MICHAEL WALTRIP 1ST IN BRISTOL GN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993                   TAG: 9304040204
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MICHAEL WALTRIP 1ST IN BRISTOL GN
Michael Waltrip took advantage of a tangle between the two cars ahead of him Saturday to take the lead he held the last 95 laps in winning the Budweiser 250 Busch Grand National stock car race in Bristol, Tenn.
Waltrip was trailing Chuck Bown and Robert Pressley in lap 155 of the $207,261 race when Pressley tapped Bown into the turn 1 wall. Waltrip passed Pressley as he was recovering.
Todd Bodine led 87 laps and finished second, passing Terry Labonte with two laps to go when Labonte spun out avoiding a wreck.
Two separate accidents on lap 248 brought out the 13th caution of the day, and the race ended under the yellow flag.
Steve Grissom avoided the mess most of the day to finish third. Joe Nemechek was fourth, and Jeff Green was fifth.
"Courtesy's gone. You just have to drive defensively and hope nobody turns you around," Waltrip said.
"We dedicate this race to the memory of Alan and the people who were with him," Waltrip said, referring to Alan Kulwicki. Kulwicki, last year's Winston Cup champion, was killed Thursday night when the plane bringing him and three others to Bristol crashed.
In other racing:
\ WINSTON TWINS: At Richmond, Mike Stefanik avoided a late-race melee to win the 150-lap NASCAR Winston Modified Tour portion of the Winston Twins at Richmond International Raceway.
Mike Buffkin of Tabb won the earlier 150-lap race for NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars on the 3/4-mile track.
Stefanik, who started on the pole after breaking his own track qualifying record Friday, drove by the spinning cars of Reggie Ruggiero and Doug Heveron as they tangled while battling for the lead nine laps from the end of the race.
Stefanik was second behind Jan Leaty on the resulting restart, then his Pontiac blasted ahead and he held off Jeff Fuller for the victory. Stefanik, of West Greenwich, R.I., won $12,650.
Fuller, of Auburn, Mass., finished second; Jan Leaty, of Williamson, N.Y., was third; Mike Ewanitsko, of North Babylon, N.Y., was fourth; and Heveron, from Liverpool, N.Y., was fifth. All four drove Chevrolets.
In the Late Model Stock Car race, Joe Gaita of Yorktown was second in a Pontiac, and Frankie Pennington of Lexington was third in a Ford.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB