The 1988 Checker 500 at Phoenix International Raceway was the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the track, but the fans in attendance got an even bigger treat than just watching the top NASCAR drivers race.

They got to witness Alan Kulwicki winning his first career Sprint Cup Series victory in his now famous No. 7 Ford, which in turn allowed them to witness his polish victory lap firsthand.

“That was my polish victory lap,” the Milwaukee-native said of his clockwise victory lap, according to Greg Fielden’s Forty Years Of Stock Car Racing. “I had been planning that for a long time.”

Kulwicki started the race 21st and led four separate times for a total of 41 laps of the race’s 312 lap length. He took the lead for the final time on lap 297 from Ricky Rudd after Rudd lost his engine.

Terry Labonte, who was in second place, had nothing for the No. 7 and Kulwicki took the checkers with an 18.5 second margin of victory.

“It’s been a long road and it’s taken a lot of hard work to get here,” he said after the win.

Kulwicki was 34 years old at the time and went on to win four more races and the 1992 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. He was unable to defend his title after losing his life in an airplane crash on Thursday April 1st, 1993 while heading Bristol Motor Speedway for that Sunday’s Food City 500 where Kulwicki had gone to Victory Lane the year before.

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