1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series - Coca-Cola 600

Coca-Cola 600

The Coca-Cola 600 was held Sunday May 24 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The #11 of Bill Elliott won the pole. All eyes focused on Allison, as he was recovering from his injuries the previous weekend during The Winston. Allison spent two days in the hospital, nursing a broken collarbone, re-injured ribs and bruises covering 60% of his body. After winning at Daytona and Talladega, Allison was eligible for the Winston Million if he was victorious at Charlotte. Allison had won the Coca-Cola 600 in 1991, and Charlotte was considered Robert Yates's best track.

After the final round of pit stops, Dale Earnhardt moved in front of both Kyle Petty and Ernie Irvan to post his first - and only - win of 1992. Allison finished fourth in his bid for the $1 million bonus, but still expanded his point lead over Elliott to 111 points. Allison still had one more chance to win the Winston Million, later in the season at Darlington.

• The Coca-Cola 600 would be Dale Earnhardt's lone victory of 1992 (with the exception of the Gatorade 125 qualifier at Daytona). Approaching his final green-flag pit stop, Earnhardt trailed by 3 seconds, but emerged with a 1.5 second lead, prompting several of his competitors to believe that Earnhardt broke the 55 mph pit road speed limit while exiting. No penalty was assessed.
• The would be the final Coca-Cola 600 scheduled to run during the daytime. Starting in 1993, the race was moved to a late afternoon/night race.
• Davey Allison led 33 laps after starting 17th. Polesitter Bill Elliott failed to lead any laps (Ricky Rudd led the first lap from 3rd) en route to a 14th place finish, 4 laps down. Elliott was now 111 points behind, closely followed by Harry Gant, Alan Kulwicki, and Dale Earnhardt.