Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 4, 1994 TAG: 9409070093
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
When Martin dominated and won the rain-shortened Gatorade 200 Grand National race on Saturday, it was his fifth victory in the past six races here.
And by that measure, he has to be the favorite today to win his second straight Southern 500.
``It's just going to be business as usual tomorrow, I hope,'' he said Saturday. ``I think we've got a little magic in all the cars, not just this one.''
In addition to Saturday's victory, Martin won the IROC and Busch races here in the spring. And he not only won last year's Southern 500, but the Busch race as well. He finished second in the only event he didn't win - the TranSouth 400 in April.
Saturday's race, which started almost three hours late because of rain, was shortened when rain returned after 111 of the scheduled 147 laps.
``When I saw what the weather conditions were doing, I thought, `Man, I can't mess it up now,''' Martin said. ``I did want to run the whole thing, but as it turned out, nothing could go wrong if it ended under the rain.''
Dale Jarrett was second, followed by Mike Wallace, Johnny Benson and Chad Little. Eleven cars finished on the lead lap.
Pole winner Randy LaJoie, who finished four laps down in 27th, led the first seven laps. But Martin passed LaJoie going into turn 1 on lap eight and that was it. Martin led all but two laps the rest of the way and was way out in front when the yellow flag flew because of the rain.
GRAND NATIONAL POINTS: David Green, who finished 14th, saw his Grand National championship points lead shrink to 91 points.
Ricky Craven, who was tied for second with Hermie Sadler, now holds second alone by 21 points over Chad Little. Sadler dropped to fourth, 54 points behind Craven and 145 points behind Green, after finishing 25th in the race. Craven finished eighth, while Little was fifth.
RONALD'S PLANS: McDonald's has scheduled a press conference in Charlotte on Tuesday to announce its 1995 auto racing plans, but they have been generally known for some time.
Bill Elliott is expected to field his own team next year with sponsorship from the fast-food chain, while Joe Gibbs is expected to take over ownership of the McDonald's drag racing teams.
NO PRACTICE: Since all of the Winston Cup practice sessions Saturday were canceled by rain, the 42 cars in today's race will be starting without much track time.
But since every team is at the same disadvantage, it doesn't make much difference.
``I swear, if you lined up all the cars on the starting grid Friday when they arrived and let `em race, the same teams would run good,'' said Steve Hmiel, Mark Martin's crew chief. ``And with Mark behind the wheel, you could roll out the car Friday morning and he'd be ready to race.''
During Saturday practice sessions, most teams focus on tuning their race engines, making sure there are no oil leaks, fine-tuning their chassis setups and adjusting their brakes.
by CNB