Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 8, 1991 TAG: 9104080070
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Rudd eased across the finish line 11.4 seconds ahead of Davey Allison in a race that had only three yellow flags, a long stretch of green-flag racing and almost no wheel-to-wheel battles for the lead.
The long green-flag period lasted 235 laps of the 367-lap race.
With NASCAR's new pit rules, which penalize tire changes during caution periods, all five races this year have had strung-out fields, long green-flag periods and a lack of close racing.
Fans have been complaining, but Rudd certainly isn't. He now has a victory - his first at Darlington - to add to a second place at Richmond, Va., a fourth at Rockingham, N.C., a sixth at Atlanta and a ninth at Daytona, Fla.
"So far it's been pretty good to me, so I better start liking it this way," he said.
Rudd said his first victory at this legendary track - NASCAR's first superspeedway - is particularly sweet because it is such a tough circuit to drive.
"You can win a lot of races, but to win at Darlington, that's a big one," he said. "I guess you've got to keep your cool so good here; [the victory] hasn't really registered."
Rudd set a Darlington track record with an average speed of 135.594 mph but raced the last laps conservatively.
With 25 laps to go and a half-lap lead over Allison, Rudd radioed crew chief Waddell Wilson. "Let me know what I need to worry about," Rudd said.
"Ricky, the pace you're running [which was purposely slower than Allison's pace] is good," Wilson replied. "Just save your tires."
The 34-year-old Chesapeake, Va., native won $62,185 from the purse of more than $538,000. Rudd is now leading the Winston Cup points battle for the first time in his career. He has an 80-point lead over defending champion Dale Earnhardt, who was 24 points ahead coming into this race.
Earnhardt, who fought an ill-handling car all afternoon, never was in contention and fell out of the race after 332 laps with a broken cylinder. He finished 29th.
For Waltrip, it was another lost opportunity. As with the Motorcraft 500 at Atlanta, his chance for victory was lost on pit road.
"It's hard to take, it's real upsetting," Waltrip said. "We let this one get away from us."
Waltrip, who started 10th, took the lead from Sterling Marlin on the 45th lap and dominated the race until his last pit stop on lap 299. He led 208 laps in all, most of them by a comfortable margin of several seconds.
On that last stop, however, a lugnut became stuck in the air wrench of front tire changer Keith Martin as he changed the right front tire. Martin frantically slammed the wrench against the car to knock the nut out of the wrench. But by the time he succeeded and finished his work, the pit stop had taken 37.4 seconds - some 15 seconds longer than usual.
When Waltrip came back on the track, his comfortable lead was gone and he had slipped to third place.
To make matters worse for the team, rear tire changer Harold Holly dislocated his knee getting back over the pit wall, although that didn't affect the pit stop.
Waltrip had to pit again on lap 322 when a tire went down, but hung on for third place.
Allison, who started 11th, gradually moved up during the first half of the race and was third by the halfway point. He led the race for 31 laps after Waltrip's pit problem, but had to make his final pit stop on lap 331 and relinquished the lead to Rudd.
"I think I had a faster car than Ricky Rudd at the end, but with the way the pit rules are now, it worked out in his favor," Allison said. "It doesn't matter who has the quickest car, you've got to play the game right."
Allison's strategy was to make five pit stops - pitting about every 65 laps - and hope that having fresher tires more often would outweigh the lost time of an extra pit stop.
Rudd pitted about every 75 laps. He and crew chief Waddell Wilson elected to pit only four times, hoping that the advantage of one less stop would outweigh the disadvantage of having to run slower on worn tires.
"It just worked out," Wilson said. "At the same time, we got some help from the other guys making some mistakes, too."
The three yellow flags, which lasted a total of 18 laps, were the fewest ever for this race. The previous record was five cautions for 39 laps in 1983. Last year, there were 10 yellow flags for 51 laps.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB