Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 5, 1994 TAG: 9409060066
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S. C. LENGTH: Medium
No one was more surprised than Bill Elliott when he crossed the finish line first in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday.
It was not because he hadn't seen victory lane in almost two years. It wasn't because his Junior Johnson-owned team had struggled most of this season.
It was simply because his overheated Ford Thunderbird engine - a time bomb waiting to detonate - had reached new thresholds of abuse and somehow still kept running.
In victory lane, the transmission froze and the engine belched out a belly full of oil. But that was after it had carried him to a 6.39-second victory over Dale Earnhardt. Morgan Shepherd was third, followed by Ricky Rudd and Sterling Marlin, the only other cars on the lead lap.
An hour after the race, Elliott couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was the engine didn't blow.
``In all the years I've been racing, I've never had a car run that much water temperature and finish. Never,'' he said.
Was he expecting it to go in the last 10 laps?
``I was expecting it to go in the last 100 laps,'' Elliott said. ``If you had it on a danger meter, it was way past the danger meter. I was preparing myself more for something happening than for winning. I was just waiting for it to blow up.''
But while engines in other cars were dying left and right, Elliott's motor somehow kept going. And in the final laps, his car was handling better than anyone else's. His race-winning pass of Earnhardt came on the backstretch during lap 355 of the 367-lap race.
Elliott notched his first victory of 1994 and the 40th of his career, and he moved into eighth place in the Winston Cup points standings - only two days before he is expected to announce he will leave Johnson at the end of the year and return in 1995 with his own McDonald's-sponsored team.
``I've heard people comment about the `fading former champion,''' Elliott said. ``At least I came back today.''
But he was even more tickled for crew chief Mike Beam and the Budweiser team, who have struggled for almost two years to produce a competitive car for a driver whose championship skills cannot be doubted.
``Well, I tell you, we've struggled so bad ... people just don't know ... ,'' Beam said. ``I'm just glad it's over.''
At least 18 of the 42 cars in the race had overheating problems, including half of the top 10 finishers. Eleven cars dropped out of the race because of broken or blown engines.
The reason for this was the 1.366-mile track, which was as rough as a washboard. Road builders will arrive today to put a new asphalt surface on the entire track, which chewed up tires in 30 to 40 laps. The Hoosier tires were more vulnerable than the Goodyears. Some cars using Hoosiers had to pit about every 20 laps for new rubber.
``The tire wear just kills you here,'' Kyle Petty said after finishing 12th, five laps down. ``I don't think anybody could come up with a tire to get around this place that wouldn't wear. I think you could run stones here, and it would wear them off. Maybe we could run the Flintstone 500 here.''
Not only did the tires wear more quickly than usual, the rubber that came off them didn't stick to the track because the asphalt was so rough.
Instead, it was ground into rubber dust, which collected in the grilles and radiators of the cars, causing them to clog and cutting off the air flow to the engine. Once that happened, the needles on the water and oil temperature gauges began soaring. Engine parts became red hot. And power plants began to die.
That's why fans saw ol' Junior Johnson himself out on pit road with a hose in his hand, spraying the grille and radiator of Elliott's car to cool things and putting more water in the engine to replace what had boiled out. This happened several times.
``I'm really tickled,'' Johnson said. ``I didn't think we were going to make it!''
At one point, the water temperature was 260 degrees and the oil temperature pressure was 300 degrees in Elliott's engine.
``I've never seen a car survive for long with that,'' he said. ``I get nervous at 235'' [degrees of water temperature]. The ideal situation is 195 to 205 degrees in water and 250 in oil. If you get to 245 [in water temperature], more than likely you won't finish the race.''
But at the end of the race, Elliott said his water temperature was 260 and his oil temperature was 285.
``I've had cars run hot before, but I've never had one run this hot and stay together,'' he said. ``It held together with a wing and a prayer, I guess. I'm totally amazed.''
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB