Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 14, 1993 TAG: 9311140142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium
Mark Martin, who led 34 laps, had crashed on the 163rd lap of the 197-lap NASCAR Grand National race. Joe Bessey, who led 56 laps, crashed 20 laps after Martin.
So Burton eased to a 2.42-second victory over Larry Pearson. Michael Waltrip was third and Harry Gant was fourth in the only other cars on the lead lap.
"We're leaving the Busch series [for Winston Cup in 1994], and this is the way to end it," the South Boston driver said after his third GN victory of '93. "This is only my second race here, and in my first race I broke my sternum . . . and that was five laps into the race."
Steve Grissom, who had clinched the 1993 series title, finished ninth to complete the season with four consecutive top 10 finishes. He won his first GN championship by 253 points.
There was some shuffling below Grissom in the final standings. David Green, who was second in points entering the race, was involved in a five-car crash on lap five and finished 33rd. That finish dropped him to third. Chuck Bown, who was third before the race, blew an engine, finished 36th and dropped to fourth.
Ricky Craven, who was fourth when the green flag fell, jumped to second in the final standings despite slamming into the fourth-turn wall on lap 36. Craven stayed in the race after the crash and finished 15th. He beat Green by nine points.
The keys to Burton's victory - aside from the strength of his car - were the crashes by Martin and Bessey.
Even as his car was spinning down the backstretch after hitting the wall in turn two, Martin was on the two-way radio telling his crew: "That's all I could do, man, I'm sorry."
Later, he said, "We had a shot at the win and it was time to go. I had [Burton's] car on the outside of me and [Bessey's] behind me, and that took too much wind off the spoiler. I just lost it."
Twenty laps later, Bessey had passed Burton to take the lead in turn two when he lost control and hit the wall.
"He probably had the best car," Burton said of Bessey. "I don't know if I could have got back by him if he hadn't spun it down there."
Bessey, athletic and a good sport, climbed over a fence to get into victory lane to congratulate Burton.
Burton won despite losing a lap early in the race when he was caught in the middle of a pit stop when one of the race's 10 yellow flags flew.
Todd Bodine suffered a mild concussion and a variety of bumps and bruises when the right side of his car pancaked into the third-turn wall at full speed on lap 94. He was to be kept overnight for observation at Georgia Baptist Medical Center and was to be replaced by Phil Parsons in today's Hooters 500 Winston Cup finale here.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB