Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 2, 1992 TAG: 9203020127
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Elliott, driving the Ford that Johnson beat up last year in the Legends race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, ran away with the Goodwrench 500 Winston Cup race Sunday at North Carolina Motor Speedway, winning in his second outing for Johnson.
Elliott was 12.75 seconds ahead of Ford driver Davey Allison and pulling away when the checkered flag fell on another uneventful, grueling affair at the track known as "The Rock."
Elliott assumed the lead on lap 280 during the seventh and final caution period and never trailed again. The last 200 laps of the 492-lap race were run under the green flag, and Elliott led all of them.
"You know, when [Johnson and I] first talked about doing this, everybody thought Tim and I wouldn't work together," Elliott said after his 35th career victory. "But it amazed me the amount of support I've gotten.
"I told Tim yesterday evening, `You all make it easy.' Today just proved my point. I guess in some respects it does surprise me."
Said Johnson: "I told [Bill] down at Talladega last year that if he would come over with us, we'd make sure he'd have the equipment. All he had to do was drive it. He did his job. And we're going to keep on doing our job."
Elliott's new team had plenty of hard work to do over the winter, as did every other Winston Cup team. But leading up to Sunday's race, they didn't have to do much at all.
"When Tim brought this car down here, I loved it," Elliott said. "I never changed anything. We changed the sway bar and the track bar to qualify Friday, but we never touched anything else."
Harry Gant finished third in his Oldsmobile, the only other car on the lead lap. Michael Waltrip was fourth in a Pontiac, and Ken Schrader was fifth in his Chevrolet.
It was another big day for Ford, as it was two weeks ago in the Daytona 500, when Allison, Morgan Shepherd, Geoff Bodine and Alan Kulwicki swept the top four places in their Fords.
Ford's racing director, Michael Kranefuss, did his best to contain his glee as he puffed on his ever-present pipe after the race, but his vigorous handshake and his wide smile told the story.
"I wouldn't call this `Ford dominance' despite what we've seen in the first two races," he said. "We have a bunch of good Ford teams right now. Look how long we struggled to get to where we are."
Although Rusty Wallace stuck the nose of his Pontiac out front for 17 laps early in the race, the only other non-Ford driver to see the lead was Kyle Petty.
Petty was the consensus pick to win his third consecutive Goodwrench 500 when he won the pole Friday with a track-record qualifying lap.
Petty led 24 of the first 50 laps, including the first 10 circuits around the 1.017-mile oval. He developed handling problems, though, and dropped out of contention. Petty was 13 laps down when he dropped out of the race on lap 430 with a broken engine.
"We ended up having to chase it all day," said Petty. "It just wouldn't go nowhere. It happens sometimes. One of those days."
For Elliott, the only hint of a problem came early, when he failed to pit with the other leaders during the first caution period from lap 24 through 27.
Elliott was leading when the caution period started, but after the green flag came out, he was passed by Petty, Wallace, Allison and Mark Martin, all of whom had fresh tires.
No problem. After all, Winston Cup races at Rockingham are four-hour marathons. And at this point, the event was less than an hour old.
"We just kind of had to fight back from that," Elliott said. "The guys did a superb job in the pits, and we finally worked our way back up to the front."
Although Elliott was as far back as 11th on lap 60, he had moved back into second, behind Allison, by lap 160. Allison was the leader at the halfway point on lap 246.
The second half of the race was Elliott's show.
Elliott finished the race without denting the car, which is more than can be said for Johnson when he drove it last May at Charlotte.
The Legends race was only 30 laps, but Johnson hit just about everything, including the pace car driven by NASCAR President Bill France Jr., in that short track free-for-all.
"When I got done with it," Johnson said, "it was ready for the team to put a new skin [body] on it."
It was also ready for a new driver.
"I think this is the start of something good," said Elliott, who officially joined forces with Johnson on Jan. 2 after the Elliott family team was dismantled at the end of 1991. "I'm looking forward to the rest of the season no matter what happens."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB