Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 16, 1992 TAG: 9203160095
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium
That's the most appropriate word to describe the collective attitude of the Winston Cup drivers who watched Bill Elliott steal the Motorcraft 500 Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
"He's luckier than a pig in slop," said Dale Earnhardt, who finished third.
"Those Fords just can't seem to lose," said Harry Gant, who was second.
"You can't beat luck," said Davey Allison, who finished fourth. "When someone is that lucky, man, it stinks."
"Well, that's the way it is, but it kind of hurts the race," said Dick Trickle, who was fifth. "Somehow it's not right, but on the other hand, it's by the rules."
\ Many of the cars in Sunday's race blistered the radial tires that Goodyear used for the first time at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Although no one crashed because of a blistered tire, the problems prompted NASCAR to call caution periods on lap 86 and lap 173 so the teams could check their tires.
Drivers who blistered tires included pole-sitter Mark Martin, who dropped out of contention after an unscheduled tire change on lap 254, Harry Gant, Michael Waltrip, Richard Petty, Rick Mast, Sterling Marlin, Greg Sacks, Terry Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd and Derrike Cope.
Goodyear spokesman Bill King said the tire problems occurred because the cars were set up too tight. Because of that, there was too little weight on the right-front and left-rear tires, causing them to spin a bit on the track, overheat and blister, King said.
In one of three crashes Sunday, Ken Schrader slammed the wall in turn 3 after a tire went down. But it didn't blister. King said Schrader's tire was punctured when it ran over a part that fell off his engine.
\ Ernie Irvan managed to run one lap Sunday after breaking his collarbone in a crash Saturday during Saturday's Grand National race. Because he started the race, he gets all the Winston Cup points for finishing 25th, which is where relief driver Bobby Labonte ended up.
Irvan, looking tired and feeling sore, said, "The doctor told me it was about like getting hit real hard by Muhammad Ali 20 years ago.
"It was a little difficult driving the car, but we'd only planned to go one lap," Irvan said. "That's as much as I wanted to run, anyway, because I was hurting pretty bad. I'll fly home and go to a doctor in Charlotte and see what it'll take to heal a little faster. I think I'll be all right for Darlington."
\ Showing some early speed, Richard Petty was able to stay on the lead lap until late in his final Motorcraft 500. He finished 16th, one lap down. It was his third 16th-place finish in four races.
"We kept blistering right-front tires," Petty said. "We ran pretty good and got to working on the car to keep it from blistering tires. That slowed the car down and it still blistered tires."
Of Elliott's victory, Petty said: "You had an eighth- or 10th-place car, but it won because he got the breaks. I had a 15th-place car and had some bad breaks and finished 16th. That's the way it works for me."
\ Ricky Rudd, who finished 12th, said it was "probably the hardest 12th-place finish I've ever had."
Rudd said he and his team struggled with his Chevrolet Lumina all afternoon and never got it right. Rudd said he was never able to drive in the lower groove at the 1.522-mile track and had to do all his passing on the outside. He also blistered a couple of tires. He did, however, remain on the lead lap throughout the race.
\ Mast also had problems with blistered tires. On his first pit stop, his crew adjusted the chassis on his Oldsmobile to try to solve the tire problem.
"After that, the car didn't handle worth a darn all day," Mast said. He finished 22nd, five laps down.
\ Geoff Bodine's sixth-place finish was his second top-10 finish of the year.
At one point late in the race, while Elliott was leading, Bodine was running second. But in the final 28 laps, he was passed by Gant, Earnhardt, Allison and Trickle.
"We could run good for about 10 or 15 laps, but it would start pushing and sliding," Bodine said. "We got all we could out of it. We just never could get it good enough."
"I've been in that No. 11 car [now driven by Elliott] and it always gets good gas mileage," Bodine said. [He won last fall's Charlotte race by making one less pit stop than the other competitors]. "Today, the guy who won was lucky."
by CNB