to park three laps after McFadden.
Means tabbed Graham Taylor to drive the #53 at both Dover, Delaware races in 1992 and he finished last in both races by quitting after 14 and 3 laps, respectively, bringing the #53's last-place total in 1992 to six. Means himself qualified for twenty-two races in 1992, but scored fourteen DNFs, three DNQs, and three last-place finishes in the first ten races of the season at Richmond, Virginia, North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, and Concord, North Carolina. All told, the two Means Racing cars picked up nine last-place finishes in 1992, setting a single-season team record that stood until 2010.
For the second consecutive season, it was also the LASTCAR Cup Champion’s final season - McFadden’s Cup career ended with eleven career starts. He did attempt to qualify for the TranSouth 500 at Darlington, South Carolina on March 28, 1993, where his #62 Ford was not quite fast enough to make the field. Graham Taylor made his final start in Means Racing’s #53 at Long Pond, Pennsylvania on June 13, 1993, where he finished last for the third and final time after parking three laps into the race.
OTHER LASTCAR HEADLINES
Tied with Jimmy Means for the second-most last-place finishes in 1992 was Dale Earnhardt, who endured a miserable season where he won just one race and finished twelfth in points. Out of his four DNFs, three were early-race engine failures in the second half of the season that left his #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet in last place: the July 4 Pepsi 400 at Daytona Beach, Florida after seven laps, the July 26 DieHard 500 at Talladega, Alabama after 52 laps, and the September 28 Goody’s 500 at Martinsville, Virginia after 111 laps. Those turned out to be the final three last-place finishes of Earnhardt’s career. However, since those finishes came in a time where smaller fields were common, Earnhardt never once finished 43rd in a Cup Series race.
In the Mello Yello 500 at Concord, North Carolina on October 11, Bobby Hillin, Jr. finished 15th in the Martin Birrane-owned #31 Bryant Chevrolet, following up the Team Ireland organization’s season-best 13th-place finish on the same track in May. However, Hillin’s car was disqualified from the field because of illegal engine parts, dropping him to the last spot in the field. After an unsuccessful appeal, Birrane pulled out of NASCAR. In the season finale at Hampton, Georgia, Hillin scored a ride in the #90 owned by Junie Donlavey, the team he’d race for full-time in 1993. It was the first time a NASCAR Cup Series driver finished last due to a disqualification since Buddy Baker’s disqualification from the October 7, 1973 running of the same exact race, then known as the National 500. As of this writing, no driver since Hillin has been disqualified from a Cup Series race.
In the Pyroil 500 at Avondale, Arizona on November 1, Southwest Tour Series driver Rick Carelli finished last when he pulled his #37 Chesrown Chevrolet out of the race after completing just the opening lap. Carelli qualified 28th for the 42-car race, but quit due to injuries he suffered in a crash during the Southwest Tour finale the day before. Nevertheless, Carelli was still awarded 1992's Rookie of the Year for the Winston West Series.
Two weeks later, the dramatic championship battle between Davey Allison, Bill Elliott, and Alan Kulwicki combined with the final Cup start for Richard Petty and the first for Jeff Gordon made the Hooters 500 in Hampton, Georgia on November 15 one of NASCAR’s most legendary races. The last-place finisher that day was Hut Stricklin, whose turn in the #41 Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Chevrolet played a small role in the championship outcome. On Lap 2, polesitter Rick Mast and outside polesitter Brett Bodine wrecked battling for the lead in turn two. Stricklin looked for an opening on the apron, but ended up colliding with Bodine, ending his race. While diving to the low side, Stricklin rear-ended point leader Davey Allison, causing slight damage to his car. Allison recovered from the mishap only to tangle with Ernie Irvan with just 64 laps to go, taking him out of championship contention.
The dominance of Means Racing in 1992 meant that only eighteen different drivers finished last in 1992, marking the first time since 1950 that fewer than 20 drivers trailed Cup Series fields in the same season. In 1950, eighteen drivers trailed the nineteen races run that year, a season ten races shorter than 1992.
CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st) John McFadden (4)
2nd) Dale Earnhardt, Jimmy Means (3)
3rd) James Hylton, Greg Sacks, Bob Schacht, Graham Taylor (2)
4th) H.B. Bailey, Andy Belmont, Geoffrey Bodine, Rick Carelli, Derrike Cope, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Dave Marcis, Sterling Marlin, Jeff Purvis, Mike Skinner, Hut Stricklin (1)
