THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407030258
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
He finished a lap down, trailing four other lapped cars.
Even before the halfway point, he was telling his crew horror stories about how his car was handling.
``I drive into the corner and go to make my cut and the left front bounces like crazy,'' he said. ``The shocks are just terrible.''
When it was over, he told Ford's Wayne Estes: ``All week long, I just never, never could get the car to drive right. So we just decided to dump that car for poor performance.
``We can't afford to go to Talladega behind, so I told them, `Hey, you'd better find somebody to sell that car to for a show car or something, because we can't sacrifice trying to run it again.'
``I had no idea I'd run this bad today. It was just embarassing. I wanted to quit.''
Wallace said his team probably will build a new car for the final superspeedway race at Talladega later this month. He managed to keep third place in Winston Cup points, but now trails leader Ernie Irvan by 319 points and is only nine points ahead of Mark Martin.
EARNHARDT SLIGHTLY OFF: After leading 31 laps, Dale Earnhardt was slightly off at the end and finished third. The problem may have been that he burned a piston in the final Winston Cup practice on Friday afternoon.
``We were pretty good there at the end, but I just couldn't run with them,'' he said. ``I thought something might happen in front of me, but it never did.''
A MAD MARLIN: Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin was in Jeff Gordon's face before Gordon had a chance to haul himself out of his car after the race.
Marlin, furious after getting spun out by Gordon late in the race, shouted at Gordon for a few moments before stomping off.
``I thought the Chevrolets were supposed to help each other, but that's not what happened out there today,'' Marlin told Chevy's Ray Cooper. ``It was a bad deal. You have to work with somebody at Daytona, but some guys out there think they're one-man bands.''
``I didn't mean to get into him,'' Gordon told Cooper. ``We were racing hard. I was underneath him and my car was pushing. I got into him. He was all upset at me, and he has every right to be. But there have been some other instances.
``I never said one word to him at Martinsville (earlier this year) when he drove right in front of me. There was another time he got into us. It was nothing intentional. At the same time, he needs to take it like a man, grit his teeth and go on to the next one.''
But this one was tough for Marlin to take. He led six laps and was among the leaders most of the afternoon. He lost two laps, eventually finishing 28th.
A TROUBLE-FREE RACE: There were only four caution periods during the race and only one serious accident.
It happened on lap 119 when Derrike Cope slowed coming off turn two and Jeff Purvis lost control trying to avoid him. Six other cars were involved, including the one driven by Joe Nemechek, who slammed into Purvis' car and then hit another driver before stopping. by CNB