Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 19, 1993 TAG: 9307190133
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LONG POND, PA. LENGTH: Medium
Earnhardt was visibly moved as he entered Victory Lane for the fifth time this season after beating Rusty Wallace by about eight car lengths, or .72 seconds, in the 500-mile race. Bill Elliott was third, followed by Morgan Shepherd and Brett Bodine.
Moments earlier, in one of the most touching moments ever seen after a NASCAR stock car race, Earnhardt pulled up to his crew at the start-finish line and they knelt around his Chevrolet Lumina as jackman David Smith said a prayer.
Then car owner Richard Childress handed Earnhardt a No. 28 Davey Allison signature flag.
Holding it in the summer breeze, Earnhardt then took a backward victory lap in memory of Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki, who died April 1 in a plane crash, and in memory of Allison, who died Tuesday after a helicopter crash at Talladega Superspeedway.
When Earnhardt finally reached Victory Lane, he sat silently in his car for several moments and appeared close to tears.
"I'd have been glad to run second to Davey today to have him back," Earnhardt said later. "To win it and to have the death of Davey hanging in your mind . . . it was really an emotional moment. Bobby and Judy Allison and Liz and the kids and all the family, they're a part of our family and they've been through so much."
Earnhardt was all business during the race, passing Wallace through turn 2 on lap 183 to take the lead for good on this 2.5-mile trioval. He led 71 of the 200 laps.
"I'd been outrunning Rusty all day long, but he'd gotten better and better all day long, too," Earnhardt said. "There at the end, he got good and we had to race him a few laps to get by him and daggone if he didn't race me hard.
"It seemed like he'd beat me a little bit getting into [turn] 1 and I could get him a little in [turns] 2 and 3.
"If you'd been riding with me, you could see my white knuckles. I could see Rusty in my mirror and he was getting at it, too. Now we're five and five again [with five victories each]. I'm glad he's back in form and I'm glad it's racing as usual with Rusty. I race better under pressure."
Wallace was a latecomer to the battle at the front.
He led only once - from lap 177 through lap 182 - and that was because his pit crew put him in the lead during a series of yellow flag pit stops.
"I thought I was going to beat Earnhardt, but he was just too tough there at the end," Wallace said. "I had a good car today. I just didn't pull enough gear. I needed a little lower gear. They were beating me up off the corner."
Before Wallace emerged as Earnhardt's main challenger, Dale Jarrett and Kyle Petty battled with him. Jarrett led 48 laps, mostly in the second half of the race, while Petty was in front for 26 laps.
But Jarrett was foiled by a costly strategic mistake that dropped him to an eighth-place finish. And Petty burned the clutch out of his Pontiac Grand Prix leaving pit road.
Jarrett was still fuming 20 minutes after the race.
"If I said anything it would be the wrong thing," he said. "We had a good car, but when you have a car that finishes eighth and the car you're racing for the points finishes first, it doesn't do you much good."
Crew chief Jimmy Makar, Jarrett's brother-in-law, took the blame.
"I believe I blew the call this time," Makar said. "We came in there [to the pits] one time when the leader didn't and got ourselves behind. We wanted to make sure we had enough gas to go the rest of the way and it ended up biting us. We didn't have enough time to get back to 'em."
Jarrett was running second to Earnhardt, and had just led a bunch of laps, when Geoff Bodine spun coming off turn 4 on lap 161. Jarrett pitted during the ensuing caution period, as did everyone else, and didn't lose any track position.
But then Makar called him back in again to top off the gas tank. Doing that, Makar figured, would ensure that the car could go the rest of the way. But it was already lap 164, and everyone else had figured at that point that they could make it to the end.
As a result, Jarrett dropped to about 15th, the last car on the lead lap. From there, he could only claw his way back to eighth. And to add insult to injury, there were two more caution periods before the end of the race, eliminating fuel as an issue.
For Petty, who dominated and won the race here last month, "It was driver error," he said. "I just tore the clutch up leaving the pits [on lap 129]. I don't know if I could have beaten Earnhardt or not." He finished 27th.
Petty's team had come prepared to win. The Davey Allison flag that Earnhardt hoisted after the race was from Petty's team. It had been offered to Earnhardt's team earlier, but they didn't accept it until there were five laps to go and victory seem assured.
"Rusty was carrying one in his car," Earnhardt said. "He popped it out as soon as the race was over."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB