Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 31, 1993 TAG: 9305310109
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Long
Earnhardt's 4.1-second victory over Jeff Gordon, his second in a row in the 600, will live in stock car racing history as one of his classic triumphs.
Most drivers would have disappeared back into the pack after back-to-back penalties. But a 15-second penalty for speeding on pit road followed later by a potentially devastating one-lap penalty for rough driving simply made Earnhardt more determined. With the help of a late-race yellow flag, he stormed through the field to steal a win even he couldn't believe.
"I can't believe we won this race, not after being a lap down," he told his crew on the radio as he started a victory lap the wrong direction around the track, a memorial tribute to the late Alan Kulwicki, the 1992 Winston Cup champion.
It was a big night for Chevrolet, which had the top five cars. Following Earnhardt and Gordon were Dale Jarrett, pole winner Ken Schrader and Ernie Irvan. Bill Elliott, Jimmy Spencer and Bobby Labonte, all driving Ford Thunderbirds, also finished on the lead lap.
Although Earnhardt led the most laps - 152 of 400 - and set an average speed record of 145.50 mph, there was plenty of action all afternoon and evening, with 29 lead changes among 10 drivers.
Earnhardt proved again he is the best driver NASCAR has to offer, especially when officials try to figuratively tie his hands behind his back.
Earnhardt vehemently protested both penalties, but his best form of protest came on the track.
"You can't keep a good man down," he said. "It's pretty satisfying to win, but it's really satisfying to win after getting penalized. That says something for the race car and the team."
It also says a lot about a driver who has 55 career victories and a record $17 million in race earnings.
Both penalties came after the 600-mile race, NASCAR's longest, was more than half completed.
On lap 222, after a routine pit stop while he was leading, Earnhardt was ordered back to the pits for a 15-second penalty for exceeding the 55 mph speed limit on pit road.
Afterward, Earnhardt said he didn't know how fast he was going, "but [Davey Allison] was catching me." Allison, who ran as high as second until his engine failed, was not penalized.
The penalty sent Earnhardt back into the pack, but by lap 240 he was back in third place.
Then, with less than 75 laps to go, Earnhardt really got into trouble.
He was running third and closely following Greg Sacks through turn 4 on lap 327 when Sacks suddenly spun. Earnhardt had to come to almost a complete stop on the frontstretch to avoid hitting Sacks. He didn't hit Sacks, nor did anyone else, and Sacks avoided the walls.
Earnhardt, to be sure, needed the yellow flag that flew for that incident. At the time, he was trailing Jarrett, the leader, by about 15 seconds.
Jarrett had inherited the huge lead because everyone had pitted except for him and Bobby Labonte when Rusty Wallace spun in turn 2 on lap 224, bringing out a yellow flag. In essence, that gave Jarrett and Labonte a free pit stop and a big lead on the entire field.
NASCAR levied a one-lap penalty on Earnhardt, saying he caused Sacks' spin.
All was chaos in the Earnhardt pit as the black Chevy sat in its pit stall.
"I never touched him! I never touched him, Richard!" Earnhardt shouted to his car owner, Richard Childress, on the radio. "I never touched him! The man got loose and spun in front of me!"
Replied Childress, "Dale, let's just try to calm down. I'm talking to them."
Childress and other crew members were over the pit wall arguing their case with a NASCAR official. That almost prompted another 15-second penalty for having more than seven crewmen over the pit wall. As NASCAR race director David Hoots told the official to count them, some crew members quickly scrambled back over the wall.
Sacks apparently told his crew chief, and his crew chief told NASCAR, that Earnhardt indeed had hit him.
Sacks didn't make a big issue of it, though, and after the race, he said, "I don't know if he touched me."
Said Earnhardt, "It wasn't like I run up there and knocked the crap out of him or turned him over."
In any event, he went a lap down.
On the restart on lap 336, Earnhardt quickly bolted out ahead of Jarrett, who was leading again. That put Earnhardt on the tail end of the lead lap.
And when Wallace spun again, this time in turn 4, the seventh and final yellow flag flew on lap 351.
When the final restart came on lap 355, Earnhardt eighth. He blasted high through turns 3 and 4 on that lap to move into fourth. It was a stunning move.
By lap 357, he was battling Schrader for second. On lap 361, he again used the high groove in turns 3 and 4 to move past Irvan, who had the lead, on the frontstretch.
And that was that, as Earnhardt slowly pulled farther and farther ahead while Schrader and Irvan faded.
And as Earnhardt took the checkered flag, hundreds of flash bulbs popped in the grandstands to photograph a memorable triumph in the first Winston Cup race to start in daylight and finish at night.
\ TOO SLICK MOVE: Rick Mast was the victim of Wally Dallenbach's blown engine on lap 29.
Moments after Dallenbach's Ford died in turns 3 and 4, Mast came tooling through in the high groove, passing a lapped car.
"I got into [Dallenbach's] oil," Mast said.
He had no room to slide, except into the wall, and that broke the frame of his car, necessitating a long pit stop to weld the break.
"I just went into the corner, and it acted like the right front went flat and the right rear went flat," Mast said.
Mast said he heard Harry Gant warn of oil on the track, but "about the time I heard it, I was hitting the wall."
Mast continued to compete after his car was repaired, but he finished 31st, 66 laps down.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB