Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 24, 1993 TAG: 9305240037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
That's what happened Saturday night in The Winston at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Dale Earnhardt won the thing, but by the time he took the checkered flag, The Winston of 1993 had lost all meaning as a bona fide stock car race.
It's too bad because the only American auto race that has a grander, more spectacular setting is the Indianapolis 500.
Nothing else in the Winston Cup series compares to the electricity in the night air as drivers are introduced before the start of NASCAR's all-star race.
There is something about the night, and the track's breathtaking lights, that sets people off. The frontstretch grandstand becomes a vast wall of roaring fans. From the pits, it is an awesome scene.
And considering how competitive the series already is, there would seem to be no need whatsoever to cook the rules to squeeze out more excitement.
But in the climactic moments of Saturday night's version, there were no less than four significant deviations from normal NASCAR race rules. Three of those played into Earnhardt's hands, conspiring to give him a phantom victory - one he never would have had under normal conditions.
When Terry Labonte blew his engine and crashed in turn 4 as the field prepared to start the final lap of the 10-lap finale, NASCAR threw a yellow flag.
Leader Mark Martin raced around the track one more time, crossed the finish line and shouted "All right!" His crew joined the celebration. I turned to my laptop computer and began writing that Martin had won The Winston.
Oops!
We all forgot that yellow-flag laps didn't count. And if we forgot, no doubt most fans forgot, too. Yellow-flag laps count in all regular Winston Cup races. They even counted earlier Saturday night, during the first and second 30-lap segments of The Winston.
But "only green-flag laps count in the final segment" of The Winston. It's right there in The Winston race rules.
OK.
That means one lap to go, right? That's what I thought. And that is what crew chief Steve Hmiel first told Martin when they came to realize the race was not yet over.
In normal races, lap 9 would have counted because it started as a green-flag lap. But NASCAR said lap 9 was a yellow-flag lap and put two laps back on the scoreboard. This small aberration didn't affect the outcome. It just added to the confusion.
What next?
When the field bunched for the restart, they lined up double-file, with Earnhardt, who was in second, starting on the outside of Martin. Regular race restarts never happen like this. Restarts in the first two segments didn't happen like this.
But The Winston rules say: "There will be a double-file restart for the final segment."
Okay. Anything else?
Earnhardt jumped the restart. He didn't just shoplift; he robbed the bank, as Ernie Irvan put it. Earnhardt was eight or 10 car lengths ahead of Martin. He looked like he was doing a Richard Petty ceremonial lap in front of the field.
Normally, that gets you shipped to the back of the field. There is nothing in The Winston rules that permits jumping a restart.
But NASCAR race director David Hoots, a decisive and strict umpire in most cases, took pity on Earnhardt and issued only a bland warning.
"I got a little greedy," Earnhardt confessed. He blithely admitted he had done it on purpose. He has some notion that "original Winston rules" allow drivers to jump restarts.
And since Hoots failed to call a penalty, NASCAR is taking the stance that jumping restarts in The Winston is OK. After the race, the company line from spokesman Chip Williams was different race, different circumstances, different rules.
So Earnhardt went ahead and won a race that, by this time, was devoid of meaning, like a roller derby championship.
Martin, ever the stoic, did not complain.
"Dale just beat us," he said.
The most Martin would say was, "He dodged a bullet."
They don't change the height of the rim in the NBA all-star game. They don't put 30 extra seconds on the clock at the end of the NFL Pro Bowl. They don't give the shortstop another chance if he boots the ball in the ninth inning of the major-league all-star game.
But in its effort to try to help Winston manufacture an exciting all-star race, NASCAR allowed major rules changes. It worked last year. This year, the drawbacks were exposed. And the 1993 Winston ended up being a contrived and artificial event that is best worth forgetting.
by CNB