THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 21, 1994 TAG: 9408210233
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
When a car in front of you spins out, you have a split second to decide which way to go.
Bugs Hairfield made the right move Saturday night as he edged Danny Edwards Jr. to win a wild 200-lap Late Model Stock feature at Langley Raceway.
On lap 193, Jimmy Humblet, running several laps down, spun between turns three and four as Phil Warren led Mike Buffkin, Hairfield and Edwards into turn three.
Warren and Buffkin went low, while Hairfield and Edwards went high. The gamble worked as Hairfield and Edwards beat the others to the line as the caution came out.
Warren didn't like the call, and it took officials several laps to get Warren to move back to fourth for the restart.
When they took the green for a two-lap dash to the finish, Hairfield got the jump and Edwards never had a chance. Buffkin finished third. Warren and Buddy Malish were fourth and fifth, respectively.
Hairfield started seventh in the record-setting 34-car field, which turned out to be roughly 12 cars more than can run comfortably on the 0.4-mile oval.
Twenty-six of the first 53 laps were run under caution, and nearly half of the race was run under yellow. There were 14 cautions for 81 laps.
Warren started on the pole, with Roger Sawyer on the outside. Eddie Johnson and Malish were behind them. After a seven-car pileup on lap 1 prevented any green-flag racing until lap 9, the top four decided to hang together until it was time to pit.
Pit stops don't play a role in Late Model Stock racing very often, but when they do, they can be critical. Buffkin proved to have the pit-crew champions this week as he beat everyone else out. Johnson was the biggest loser as his crew had trouble tightening the lug nuts on his right rear tire. Johnson also ran a stop sign coming out of the pits and was issued a stop-and-go penalty that put him a lap down.
Buffkin trailed Danny Ray Baker until Baker elected to pit on lap 129. After that, Buffkin had to hold off Sawyer and Warren, while Edwards, Hairfield and Malish battled several car lengths back.
Sawyer and Warren put Buffkin behind them on lap 150, but where Hairfield's split-second decision put him in Victory Lane, Sawyer's ended his night. Sawyer tagged the rear of John Staton's car when Staton spun in turn one. Sawyer's car suffered major sheet-metal damage on the right front quarterpanel.
NASCAR made him pit to remove the dangling metal, which forced him to the rear of the field. After another trip down pit road, Sawyer decided it wasn't worth it and he was done for the night.
That left Buffkin and Warren to wage a door-to-door battle until HUmblet's spin.
In other races:
Chris Phelps of Glen Allen, Va., made a rare appearance at Langley and led from flag to flag to claim the 25-lap Mini-Stock race.
Roger Bress padded his points lead with his fifth win of the season in the 40-lap Grand Stock race.
Charlie Bryant Jr. won his eighth Limited Stock race, but the real action came when Kevin Adams and Jim Gleason tangled on the backstretch and Adams' car erupted into flames. Adams walked away unhurt.
Points leader Jerry Scott inherited the lead when the engine in Chris Mull's car blew on lap 32 of the 35-lap Pure Stock race to claim his ninth win of the season. by CNB