Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 30, 1990 TAG: 9004300177
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
"I thought I might win a race a lot of times, but I kept it to myself," he said.
So when his driver Geoff Bodine crowed beforehand that he was going to win Sunday, Johnson admitted to raising more than an eyebrow or two.
"I'm kinda with him [Bodine] like Muhammad Ali was," Johnson said. "If you can say it and back it up, I'm behind you 100 percent."
Well, Bodine said it. And, boy, did he ever back it up.
In a dominating performance Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Bodine led 270 of the 500 laps and strolled to victory in the Hanes 500.
Bodine, who led the final 137 laps around the .526-mile oval, finished 4.2 seconds ahead of Rusty Wallace to keep NASCAR's victory lane in the family circle.
Coupled with younger brother Brett's victory last Sunday at North Wilkesboro, N.C., the Bodines became the first brothers to win back-to-back Winston Cup events since Donnie and Bobby Allison did the job in November 1978.
"It's been a great week for the family," a happy Geoff Bodine said. "Shoot, my 12-year-old son, Barry, won his first Go-Kart race last night in Liberty [N.C.]. He sat on the pole, won the race.
"After it was over, he came over and said, `Dad, it's your turn tomorrow.' "
The boy must have known something. The old man sure had them covered Sunday.
"It was a perfect day for us," Bodine said. "The car was great and the pit crew did the job, especially on that last pit stop. They got me out ahead of Rusty and that made my job a lot easier."
After the pivotal pit stop during the day's 10th and final caution flag on laps 363-366, Bodine threw his Ford Thunderbird into high gear and drove away from the field.
"When Geoff beat us out on that final stop, it killed us," Wallace said. "Then, I worked too hard to catch him and used up my tires.
"About 60 laps from the end, I got loose and lost more ground. My aggressive driving is what beat me."
Morgan Shepherd continued his consistent string of runs, coming home third in a Ford, nine seconds back.
Darrell Waltrip, who was gunning for a fourth straight Martinsville victory, finished fourth, 11 seconds back in a Chevrolet.
Dale Earnhardt passed Bodine for the lead on the first lap but never was a real threat. His loose-handling Chevrolet finished a lap down in the fifth.
Ken Schrader, Mark Martin, Michael Waltrip, Dick Trickle and Bill Elliott rounded out the top 10.
For the most part, the record crowd of some 43,500 was treated to a ho-hum affair.
Wallace, the defending Winston Cup champion who has been missing in action for most of the 1990 season, made the early news when he charged from 17th place to pass Bodine for the lead on lap 115.
As it turned out, that would be the final lead change to occur on the track.
During the first round of green-flag pit stops from laps 145-160, Wallace snookered everybody when his team elected to change only two tires.
The strategy seemed to pay off, as after the stops, Wallace had turned a six-car length lead into a fat 11.8-second cushion and left only six cars on the lead lap.
Bodine made up the deficit when Derrike Cope spun on lap 220, bringing out the yellow flag.
From that point, it was a two-man race between Bodine and Wallace. The two leaders ran nose-to-tail for the next 140 laps. They swapped the lead twice, both times on pit road during a caution.
Wallace's Pontiac was leading by five car lengths when the final yellow was displayed on lap 363 for Trickle's spin in turn two.
"We knew that stop was going to be big," Bodine said. "We knew it could be the stop that could win us the race."
The Johnson crew came through when it counted. They hustled Bodine out ahead of Wallace, and their driver took care of the rest.
"When it looks easy like that, it's because the car is working perfectly," Bodine said. "It's the most dominate day, in regards to the car and in the pits, I've ever had."
The victory, Bodine's first in his first season in the Johnson car, was impressive.
"I knew we had a good car and I thought we'd win this race," Bodine said.
He was right. And like Junior said, it's not bragging if you can do it.
\ LUGNUTS: Bodine collected a NASCAR-record short-track prize of $90,950, including a $38,000 bonus from Unocal for winning the pole and the race. . . . The winner averaged 77.423 mph for the 262.5-mile trip. The pace was slowed 10 times by cautions - all for minor spins and wrecks - for 45 laps. . . . The victory was only the second by a Ford in the past 20 years at Martinsville. . . . Bodine's eighth career victory made him the seventh different winner in eight races this season. Hanes 500 notebook. B4 B6 B1 BODINE Bodine
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB