Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 11, 1993 TAG: 9310110033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Ernie Irvan added another skill to his stock car-driving repertoire Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He learned how to make a NASCAR race as boring as kitty litter.
There was plenty of mellow and not much yellow in the Mello Yello 500 as Irvan led all but six of the 334 laps in his Ford Thunderbird.
"It may have been stinky for awhile, but it smelled good at the end," Irvan said after his third Winston Cup victory of the year and his second in the six races he has run since taking over the late Davey Allison's car.
Only two caution periods slowed the event, which was run at a record speed of 154.537 mph.
Irvan spent most of the afternoon about half a track ahead of his nearest pursuer. But his winning margin over Mark Martin was only 1.94 seconds because of the second caution period.
That yellow flag, with 27 laps to go, seemed suspicious, because it bunched the field and gave the front-runners a final shot at Irvan, and each other. But Gary Nelson, NASCAR's Winston Cup director, said several drivers complained about oil on the track.
"I didn't see any oil," Irvan said. "I saw kitty litter [oil absorbent], so obviously a cat had to go to the bathroom. I didn't ask anybody what the caution was for, but what the heck, it made it a good race."
The race Irvan spoke of was behind him, as Martin had a close-quarters battle with Dale Earnhardt, who finished third, and Rusty Wallace, who was fourth.
"That put them quite a ways back," Irvan said. "Then all I had to do was make it around without hitting anything."
With six laps to go, Martin nearly lost control in the fourth turn as Earnhardt pushed past him. But Martin got back by on the next lap. And as they dueled, Wallace tried but failed to pass Earnhardt on the outside of the third turn with four laps to go.
The two Winston Cup championship contenders were within a few positions of each other all day. And when it was over, Earnhardt had gained back the 10 points he lost to Wallace at North Wilkesboro.
Earnhardt has an 82-point lead over the second-place driver with three races left in the season.
"We gained 10 points today, and that's better than losing 10 points, but it's still tight," Earnhardt said. "I had to have those five bonus points, and I was lucky enough to get around Ernie and lead a few laps."
Earnhardt led three laps (162-164), which was good for five bonus points, while Wallace did not lead at all.
"It looked like Ernie just pulled over to me, but maybe Ernie will do that to me if he's leading Atlanta or something," Wallace said. "Dale picked up 10 on me today and I picked up 10 on him last week. It's a classic duel right to the very end."
"I didn't decide [to let Earnhardt lead]," Irvan said. "I knew how hungry Earnhardt was to lead a lap and it would have been pretty stupid for me to race him to keep him from leading a lap."
Irvan said his only worry during the race was an engine glitch.
"We did have a miss in the car about halfway through the race," he said. "I thought the day was over. I started flipping switches, but I didn't know what they were for. There are three-some switches on the right-hand side [of the dashboard] and I flipped two of them down. Then it stopped missing.
"Robert [Yates, the car's owner], said, `Did you switch coils?' There's little, teeny labels on there, and he acts like I'm supposed to read it going down the straight. And I said, `I don't know, I can't read them while I'm racing.' He acts like I'm supposed to read them going down the straight.
"With about five laps to go, it started missing again. I didn't ask this time. I just reached over and switched them all down. But it still kept missing. I don't know, maybe there's a little gremlin in the car or something. It's getting close to Halloween."
Both of Irvan's victories in Allison's former car have been dominanting - this one even more than his run at Martinsville.
"It had to look easy to everybody," he said. "But there's still a lot of obstacles you have to overcome, [such as] traffic [and] cats coming out on the track going to the bathroom."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB