1992: The “Polish Prince” Killed in Plane Crash

On this day in 1993, race car driver and owner Alan Kulwicki, who won the 1992 National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) Winston Cup championship by one of the tightest margins in series history, was killed in a plane crash near Bristol, Tennessee, where he was scheduled to compete in a race the following day. The 38-year-old Kulwicki had been the first owner- driver to collect the championship since Richard Petty did so in 1979, as well as the first NASCAR champ to hold a college degree.

Kulwicki was born on December 14, 1954, in Greenfield, Wisconsin, a fact that later marked him as an outsider among the other NASCAR drivers of his era, who typically hailed from the southern U.S. Kulwicki’s father, Gerry, built race-car engines and as a teenager Alan became involved in Go-Kart racing.