`Mighty Mouse' Kulwicki Upstages Nascar Giants

HAMPTON, Ga. - "Here he comes to save the day, Mighty Mouse is on the way."

Aficionados of vintage 1950s cartoons will recognize those words as the beginning to the theme introducing Mighty Mouse, the hero of the underdog mice and the bane of those bullying cats.

Alan Kulwicki might have been humming the tune two weeks ago when he completed one of the most unlikely feats in racing history, becoming the first owner-driver since Richard Petty in 1979 to win NASCAR's Winston Cup championship.

But this is no mighty Petty Enterprises team, winning its record seventh series title. This is Alan Kulwicki Racing, never better than eighth in the season points - until now.

This is the guy nobody expected to win taking the closest Winston Cup championship battle ever, beating 1988 champion and the season-finale winner, Bill Elliott, by a mere 10 points, winning only because he led one more lap (103-102) more than Elliott and held on to finish second in the Hooters 500.

Kulwicki, who wears a Mighty Mouse patch on his uniform, left Greenfield, Wis., seven years ago to move to the hotbed of stock-car racing in North Carolina and see if he could make the jump from the short tracks of the American Speed Association to the superspeedways of NASCAR.

He traveled with his tools, almost no money and a dream. The classic little guy ready to meet the big guys head to . . . well . . . belt.

"If there ever was an underdog, it was me," the smiling Kulwicki said. "I fight the bad cats. Who ever heard of a good ol' boy named Kulwicki?"

But he has parlayed a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a workaholic attitude and loads of imagination into a championship that puts his name in the same column with Petty, at least in one part of the record book.

The King of stock-car racing, finishing his incredible 35-year driving career in the same race in which Kulwicki, 37, joined the ranks of the big boys, knows precisely what the new champion has accomplished.

"It's unreal to be able to do what he's done," Petty said. "I've been fortunate that most of the time I've had the family with me in this. He's had to hire people, get sponsors, take care of the business, work on the car, run everything. It's a phenomenal situation.

"It's almost impossible, but it ain't impossible because he's done it. It took skill and determination and luck."

Whatever it took for him to get there, once Kulwicki was the champion, he celebrated with a postrace backward ride around the 1.522-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway oval, calling it his "Polish victory lap."

"I did that after my first Winston Cup win at Phoenix (in November of 1988), so I figured I'd better do it again for the championship," he said, grinning. "But I think that'll be the last time."

The championship was worth $1.3 million to Kulwicki, who said, "The money is nice, but the prestige of it is almost more important. It's something they can never take away from you. Some drivers never win a championship in their whole career."

From the beginning, Kulwicki's cars and driving ability showed promise, despite his lack of budget and top-notch equipment. He was rookie of the year in 1986, going the entire season with one car and two engines.

The team and Kulwicki kept improving and, in 1990, he was offered a ride by Junior Johnson, second only to Petty in owner championships. Ironically, it was a Johnson driver Kulwicki beat for the title last Sunday.

"People said I was completely nuts when I turned him down," Kulwicki said. "I said, `We'll see.' By that time, I just had come too far with my own team.

"I'm not about to go and flaunt it, but it's really a storybook ending to beat those guys (Elliott and Johnson) for the title."