Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 21, 1990 TAG: 9005210291
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Thanks to Dale Earnhardt, there was no race, either.
In a dominating performance Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Earnhardt turned Sunday's sixth running of The Winston into The Alpo, leading every lap en route to the easiest $325,000 he'll ever bank.
"There was no question who was the best out there today," a grinning Earnhardt said.
"I never seen nobody all day long."
The other 19 drivers in the field saw too much . . . of Earnhardt's back bumper.
Runner-up Ken Schrader did manage to stay in the same area code with Earnhardt, finishing eight car lengths back. The only others within sight of the winner at the finish were Mark Martin and Bill Elliott, who finished some two seconds back in third and fourth.
Earnhardt said he wasn't worried about anybody. His black No. 3 Chevrolet had an answer for any possible challenge.
"I was saving the car so if somebody did get to me, I could run harder," Earnhardt said.
"When it was over, Schrader pulled up beside me and said, `If I could have caught you, I'd knocked you.' I told him, `Mine has got a steering wheel, too."
Earnhardt said he was glad his second triumph in the lucrative sprint race came with nary a whimper of controversy.
"We had a bad deal here when I won in 1987," said Earnhardt, referring to his high-speed game of push 'n' shove with Bill Elliott and Geoff Bodine that resulted in fines from NASCAR.
"This is the kind of race I wanted to run and win today. No controversy, no rifts."
No contest, fifth-place finisher Davey Allison confessed.
"Dale Earnhardt has been dominant all year long. I didn't see why he'd be much different today.
"He ran just fast enough to stay in front. I don't think he ever showed what he really had."
Earnhardt's face-up cards were plenty stout. Could he have run harder?
"I'll never tell," Earnhardt said, flashing a coy grin.
After leading the entire 50-lap, 75-mile opening segment, Earnhardt sat in his car on pit road as his Richard Childress team made several chassis adjustments in a 15-minute break before the final 20-lap segment.
"To lead the first 50 laps was pretty impressive," Earnhardt said. "The car was a little too tight in [turns] three and four, though. The crew made a couple of adjustments and the car responded just right. I felt we were in good shape."
On the restart to the final 30-mile run, Earnhardt snookered Elliott by laying back, then suddenly jumping on the throttle.
Elliott, whose Ford appeared to be the only car capable of beating Earnhardt, quickly drifted back to seventh. Meanwhile, Earnhardt was gone.
"He was ahead of me and the leader is supposed to start [first]," Earnhardt said. "When we got to where I wanted to start, I started. It hurt ol' Bill, I think."
Elliott said he didn't know what happened.
"I was following the speed of the pace car and [Earnhardt] kept slowing up," Elliott said. "We were told in the drivers' meeting to maintain the speed of the pace car. So I did and I got drop-kicked.
"Then, I had to play catch-up and there wasn't enough time. I could catch Dale, but I couldn't pass him."
Neither could anybody else.
\ LUGNUTS: Dick Trickle, who got in the race by winning the Winston Open, finished sixth. . . . Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip, the combatants in last year's controversial finish, were never a factor. Wallace's Pontiac blew an engine only 12 miles into the 105-mile trip. He finished 20th. Waltrip's Chevy suffered carburetor problems and limped home 13th. . . . An event-record crowd of 90,200 witnessed what little excitement there was in this race. Earnhardt averaged 163.001 mph as only one caution flag flew for debris on the track.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB