Neat...cool side story...I KNEW ALAN KULWICKI! My dad was from Mooresville, NC, and one of the brothers, after mustering our of the service post-WW2 (may have been a BIL, come to think of it), opened the NAPA auto parts store in Moorseville, and he sold parts to all the 60's-70's NASCAR guys, back when it was very small, so they were just guys, some of which had side jobs to support their families. Anyway, he also had a place on Lake Norman, and many times in the summer we would go there and play with "the neighbor's kids", one of whom was Alan Kulwicki. (FWIW, Ned Jarrett pulled us in an inflatable behind his boat). this was when we were ages 6-10, so you are talking 1969-1973 or so, and IIRC Alan was older than myself by a good 6 years, but was still nice to us. Anyway, I had a lot of memories of playing with him. Years, like decades, go by. Now, it is 1987. Thru some guys at work I get free tickets to Darlington and in trade I am the sober driver (which means I earned those tickets many times over) and we are walking thru the vendor area so early that they are still setting up, and one of the guys, already half-pickled, sees Alan and LOUDLY points him out, reminding me & everyone within earshot that I played with Kulwicki when I was a kid. As Alan is giving one of the guys an autograph I give him my story and Alan asks, "What kind of bike did I ride?" I tell him "Custom red/white paint, banana seat...and you still have my silver corvette Matchbox."
Needless to say, for that ONE day, I was king (well, adopted Prince really, but close as I'll ever get). I got to meet the whole crew, sit with Alan and tour all around, I even got to see his motorhome and meet some super-model-lookin' GF or Wife of his, don't remember which. I DO remember she was so pretty it was intimidating. For the next two years I had free Nascar tickets to Darlington with pit passes mailed to my home from his press office. I sent the family a card when he passed, but by then all the extended members of my fam. except two were gone from Moorseville.
Sorry for this being so long. I will obviously be watching this with great interest