| Type: | NASWINSTON |
| Official Name: | 28th Annual AC Delco 500 |
| Date: | October 25 |
| Pole Driver: | Kyle Petty |
| Pole Team: | SABCO Racing |
| Announcers: | Mike Joy, Buddy Baker, Neil Bonnett |
| Most Driver: | Kyle Petty |
| First Driver: | Kyle Petty |
| Most Laps: | 484 |
| Most Team: | SABCO Racing |
| First Team: | SABCO Racing |
| Car: | 42 |
| Network: | TNN |
| Radio: | Motor Racing Network |
| Avg: | 130.748mph |
| Attendance: | 62,300 |
| Location: | Rockingham, North Carolina, North Carolina Motor Speedway |
| Distance Km: | 805.257 |
| Scheduled Km: | 805.257 |
| Scheduled Mi: | 500.364 |
| Scheduled Laps: | 492 |
| Distance Laps: | 492 |
| Course Km: | 1.636 |
| Course Mi: | 1.017 |
| Season No: | 29 |
| Race No: | 27 |
| Race Name: | AC Delco 500 |
| Year: | 1992 |
| Pole Time: | 24.461 |
| Distance Mi: | 500.364 |
| Caption: | The 1992 AC Delco 500 program cover, featuring Richard Petty. |
The 1992 AC Delco 500 was the 27th stock car race of the 1992 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the 28th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, October 25, 1992, before an audience of 62,300 in Rockingham, North Carolina, at North Carolina Speedway, a 1.017miles permanent high-banked racetrack. The race took the scheduled 492 laps to complete. At race's end, SABCO Racing driver Kyle Petty would dominate the race to take his sixth career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second and final victory of the season.[1] [2] To fill out the top three, Morgan–McClure Motorsports driver Ernie Irvan and Hendrick Motorsports driver Ricky Rudd would finish second and third, respectively.
In the overall driver's championship standings, championship leader Bill Elliott, assisted by a fourth-place finish, would manage to increase his points lead over second-place driver Davey Allison to 70 points after three consecutive poor finishes for Elliott. The winner of the race, Kyle Petty, would move to fourth in the standings, 94 points behind Elliott, and nine points behind third-place driver Alan Kulwicki, who was 85 points behind Elliott in the standings.[3]
North Carolina Speedway was opened as a flat, one-mile oval on October 31, 1965. In 1969, the track was extensively reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval just over one mile in length. In 1997, North Carolina Motor Speedway merged with Penske Motorsports, and was renamed North Carolina Speedway. Shortly thereafter, the infield was reconfigured, and competition on the infield road course, mostly by the SCCA, was discontinued. Currently, the track is home to the Fast Track High Performance Driving School.[4]
Qualifying was split into two rounds. The first round was held on Thursday, October 22, at 2:30 PM EST. Each driver would have one lap to set a time. During the first round, the top 20 drivers in the round would be guaranteed a starting spot in the race. If a driver was not able to guarantee a spot in the first round, they had the option to scrub their time from the first round and try and run a faster lap time in a second round qualifying run, held on Friday, October 23, at 1:00 PM EST. As with the first round, each driver would have one lap to set a time. For this specific race, positions 21-40 would be decided on time,[5] and depending on who needed it, a select amount of positions were given to cars who had not otherwise qualified but were high enough in owner's points; up to two were given. If needed, a past champion who did not qualify on either time or provisionals could use a champion's provisional, adding one more spot to the field.
Kyle Petty, driving for SABCO Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 24.461 and an average speed of 149.675mph in the first round.[6]
No drivers would fail to qualify.
| Pos | Driver | Points | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Elliott | 3,818 | |||||||
| 2 | Davey Allison | 3,748 (-70) | |||||||
| 3 | Alan Kulwicki | 3,733 (-85) | |||||||
| 2 | 4 | Kyle Petty | 3,724 (–94) | ||||||
| 5 | Harry Gant | 3,705 (–113) | |||||||
| 2 | 6 | Mark Martin | 3,640 (–178) | ||||||
| 7 | Ricky Rudd | 3,574 (–244) | |||||||
| 1 | 8 | Ernie Irvan | 3,438 (–380) | ||||||
| 1 | 9 | Darrell Waltrip | 3,400 (–418) | ||||||
| 10 | Terry Labonte | 3,399 (–419) | |||||||
| Official driver's standings | |||||||||