Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 25, 1991 TAG: 9102250096
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
But Sunday's side-by-side fight at Richmond International Speedway was a clean one.
And Earnhardt held off Rudd's determined last-lap challenge to win his first Winston Cup race of the season.
Earnhardt averaged 104.378 mph in his Chevrolet Lumina, a track record breaking the mark set by Davey Allison in September 1988. There were just six caution flags that led to only 23 of the race's 400 laps being run under yellow.
"Ricky raced me clean that lap," Earnhardt said. "We've had bumps and run-ins there for the last couple of years and I think that will set a precedent that we can race clean from here on."
Following Earnhardt and Rudd were Harry Gant, who won Saturday's Busch Grand National race, Rusty Wallace and Alan Kulwicki. There were a number of minor crashes or spins, but no one was injured.
The most famous Rudd-Earnhardt incident was at North Wilkesboro, N.C., in the fall of 1989, when Rudd got under Earnhardt, who was in the lead two laps from the end, and they both spun out. The incident seriously damaged Earnhardt's bid that year for a Winston Cup championship.
While Sunday's duel at this 3/4-mile, D-shaped oval was clean, it was not without incident.
Coming off the fourth turn to take the white flag, Earnhardt's car lost traction and bobbled from side to side. Rudd quickly moved to the inside. They drove side-by-side through turns one and two, but Earnhardt edged back ahead on the backstretch. He held Rudd off when Rudd was unable to get a good run at Earnhardt off turn four. The margin of victory was less than a car length.
Earnhardt was in command much of the last half of the 400-lap race and he led the last 76 laps. But victory was not assured until that last sprint to the checkered flag, which began on lap 398 after the sixth and last caution period of the day, prompted by a Brett Bodine crash in turn two.
"Earnhardt's tough," Rudd said after the race. "You never know if you've got him until you get to the stripe. My car pushed a little bit getting into turn three [of the last lap], and if it hadn't been for that we might have had him.
"Dale and I raced each other hard and clean today, and I think we can keep it that way the entire season."
Although light rain fell during a chilly morning, the track was dry in time for the 1:15 p.m. start of the 300-mile race, held in front of a crowd of 51,440.
Pole-sitter Davey Allison led most of the first 40 laps, but he fell off the pace as his car's handling deteriorated. Allison eventually finished 12th, two laps off the pace, with a large blister on the palm of his right hand.
"We couldn't race with anybody," he said.
After a brief caution on lap 10 and 11, caused when Earnhardt tapped Rick Mast and sent the Rockbridge Baths, Va., driver into the fourth-turn wall, the race had almost 230 laps of green-flag racing.
When Allison fell off the pace, Kulwicki and Rudd alternated the lead, sometimes racing two abreast. Kulwicki was hampered during his second pit stop on lap 180, when he was penalized 15 seconds for having too many men over the pit wall.
Rudd dominated the middle portion of the race. He led 99 straight laps in the second quarter of the race and picked up the $10,000 bonus for being out front at the halfway point.
Because of the new pit rules, which penalize tire changes during yellow-flag pit stops, nearly all pit stops were made under the green flag.
This shuffled the leaders after each series of pit stops, which occurred about every 100 laps.
Earnhardt, who started the race 19th, had to claw his way toward the front. But his car became stronger as the race wore on. And by the halfway point, Earnhardt was a solid second.
"We started the race a little loose," Earnhardt said, "but we adjusted it and it got better."
After his second pit stop on lap 210, Earnhardt slowly began gaining on Rudd. On lap 252, Earnhardt passed him. They began racing side-by-side. Two laps later - on lap 254 - Rudd edged ahead of Earnhardt.
But that was Rudd's final lap in the lead. Earnhardt regained the lead on lap 255 and held it for the next 67 laps until he had to make his third and final pit stop.
By lap 325, when all the leaders had finished pitting, Earnhardt was back out front for good, with Rudd chasing him.
But with his Chevrolet hugging the lowest groove in the turns, Earnhardt was able to gradually build on his lead. He was about 3.5 seconds ahead of Rudd when the final caution flag flew on lap 394, setting up the sprint to the finish.
"I didn't get upset" with the last yellow flag, Earnhardt said. "I just said `dang, the bad luck.' It's something in racing that happens. You can't worry about it.
"I was getting pretty comfortable with 10 laps to go with the lead I had. I knew when the caution came out I was going to have to race [Rudd] a lap or two. I just got buckled down tight in the car and did the best I could do."
\ ODDS AND ENDS: Only five of the 35 cars that started the race were not running at the end. . . . There were 25 lead changes among seven drivers. . . . Earnhardt's victory, the 49th of the defending Winston Cup champion's career, was worth $67,950. He took over the Winston Cup championship points lead from Daytona 500 winner Ernie Irvan, who fell to fifth after finishing 27th. . . . Mast finished 35th and picked up $4,600.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB