Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409190015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
But Labonte had to scratch and claw for the victory in his Chevrolet, even as he outclassed the field. Labonte led 237 of the 400 laps, including the final 28 circuits, before beating teammate Jeff Gordon by 1.79 seconds. Dale Earnhardt was third, followed by Rusty Wallace, Ricky Rudd, Mark Martin and Steve Grissom.
``I really felt like in practice we had one of the best cars out there,'' Labonte said. ``But it wasn't easy by no means.''
Labonte's hefty winning margin, and his dominance, gave no indication of how entertaining and competitive this race was. And that was largely because on three occasions he had to come back from rather slow pit stops to retake the lead.
During the final round of pit stops under the green flag between laps 340 and 345, Wallace's crew finished its work in 16.63 seconds and Labonte's team took almost 22 seconds.
Wallace came out with a lead of almost five seconds, but Labonte almost immediately began closing ground. He steadily chipped away at Wallace's lead and by lap 360 was two seconds back. By lap 367, it was less than a second.
And on lap 373, Labonte fired below Wallace in turn 2, got beside him on the backstretch and made the race-winning pass for the lead into turn 3.
``See if you can't work him over a little bit,'' said Roger Penske, who was spotting for Wallace. But Labonte was gone before Wallace could do anything. And Wallace eventually fell back to fourth after burning a piston.
``We had good pit stops, but they just had a great one,'' Labonte said. ``We were able to make up a lot of time on him in traffic. It's really fun coming to the races with a team like this.''
Labonte also lost the lead during pit stops after yellow flags on laps 163 and 252. Both times, Labonte entered the pits first, but gave up the lead to Wallace.
All that did was provide the crowd of some 78,000 with some great side-by-side racing.
Between laps 280 and 300, Wallace and Earnhardt fought like Ali and Frazier - a couple of heavyweights in classic combat. This is what NASCAR racing is supposed to be, and this night race at Richmond consistently has provided such duels in the past few years.
Earnhardt was in front during those laps, but the race often was door handle to door handle, while Labonte and Gordon watched from front-row seats just behind the slugfest.
The start was delayed 90 minutes by an isolated rain shower that happened to find the track. Once the race began going, pole-winner Ted Musgrave didn't stay in front for long. Hut Stricklin took the lead on the second lap.
But by lap 7, Stricklin had been passed by Labonte. And in the early going, Labonte's dominance was challenged only by Wallace and surprising Bobby Hamilton, who led laps 47 through 65.
But on Hamilton's first pit stop, the Hoosier tires that came off his Pontiac were badly blistered. He wasn't the only Hoosier driver with problems. Rick Mast's tires were reported to be badly blistered after 50 circuits of the track.
The first half was slowed four times by yellow flags - two for debris or oil on the track and two for mishaps. Kenny Wallace spun himself out of contention in turn 2 on the first lap, and Jeremy Mayfield crashed between turns 3 and 4 on lap 31.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB