Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994 TAG: 9402210182
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Long
No Winston Cup regular had raced so long with such unrelenting futility as the 36-year-old driver from Columbia, Tenn. Since 1976, Marlin had competed in 278 races without a victory.
But 18 years of fruitless labor for Marlin came to a deliriously happy ending at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Daytona International Speedway, where he flashed under the finish line in his Chevrolet Lumina twenty-three-hundredths of a second ahead of Ernie Irvan in NASCAR's biggest race.
"I tell you, it was a long time coming," Marlin said. "But I just knew we could do it. I believed in myself that I could do it."
Marlin, the only man who avoided all the crashes, didn't run out of fuel and still had a car that handled well at the end, became the fifth driver to make the Daytona 500 his first Winston Cup victory. He won $253,275.
Terry Labonte finished third, followed by Jeff Gordon, Morgan Shepherd, Greg Sacks and Earnhardt. Behind them, also on the lead lap, were Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader, Geoff Bodine and Bobby Hamilton.
For Earnhardt, it was another disappointing failure. His car was loose, particularly at the end of the race. He faded from third to seventh in the last 17 laps.
"There's always a championship, and there's always next year to win the Daytona 500," Earnhardt said. "I've tried 16 times and haven't done it yet, but I'm not going to give up. The car was just too loose today."
There were two multicar crashes, but no one was hurt and those were the only two incidents of the day. It was a safe conclusion to a Speedweeks marred by the deaths of drivers Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr during practice.
Handling was the key in the race, as is often the case at Daytona. And when Sunday became the hottest day here since the teams began practicing Feb. 11, finding the right chassis setup was particularly difficult.
Since everyone had handling problems, it was an extremely competitive race. There were 33 lead changes among 14 drivers. No one led more than 24 consecutive laps. And until the final laps, the lead cars almost always were tightly bunched.
"We had been adjusting on the car all day," said Marlin, who led the final 21 laps. "The handling was a little off early in the race. It had a push in it and I had to lift [off the accelerator] coming off the corners."
The team never did get the car to handle perfectly, crew chief Tony Glover said. The push in the car was particularly evident in traffic. But Marlin and the team discovered that when no other car was in front of Marlin's, the push seemed to correct itself.
That knowledge led to a key strategic move during the last round of pit stops.
With 60 laps to go, the cars had just finished a round of green-flag stops. Marlin was running eighth, stymied by traffic, when a yellow flag flew on lap 141 to let track workers remove debris in turn 2.
"I think that was one of the turning points of the race," Glover said. "We only had four laps on the tires. Everyone else elected to change tires and we elected to get fuel only."
On the strength of his fast, no-tire pit stop, Marlin left the pits in second place, trailing Derrike Cope.
All the teams were contemplating a final run of about 55 laps to the checkered flag, and some already realized they didn't have the gas mileage to make it without another stop.
On lap 145, just before the green flag came back out, 17 cars darted onto pit road for an extra splash of gas.
Marlin, however, stayed on the track and remained in second.
"I started to come in to pit during that last caution to top the tank off and they told me I had enough to finish," Marlin said.
"Tim Morgan figures our gas mileage and he said he thought we could go 59 laps," Glover said. "I saw everyone else coming in and I asked Tim, `Can we make it?' He said, `We can make it.' "
Others were not so fortunate, even with that extra helping of fuel on lap 145. Lake Speed fell out of the lead pack with three laps remaining to get more gas. And Mark Martin ran out with two laps to go, falling from third to 13th.
Why did Marlin's car get better gas mileage?
"We tire-tested for Goodyear at Talladega [Ala.] and that kind of gave us a good idea on our mileage," Glover said. "The more efficient the engine is, the greater the fuel mileage. And Runt's [engine builder Sheldon Pittman] restrictor-plate motors are very efficient."
Glover said Marlin's Chevy was getting 6.8 miles per gallon, which means he could go slightly more than 59 laps (147.5 miles) on a 22-gallon tank of fuel.
The race resumed on lap 147, and two laps later Marlin passed Cope to take the lead for the first time.
"That's where our car worked the best and handled the best," Marlin said.
Now the battle boiled down to Marlin and Irvan. This was a particularly interesting scenario, because Irvan had won the 500 in 1991 for Marlin's team. But after a bitter contract dispute with co-owner Larry McClure, Irvan left the team in September and took over the late Davey Allison's car.
Irvan passed Marlin on lap 158 and led the next 22 laps. But Irvan's Ford was loose. And when he nearly lost control coming out of turn 4 on lap 180, Marlin squeezed past and took the lead for good.
"That last lap was a long one," Marlin said in victory lane. "I just told myself that this was a Saturday night short-track [race] at Nashville. `You're leading; nothing to it.' "
Irvan had nothing left to mount a challenge. With a partner, he might have been able to draft by Marlin. But when Martin ran out of gas, Irvan lost his help.
"Got beat," Irvan said. "I tried to make a run at him, and I pushed off turn 4 and didn't have anything for him."
Afterward, as Marlin came down pit road, dozens of crewmen from other teams slapped his hand as he rode past.
Suddenly, his engine died. He was out of gas. But there were plenty of helpers to push him those final few yards to victory lane.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB