Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203290119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
The 32-year-old Asheville, N.C., driver passed Gant on the inside going into the third turn of the last lap, then blocked the veteran's attempts to make the classic Darlington counter-pass.
Pressley beat Gant to the finish line by two car lengths. Butch Miller was third, followed by Dick Trickle and Todd Bodine.
"I'll tell you what - to win, man, this is the greatest day of my life," Pressley said in the winner's circle. "We were just gonna try and finish this thing. Me and Harry Gant here - it's fun just running second to him!"
Pressley's goal might have been just to finish or to run second to Gant, but he certainly prepared for the 200-mile race like he wanted to win.
"I've been watching these films of Darlington for the last two or three weeks," Pressley said.
He learned about the classic Darlington last-lap pass on the low side of turn 3. He also learned about the classic countermove of the second-place car, which is to let off the gas, tap the brakes and dive back below the leader.
It is a Darlington counterattack perhaps best employed by David Pearson, the father of Pressley's crew chief, Ricky Pearson.
"And I knew that's what [Gant] was going to do," Pressley said. "I got in there [in turn three] and I heard him let off [the gas]. And I let off. I just played a little game with him. He got hung up there, and heck, here we are. Who'd have thought that?"
Gant made a final attempt to dive below Pressley's Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme coming off turn 4. But Pressley appeared to block that move, too, fishtailing a bit as he did.
Gant said his Buick Regal was not handling well enough to overcome Pressley's pass.
"I had that little bit of push and just couldn't get the car to come back down coming off the corner to get back under him before the [finish] line," Gant said.
Pressley's third career victory was set up by the final caution period on lap 139 of the 147-lap race, caused by Jack Sprague's minor crash on the backstretch.
Pressley beat Butch Miller out of the pits to secure second place behind Gant, who led more than half the race. Gant's car ran best after eight or 10 laps at speed, so Pressley thought he had a good chance to pass Gant when the race resumed with five laps to go.
On the last lap, Pressley said, he went into turn 1 hard "and he got a little loose and I got beside him." Pressley then went side-by-side on the inside of Gant down the backstretch before making the winning pass.
Pressley and his Arden, N.C.-based team, owned by Daniel E. Welch, won $21,075 in a rare victory by a Grand National regular over a Winston Cup veteran in head-to-head competition.
Kenny Wallace, who finished 11th Saturday, remains atop the Grand National points standings, with an 88-point lead over Jeff Gordon. Gordon finished 26th after dropping out on lap 95 with a broken shock absorber mount. Pressley is fourth in points, 121 behind Wallace.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB