Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990 TAG: 9007010194
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF MOTLEY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Thomas, who dropped a valve and finished in the back of the pack last week, lapped all but one car in the field as he won his fifth race in the past six weeks in the NAPA Champion Spark Plug 200 on Saturday night.
The only threats to Thomas were second-place finisher Jeff Agnew and a first-lap crash that eliminated four cars, including Ricky Seay, last week's winner.
As the cars came off of turn four, Seay's car scraped the outside wall and shot across the track in front of Roanoker Tink Reedy, who rammed the Seay car. John Curtis and Carl Dadian followed Reedy's lead and all four cars wound up being towed away from the pit wall on the front stretch.
Pole sitter Johnny Rumley led the first 29 laps, but he was just holding Thomas and Agnew. On lap 29, both drivers overtook Rumley and battled to the end.
"We had a little push in the car, but Ronnie is still awfully tough," said Agnew, who finished second for the third week in a row. "Ronnie has the age and the experience and we still have a lot to learn, but I like to think we're getting there."
Thomas wouldn't argue with that.
"Jeff Agnew is on the verge of being right at the top," Thomas said. "It seems every time out here, you can count on having to beat Jeff to win the race."
Thomas maintained a four-car-length advantage over Agnew, but lapped traffic seemed to keep the Floyd driver on Thomas' bumper.
"There were two or three instances that some lapped cars really slowed us up," Thomas said. "But when I got around them, I was able to maintain my advantage. I have a footprint on the floorboard to prove how hard I had to drive."
As an example of the dominance of the two cars, both lapped third-place finisher Rumley on the 97th lap.
In other action:
Shannon Tate grabbed the lead from last week's winner Ray Young on the 24th lap to post his second win in the Street Stock division. Hank Turman finished second and Young was third.
Ricky Jefferson of Christiansburg led from flag to flag to take the Modified Mini Stock race. Bo Howell was second and Dale Sutphin wound up third.
The Mini Stock race belonged to the Smith brothers from Dublin. Mark won the 25-lap feature and Charlie finished one car-length behind in second. Rick Lawson finished third.
Ronnie Byrd passed Garry Davis and Buzz Smith, who spun down the back stretch on the last lap, to win the Pure Stock event. Davis finished on three wheels for second and Jon Tolley came in third.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB