Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 28, 1994 TAG: 9403280043
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Long
While other teams were destroying tires and overheating their Results in Scoreboard. B8. cars, Earnhardt led 166 of 293 laps, including the final 33, and won by 7.4 seconds over Mark Martin. Pole-winner Bill Elliott was third, followed by Dale Jarrett, Lake Speed, Ernie Irvan and Ken Schrader, all on the lead lap.
This was Earnhardt's first really competitive run of 1994. Had he been getting worried?
"I went down to the Bahamas last week and spent a week there and meditated about it," Earnhardt said. "It worked.
"We ran a consistent race," he said. "We didn't push it too hard. I was not running everything I had. We ran a comfortable pace. We didn't get into any trouble. We didn't create any trouble."
Considering that he was at the forefront of the Goodyear tire problems that developed Saturday, Earnhardt's run Sunday was particularly impressive.
The pitted, pockmarked asphalt surface of this 1.366-mile speedway is as abrasive as a lava field. Up close, it looks like a relief map of Kentucky. And after allowing 26 drivers to beat the one-lap record Friday, the track started eating Goodyear tires for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Saturday morning, Earnhardt tore the sidewall out of one right-front tire when he ran with too little air pressure. But after setting the pressure at the recommended levels on the next set, he still damaged the right-front tire.
Come Sunday, Earnhardt barely had a hint of a tire problem.
"We adjusted for it," he said. "We adjusted the camber, springs and sway bar. But we had to sacrifice a lot with that. The tire is capable of running a 29-second lap here, but it won't run fast laps if you don't have the car adjusted right. So we had to compensate for the tire to not abuse it and run a slower speed."
On green-flag runs, Earnhardt also pitted for new tires every 36 laps, about 10 laps earlier than last year at Darlington.
But Earnhardt's conservative strategy still was too strong for his competition.
"Man, Earnhardt wore us out," Martin said. "That's all we had. From lap 1 to lap 293, that was our guts hanging out every inch. He just blew us away."
Earnhardt's only tire problem Sunday was a thumb-size blister that developed on the inside edge of one of his right-front tires. But the tire was replaced during a pit stop before doing any damage.
"It wasn't a blister, it was a welt," Earnhardt said. "If we had to lean on tires any more today, I think it would have been a different outcome. We had to be a little careful today, but . . . "
Others weren't careful enough.
Rusty Wallace, who didn't have any tire problems during practice Saturday, was Sunday's most notable victim. After leading 56 laps, his car slammed into the wall in turn 3 on lap 135 when his right-front tire failed. Shortly before the crash, crew chief Buddy Parrott had told Wallace that the sidewall on the right-front tire of the previous set had "a little bit of separation."
Wallace limped around the track after his team made repairs and finished 33rd.
Jarrett also cut a tire, as did Bobby Hamilton and Brett Bodine. Rick Mast also reported tire problems. Jeff Gordon had a damaged right-front among his used tires. And three of Chuck Bown's right-front tires had separated where the tread meets the sidewall. But he had them changed before any blew out.
As teams adjusted their cars to ease the wear and tear on their right-front tires, another tire-related problem began to take its toll.
The track was chewing up the tires so much, pieces of rubber began clogging the air ducts in the grilles of a number of cars, causing the engines to overheat.
John Andretti's engine broke after 170 laps. Eight laps later, Mast's engine expired. Brett Bodine and Terry Labonte saw their engines blow on lap 195. Sterling Marlin, who had ripped up at least one tire earlier, retired on lap 197 when his engine overheated.
Gordon departed on lap 236, after wailing to his crew: "This motor is getting ready to die!"
For Goodyear, tire supply also became an issue during the race. Shortly after the halfway point, it appeared Goodyear teams might begin running out before the race was over.
On lap 160, NASCAR announced that it was waiving the rule prohibiting teams from switching brands. But there were no yellow flags in the last 106 laps, so only two Goodyear drivers - Todd Bodine and Joe Nemechek - used Hoosiers.
All of this tire business is getting on Earnhardt's nerves. He said he wished Bob Newton and his upstart Hoosier Tire Co. would just "go away."
"The tire situation is not good," Earnhardt said. "It's taken away from the competitors and the teams and the car owners and the engine guys. The tire companies are having a race and we're just caught up in it.
"I just hope the durability improves with the speed of the tires. Hopefully, [Goodyear] can keep being dominant and they can wear the other tire company out and they'll go away."
The best finish by a Hoosier driver Sunday was Jeff Burton's 20th-place run. Hoosier has three poles, but a Hoosier car has yet to win a Winston Cup race this year.
Newton, however, has no intention of leaving. He's headed to Dover, Del., with as many cars as he can muster for testing April 4-5.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB