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The closest Winston Cup championship margin in history was the 10 points by which Alan Kulwicki beat Bill Elliott in 1992. It took a magical set of circumstances and precise planning in the season-ending race near Atlanta for the Wisconsin native to beat Elliott , the homestate hero from nearby Dawsonville. Kulwicki went into the 328-lap, 500-mile race at the Atlanta Motor Speedway 30 points behind points-leader Davey Allison and 10 points ahead of third-place Elliott. There were dozens of finish-position combinations by which any of the three drivers could win the title, and each driver knew every one of them. Allison seemed headed for his first NASCAR championship until crashing with Ernie Irvan on the frontstreach and falling from contention with 125 miles remaining. That left the title up for grabs between Elliott and Kulwicki, and each man did what he had to do: Elliott won the race (his fifth victory of the season) and scored 180 points. Kulwicki, a two-time race winner, finished second by more than eight seconds, but led the most laps and also scored 180 points. The final accounting after 29 races: Kulwicki with 4,078 points, Elliott with 4,068, and Allison with 4,015. Tragically, Kulwicki didn't get to enjoy his hard-earned success nearly long enough. On April 1, 1993, less than five months after winning the Winston Cup and the admiration of millions, Kulwicki and three other men were killed when the team's private plane stalled, crashed, and burned on final approach to Tri-Cities Regional Airport in Bristol, Tennessee.
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