Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990 TAG: 9004090116
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Long
Strolling on the ridges of Mount Everest any time soon? Make sure Allison is in your party.
Car broke down in the midday sun of Death Valley? Better hope Allison is riding shotgun.
Bobby's boy is a survivor.
Hazards galore didn't keep Davey Allison from winning his first Winston Cup race at Bristol International Raceway on Sunday. Allison nosed out hard-charging Mark Martin by 6 inches to win the 30th Valleydale Meats 500.
Allison did so while staying mostly intact after a wreck with Rob Moroso and subsequently coming through assorted perils after a 19th-place start.
The finish was so close that Allison was asked if he was aware he had won the race.
"I knew I was ahead of him when I crossed the stripe, but it didn't even really sink in until we came around," he said. "I was coming down the back straightaway and said, `Man, we just won this thing! I cannot believe it!' I started screaming on the radio."
Allison won $50,100 in front of a track record crowd of 57,800. Despite a valiant charge at the end, Martin wheeled his Ford to a second-place finish and $31,300.
Ricky Rudd clipped Sterling Marlin going past on the last lap and was third. Terry Labonte drove his Oldsmobile to a fourth-place finish and Rick Wilson's Olds was fifth.
"We did all we could do, but there just wasn't enough race track to quite get by Davey," said Martin, who never led a lap. "We had a great car, but just didn't quite make it to the front. I'm sure not disappointed with second."
Woe and misery was the companion of many drivers on this crisp and sunny spring day. Thirteen cautions governed 65 laps. Hard-luck Darrell Waltrip was almost as unhappy as most of the sheet metal-shrouded victims; seven of the field of 32 did not finish.
Waltrip, an owner of a record 11 career Winston Cup victories here, led for 166 laps. But on the race's final caution, Martin beat Waltrip out of the pits and he never led again.
Waltrip stayed right after Martin until meeting his doom with tire trouble 26 laps from the checkered flag. Waltrip finished ninth.
"The car was running so good and I think we could have passed Davey even though there wasn't a lot of room to pass out there," Waltrip said. "But we had a flat tire and that was the end of it. We needed this one, but we'll be back."
Allison led the last 109 laps because he refused to pit on the last caution, believing that he would run better on used tires than a set of new ones.
It was a leap of faith, but he wasn't the only one who had faith in the Texaco Thunderbird.
"We went to breakfast this morning over there at the Bonfire restaurant in South Bristol and a guy with a Dale Earnhardt T-shirt and Dale Earnhardt hat came over and shook my hand and said, `I just told all my buddies that you're going to win the race today. And I'm a Dale Earnhardt fan, but you're going to win the race.' "
Earnhardt was making a bid to win his third race in a row, but his hopes were dashed early. Earnhardt spun his car on the backstretch of the slick and newly resurfaced track in the 30th lap. Pitting for repairs put him 34 laps down and he was running for the points from then on.
"I just lost it coming out of the second turn and just crashed the car," he said. "It was my fault. We had to do a lot of work to the car and my hat's off to the crew for getting us back out there as quick as they did."
Earnhardt wheeled his Chevrolet in 19th.
At the conclusion, Sterling Marlin had to be restrained from seeking out Rudd for a heated (and possibly physical) discussion of their last-lap encounter.
"To have that happen on the last lap isn't fun," said Marlin, of Columbia, Tenn.
Rudd was sympathetic.
"I didn't want to see Sterling wreck," Rudd said. "He was slow in the corner and I drop-kicked him and turned him around, but I wasn't trying to wreck him. I really feel bad for him and his bunch.
"He was upset and I don't blame him. I'd be upset too."
There were others who were upset, but many of them were upset at the skating-rink conditions of the track.
"It was real slippery out there," Allison said. "A lot of the guys that spun spun because they got a little out of the groove, and when they would, the car would just take off. There was nothing they could do about it."
Other notable finishes included pole-sitter Ernie Irvan (16th), Bill Elliott (17th), Richard Petty (26th) and defending Winston Cup champion Rusty Wallace (28th).
Michael Waltrip, who survived perhaps the most frightening crash ever seen at this track in Saturday's Budweiser 250 Busch Grand National, started 20th and finished 20th.
\ LUGNUTS: Earnhardt maintained his points lead with 945. Morgan Shepherd, who finished eighth, is 42 points back. . . . Kyle Petty came in 10th to run his NASCAR money earnings for the year to $357,920. Earnhardt is next with $327,050.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB