Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 5, 1993 TAG: 9309050099
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
His fifth victory in six races came Saturday at Darlington Raceway, where he led 65 of 147 laps to win the Gatorade 200 Grand National race going away, despite the mystery fluid that turned his windshield white early in the race.
The official margin was sixty-five-hundredths of a second, but Martin had the rest of this 42-car field covered. Randy LaJoie finished second in another fine run, followed by Chad Little, Joe Nemechek and Grand National points leader Steve Grissom.
"Man, I tell you, it's like we can't do anything wrong," Martin said. "I can't explain it. We're able to recover from all kinds of stuff. I don't know what's going on, but I hope it continues tomorrow."
Martin starts fourth today in the Southern 500, and it appears they'll have to tow his Ford Thunderbird off the track with a wrecker to keep him from driving it to his fourth consecutive victory.
Counting his Grand National triumph at Michigan in August, and the one here Saturday, Martin has won five of the past six Winston Cup and Grand National races, usually overcoming setbacks.
Soft lug nuts led to painfully slow pit stops at Watkins Glen - but he won. At Michigan, he ran out of fuel once in the Champion 400 - but won. He lost two laps at Bristol with a flat tire - and came back to win.
At Darlington on Saturday, it was the case of the nefarious windshield cleaner.
He was leading when he pitted around lap 42 during a caution period and a crewman cleaned his windshield, as usual.
"The windshield wasn't that dirty, but the solvent they used to clean it just turned snow white and I couldn't see a thing," Martin said. "I couldn't see where I was going. I couldn't even see the pits. But it was one of those days where it worked out for us."
Although he had to make a second pit stop a lap later, which dropped him to the back of the field, Martin hunkered down and did what he's become so used to doing lately: He clawed his way back through the field.
By lap 60, he was 11th. Ten laps later, he was sixth. By lap 90, he was third. He fell back again briefly during one restart, but took the lead for good on lap 111.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB