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Avictory lap (alsolap of honor) is a term used inmotorsports to describe an extra lap of therace track after the conclusion of arace. This lap, driven at reduced speed, allows the winning driver to celebrate their victory and gives the spectators an opportunity to congratulate and honor the competitors. Commonly, trackside flagmarshals will wave theirflags in a gesture known as theFIA salute or theMonkey Dance in the US.[citation needed] It is not uncommon for marshals to clap or wave their hands at drivers as a gesture and sometimes the drivers wave back in response.
Victory laps can sometimes become dangerous for the winner and the other drivers, since in many tracks the safety nets can be easily climbed over by the crowd, which then becomes an obstacle for the racers.[citation needed]
Victory laps have regularly seen drivers who have retired in the final stages of a race being given a lift back to the pits on one of their competitors' cars. Some notable examples inFormula One includeRiccardo Patrese andDidier Pironi at the1982 Monaco Grand Prix,Nigel Mansell andAyrton Senna at the1991 British Grand Prix (pictured),Jean Alesi andMichael Schumacher at the1995 Canadian Grand Prix, Michael Schumacher andGiancarlo Fisichella at the1997 German Grand Prix,Mika Häkkinen andDavid Coulthard at the2001 Spanish Grand Prix, andMark Webber andFernando Alonso at the2011 German Grand Prix and2013 Singapore Grand Prix andSebastian Vettel andPascal Wehrlein at the2017 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Since the mid-2000s, theFIA, motorsports' global governing body, has restricted what a Formula One driver may do on his victory lap. The sporting regulations state that at the end of a race, "all cars must proceed on the circuit directly to the post race parc fermé without stopping, without overtaking (unless clearly necessary), without receiving any object whatsoever and without any assistance (except that of the marshals if necessary)", although this rule has rarely been enforced, such asFelipe Massa taking a Brazilian flag following his victory at the2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, and more recentlyLewis Hamilton taking a British flag following his controversial victory at the2021 British Grand Prix.[1] It is also commonplace to see drivers overtaking on the victory lap, as well as drivers stopping to conserve a one-litre fuel sample required for post-race inspection, amongst other reasons.
APolish victory lap orKulwicki victory lap entails the driver turning his car around and driving in the opposite direction, which is clockwise onNASCAR ovals. It has been used in road courses.
This style of victory lap is common in local short track or dirt track races, where the victorious driver takes thecheckered flag from the flag stand, and then proceeds to drive with the driver's side of the car facing the fans for their victory lap.
The term was first coined as a result ofPolish AmericanAlan Kulwicki's celebration of his first careerWinston Cup victory at theChecker 500 (Phoenix) on November 6, 1988.[2] He celebrated his victory by driving a clockwise victory lap. Kulwicki first became familiar with the practice after meetings with Midwest dirt track racer Fred Zack, who had been performing the backwards lap for many years prior. AFord engineer slapped him on the back and asked if that was a "Polish" victory lap. Kulwicki's only other Polish victory lap came in1992, in celebration of his Winston Cup Championship at the1992 Hooters 500.
The term was solidified after Kulwicki's death in a plane crash on Thursday, April 1, 1993, nearBlountville, Tennessee. Hours after Kulwicki's death, Peter Jellen drove Kulwicki's racecar hauler counter-clockwise aroundBristol Motor Speedway before leaving the track.[3] Two days after Kulwicki's death,BristolBusch Series race winnerMichael Waltrip honored his old short track foe by turning Kulwicki's trademark reverse Polish victory lap, but only half a lap, stating that he did not want to do Kulwicki's entire routine.[4] The next day, Winston Cup winnerRusty Wallace followed Waltrip's lead,[5] and proceeded to run a full Polish victory lap, both after that race, and after each victory for the rest of the 1993 season. Tom Roberts, Wallace's and sponsor Miller Brewing's publicist, was also Kulwicki's publicist. In addition, most winners for the remainder of the1993 season honored Kulwicki with a Polish victory lap. On November 14, 1993, after theHooters 500 (Atlanta), the last race of that season, the race winner Wallace and 1993 series championDale Earnhardt ran a Polish victory lap together while carrying #7 and #28 flags commemorating Kulwicki andDavey Allison, respectively.[6]
Mike Joy frequently refers to this as an "Alan Kulwicki victory lap" in memory of the driver, and noted the spectators see the driver, who usually waves and sometimes has his helmet off, as he salutes the fans. Joy's term is reminiscent of other cases where a term is named for the person who developed the idea (i.e.,Gurney flap, Petty bar). Many local racetrack winners and series champions have saluted Kulwicki or his underdog spirit with a Polish victory lap, especially in his home state ofWisconsin. 2006Milwaukee race winnerPaul Menard (a Wisconsinite) celebrated his first Busch Series win with a Polish victory lap.[7]
Dale Earnhardt Jr. did a Polish victory lap after winning the2001 MBNA Cal Ripken Jr. 400 atDover Downs International Speedway in the first NASCAR Winston Cup Race following theSeptember 11 attacks while holding a large American flag out the driver's side window.
Jimmie Johnson celebrated a special win by doing a Polish victory lap on October 31, 2004, after winning the2004 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 atAtlanta Motor Speedway. The week before on October 24, tragedy struck when a Hendrick Motorsports airplane crashed outside of Martinsville, Virginia.
Kurt Busch celebrated his 2005 win at Phoenix with a Polish victory lap. Busch watched his first NASCAR races at the track, and wanted to honor Kulwicki.Kyle Busch also did a Polish victory lap after his 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup win at Bristol, while Kurt repeated the act at that year's Atlanta race when he put his car in reverse, a practice dubbed "The Unwind Lap".
In 2012,Tony Stewart did a Polish victory lap after finally winning for the first time at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the Kobalt Tools 400.
In 2014, Earnhardt Jr. celebrated hisDaytona 500 victory with a Polish victory lap. His second win of the 2014 season came on June 8 at Pocono, where he repeated it. He also performed the feat after winning theGoody's Headache Relief Shot 500 in October.
In 2015,Denny Hamlin celebrated his Xfinity Series win in his home state track atRichmond International Raceway with a Polish victory lap, and completing it while performing a burnout.[8]
In the2020 Season Finale 500, Johnson's final race as a full-time driver, he performed a Polish victory lap after finishing fifth as the highest non-championship-round driver.[9]
