The following is the third of a four-part series highlighting Atlanta Motor Speedway's storied history as the track prepares for its 100th Cup Series race.

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Few if any of the 99 previous races at Altanta compare to the 1992 Hooters 500.

Realistically, there may never be another one like it. Many in the sport regard it as the "Greatest NASCAR Race of All Time." While many sporting events fail to live up to the pre-event hype, the '92 season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway delivered far more than anyone anticipated.

“

I won the race and lost the championship.

”

BILL ELLIOTT

For months fans had been lining up to buy seats for the Hooters 500, for it would be the last race in the storied 35-year career of the sport's King, seven-time champion Richard Petty.

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By mid-summer, every seat around the track had been sold, including those in a new East Turn grandstand. Temporary bleachers were erected. Those seats were sold.

Then along came a barn-burner points contest. Under NASCAR's former season-long points formula, the outcome of the championship was much in doubt when the circuit arrived at AMS for the final race of the season. Davey Allison led the pack and needed to finish sixth or better to claim his first crown. Maverick owner/driver Alan Kulwicki was in second place, 30 points back. Hometown favorite Bill Elliott, who had won at Atlanta in the spring in the midst of a four-race win streak, had stumbled down the stretch and was third in the standings, 40 points behind Allison. Harry Gant was 97 back, one point ahead of Kyle Petty. Mark Martin, in sixth, was 113 back and still mathematically in the running.

Because he was a title contender, track officials, NASCAR and Ford wanted Kulwicki to participate in a mid-week media blitz in and about Atlanta. His publicist, Tom Roberts, a former PR director at AMS, sweated it out early on because his driver, who had plenty on his plate already, had never done a media tour.

"He reluctantly agreed, but I wasn't sure he'd go through with it until 11:15 on the night before when the front desk told me he'd checked into the hotel in Atlanta," Roberts recalled. "But at 6:15 the next morning, he swaggered in as dapper as could be."

Roberts believes the all-day blitz of media stops and sponsor appearances actually influenced the outcome of the race.

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"Coming to town early got any apprehension and negative feelings out of the way on Thursday," he said. "I was expecting him to be on edge and difficult to work with, but it was totally the opposite all weekend. When he got to the track he was basking in the attention and allowing himself to think about things to come."

Kulwicki also was motivated by the special permission he'd gotten from Ford and NASCAR to block off the "Th" in the "Thunderbird" decal on the front of his No. 7 Ford, leaving a visible sign of his underdog status.

On race morning, more than 100,000 fans jammed the speedway hoping to witness history. They got far more than which they bargained.

As with many great events, some accomplishments got lost in the shuffle. That was the case for veteran Rick Mast, who grabbed his first career pole, and for a rookie, Jeff Gordon, who was making his first Cup start. Both drivers' time in the limelight was short. Mast and Brett Bodine crashed on Lap 2. Gordon wrecked out after 164 laps. (Continued)