'Split personality': Larry Mac details chaos of 1992 All-Star Race

Of all my wins in the NASCAR Cup series as a crew chief, definitely the most unique win I have ever been a part of was winning the All-Star Race in Charlotte back in 1992 with Davey Allison as our driver. I honestly don't think if you went through the NASCAR history books you can find another instance where neither the driver nor the car went to Victory Lane after the win.

When that race was over back in 1992, there definitely was a split personality of Larry McReynolds. The compassionate caring guy only cared about the welfare of Davey and if he was going to be all right after a nasty crash taking the checkered flag. Once I got the word that he was OK and not severely injured, well then the ultra-competitive side of me came out.

Probably most people don't remember that originally NASCAR had scored Kyle Petty as winning that race. The scoring pylon kept the No. 42 in first place with the No. 28 in second. You also have to remember that we didn't have computer scoring like we do today, but I just knew in my heart that Davey had beat Kyle back to the start/finish line. I distinctly remember almost laughing out loud after NASCAR reviewed everything, scored Davey as the winner and put the No. 28 ahead of the No. 42.

Actually, I think you could probably go back to 1949 when NASCAR began and you would be hard-pressed to find a car, crew chief and team that went through a roller-coaster season like we did with the No. 28. We had the highest of highs that year combined with the lowest of lows. We won the Daytona 500, the All-Star Race and a handful of other races that year. Those were the highs.

We also suffered through a lot of cars being torn up. We had the All-Star crash, we also had Davey getting hurt at Pocono and then the dagger in our heart was losing the 1992 championship at Atlanta by being taken out in a wreck.

So that all-star race 23 years ago really was a snapshot of our season. We were almost winning one week and wrecking the next, it seemed. Then magically, somehow, some way, we on that No. 28 team figured out how to do both the same night in the All-Star Race.