Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 19, 1993 TAG: 9304190028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Winning drivers usually whoop and holler into their radios as they take the checkered flag. Wallace was silent for 10 or 15 seconds.
Finally, after crew members radioed their congratulations, Wallace came on the air, calm and collected.
"You guys did a great job today," he said without the slightest excitement or urgency in his voice. "Everybody held their cool. Good run. Good run."
Then he took another backward victory lap in his Pontiac Grand Prix, as he did at Bristol two weeks ago, in memory of the late Winston Cup champion, Alan Kulwicki.
Kyle Petty finished second, 1.5 seconds behind Wallace, to complete a 1-2 sweep for Pontiac. It was the first such finish for Pontiacs since Wallace and Morgan Shepherd finished first and second in the Champion 400 at Michigan International Speedway in 1989.
Ken Schrader finished third in his Chevrolet Lumina for his best finish of the year. Davey Allison was fourth in a Ford Thunderbird. Behind Allison, also on the lead lap, were Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte, Ricky Rudd, Morgan Shepherd and Sterling Marlin.
Marlin led the most laps - 190 of 400 - but faded at the end as the track became slicker.
Wallace took the lead on lap 299, passing Schrader going into turn 3, and led the rest of the way.
He said his lack of excitement at the checkered flag simply reflected his attitude throughout the race.
"The biggest thing with these short tracks is you've just got to be patient," he said. "I kept telling myself today, `Go get 'em, go get 'em.' But, no, I didn't want to come off the corners spinning the tires. I wouldn't go wide open off the corner until almost to the start-finish line. I just had to be real, real patient.
"Roger [Penske, co-car owner] called me last night from the Indy car race in Long Beach and said, `Man, just be careful. Be calm. Stay out of the wrecks. And if you bring it home in the top 10, that's fine. We need to finish a race."
Actually, since his spectacular wreck at Daytona, Wallace has had no trouble finishing races. He won at Rockingham and was second at Richmond, third at Atlanta, fifth at Darlington and first again at Bristol.
His victory Sunday sent him to the top of the Winston Cup points standings. Wallace has an 18-point lead over Dale Earnhardt, who finished 16th, four laps down.
Earnhardt broke the track record Saturday in second-round qualifying, but he went nowhere Sunday.
"I know I've never had that bad of a car here," he said. "I didn't know what to tell [the crew] to fix the car."
The only problem Wallace had Sunday was of his own doing.
"We came up here knowing this is one of the harder race tracks on brakes," he said. "So we took the oil cooler . . . and moved it in front of the radiator. That way, we can get the oil cooler out of the way of the brake hoses and run real nice straight brake lines" to make the brakes more efficient.
Almost immediately, though, the water and oil temperatures soared.
"Early in the race, everything looked grim because, boy, everything was as hot as a firecracker," Wallace said. "I just had to get air to it. That's the reason I took it easy for 250 laps.
"We were just trying some new stuff and it didn't work, but we did win the race. We'll change everything back at Martinsville next week."
Despite his calm demeanor after his victory, Wallace has found excitement in the season.
"Winning this many races this quick has exceeded my expectations," he said. "I thought we'd win three or four races this year, but I didn't know they would come in the first seven races of the year.
"The way our team is right now, I sure don't put 10 wins out of the question."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB