Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 22, 1993 TAG: 9310220057
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
"I'm a hero right now, but that car very easily could have been in four pieces," Burton said after his run. "If I'd overcorrected just a little bit, the car would have been gone."
Burton's recovery denied Mark Martin twin poles this weekend at The Rock.
Martin had won the Winston Cup pole earlier Thursday, and his lap of 146.226 mph was the fastest for the GN cars until Burton hit the track.
"I probably would have had a little bit more [speed] if I hadn't got crossed up," said Burton, who ran on Hoosier tires. Martin was the only driver in the top five who used Goodyear tires.
David Bonnett, son of Neil, took the third starting spot with a lap of 146.022 mph in a Chevy. Rodney Combs was fourth at 146.004 mph, and Joe Bessey was fifth at 145.743 mph.
Completing the top 10 were Joe Nemechek, Chad Chaffin, Jim Bown, David Green and Chuck Bown - with Chaffin and Bown running on Hoosier tires.
Series leader Steve Grissom, who is 65 points ahead of Green, qualified 20th.
If Martin wins the race Saturday, he will be the first driver to win five Grand National superspeedway races in one season. He already has six GN victories this year, including four on big tracks.
\ HENSLEY SHIFTS GEARS: Ridgeway's Jimmy Hensley will drive Larry McClure's Chevrolet Lumina next weekend at Phoenix and in the Atlanta season finale. This will be Hensley's fourth car in 1993, not counting his relief stint in Brett Bodine's car at North Wilkesboro.
But things will be different for the Ridgeway driver in 1994.
Hensley has signed a three-year contract to drive for the RaDiUs Motorsports team owned by Ray DeWitt. The team's current driver, Ted Musgrave, is leaving at the end of the season to drive for Jack Roush Racing.
"This is what I've been looking for for a long time," Hensley told the Martinsville Bulletin. "This is a tough sport to get into and an even tougher one to stay in."
Hensley said he signed the contract Wednesday afternoon. Terms were not disclosed.
"All my deals in Winston Cup have been fill-ins or when something bad happened to somebody else and I got an opportunity to help out their team," said Hensley, who drove the first three races of the year in Jimmy Means' car, spent most of the year in the late Alan Kulwicki's Ford and then replaced Rick Wilson in the Petty Enterprises Pontiac at Martinsville. "This is more what I've been looking for."
Hensley, 48, is a rarity in the Winston Cup driving ranks. He also has a full-time job driving an oil delivery truck. Hensley has kept the job because it provides him with pension and health benefits.
\ THE PITS: With all the talk this year of 16-second pit stops, the official NASCAR Winston Cup record for a four-tire stop is a relatively slow 22.565 seconds.
Thirty-one Winston Cup pit crews will take a shot at that record in the 27th annual Unocal 76/Rockingham World Championship Pit Crew Competition here Saturday.
Last year, Ken Schrader's crew won with a stop of 23.142 seconds. Car owner Bud Moore's crew set the record in 1991.
\ ETC.: Ricky Rudd, who has formed his own team for 1994 (with continuing sponsorship from Tide), will use the No. 10 on his Ford Thunderbirds. That number is not without significance for him.
Rudd's first Winston Cup race in 1975, which was here at Rockingham in March, was in the No. 10 Ford Thunderbird of Norfolk car owner Bill Champion. Rudd, who was 18 then, started 26th and finished 11th. . . . Chuck Bown, the 1990 Grand National champion who won Sunday's GN race at Martinsville, will compete in the Winston Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway, driving the Roulo Brothers Chevrolet.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB