Pre-race
Coming into the race, six drivers had a mathematical chance to win the title, the most ever. The points standings were led by Davey Allison, who had experienced a roller-coaster season. Allison had won the season opening Daytona 500, and four other races. However, his season was nearly halted on more than one occasion, after bad wrecks at The Winston in May and at Pocono in June. In August, he mourned the death of his brother Clifford, who was killed practicing for the Busch Series race at Michigan. Allison rebounded, and won the second to last race of the season at Phoenix.
Bill Elliott experienced a much more consistent season in 1992, winning 4 races up to that point, and earning 16 top-10 finishes. Elliott led by as many as 154 points in the season championship on September 20, but he began to falter, and had three bad races in a row, dropping his lead to 39 with three races left. At the second to last race of the season at Phoenix, Elliott's car suffered a cracked cylinder head and overheating problems, which relegated him to a 31st-place finish, and dropped him from first to third in the standings going into the final race.
Alan Kulwicki was considered the third and final primary contender, and the underdog to win the championship. While he had only won two races in 1992 up to that point, he had 11 top-5s and 16 top-10s. He was running at the finish at all but two races so far. Despite a crash at Dover in September, he rebounded to post finishes of 12th or better in the five races leading up to Atlanta.
After Kulwicki, three drivers had an outside chance to win the championship. Harry Gant entered the race 57 points behind Kulwicki and 97 behind Allison, and had won two races during the season. Kyle Petty was one point behind Gant, having also won twice. Finally, Mark Martin was 113 points behind Allison, and although it was possible for all three drivers to win the title provided the top three failed in front of them Martin's attempt would have been the hardest to pull off.
Davey Allison needed to finish sixth or better to clinch the championship. Allison led second-place Alan Kulwicki by 30 points and Bill Elliott by 40.
Harry Gant, Kyle Petty, and Mark Martin were also in the championship hunt, but all three needed basically to win the race, and hope for the other championship contenders to drop out.
Championship standings entering the 1992 Hooters 500
- Davey Allison, 3928 points
- Alan Kulwicki, −30
- Bill Elliott, −40
- Harry Gant, −97
- Kyle Petty, −98
- Mark Martin, −113
- Ricky Rudd, −281
- Darrell Waltrip, −363
- Terry Labonte, −414
- Ernie Irvan, −429
Kulwicki received approval from NASCAR and Ford to change the "Thunderbird" lettering on his bumper by putting two Mighty Mouse patches on the "TH" in "THUNDERBIRD" because he felt like the underdog for winning the championship, and Kulwicki admired the character, which symbolised he and his team (many of whom later became champions themselves long after his death).
Richard Petty entered the race, his final career start, at the conclusion of his year-long "Fan Appreciation Tour." On October 1, 1991, Petty announced he would retire at the end of the 1992 season. He planned on running the entire season, not just selected events, and to that point, had managed to qualify for all 28 of the events in 1992. Facing the intense pressure of a hectic schedule of appearances, honors, and on-track activities, Petty barely managed to qualify for this race. He posted the 39th-fastest speed out of 41 cars. He would not have been eligible for the provisional starting position, and had to qualify on speed.
On the night before pole qualifying, Richard Petty's cousin and longtime crew chief and team manager Dale Inman was robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Atlanta airport. The robber tried to grab a necklace from Inman's neck, but failed. He pointed his gun and pulled the trigger, but it did not fire, and no one was injured.
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