Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 11, 1994 TAG: 9404110039
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Long
Earnhardt led the final 183 laps around Bristol International Raceway on Sunday and won by a comfortable 7.63 seconds over Ken Schrader. Lake Speed was third in the only other car on the lead lap.
Geoff Bodine, riding on surprisingly strong Hoosier tires, finished fourth after leading 160 laps. Bodine might have won, but he finished a lap down after pitting under a green flag and losing a lap moments before one of the race's caution periods.
Goodyear has yet to lose a racethis year to Hoosier, but a number of its tires failed. Wallace and Mark Martin had multiple tire failures. Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty each also reportedly had a tire fail.
And this brutally fast, high-banked short track itself exacted its usual high toll. Nineteen cars, more than half the 37-car field, were involved in the 10 incidents.
In the most serious of the accidents, Ricky Rudd pounded the frontstretch wall head-on. He was taken to Bristol Regional Medical Center with a sore shoulder but released after X-rays showed no broken bones.
The attrition rate was so great that Michael Waltrip was three laps down at the end and still finished fifth. Bobby Labonte was four laps down, but his sixth-place finish was his best ever in the Winston Cup series. Wallace, despite three tire failures, was seventh, six laps down.
Sterling Marlin was nine laps down at the end but wound up eighth in the standings. Bobby Hamilton finished ninth, more than six miles (12 laps) behind Earnhardt. And 53-year-old Dave Marcis, although 14 laps down, finished 10th, recording his first top-10 finish since 1991.
The race was almost two-thirds over when Earnhardt took the lead for the first time on lap 318. Bodine had led the previous 148 laps but ducked into the pits for four tires and gas, losing a lap.
Five laps later, just before Earnhardt was to make his own pit stop, Rick Mast hit the wall in turn 4 after getting clipped by Steve Grissom. The ensuing yellow flag allowed Earnhardt to make his pit stop and still keep Bodine a lap down. Schrader and Speed had the same good fortune.
"That was the key to the track position we got," Earnhardt said. "I didn't outrun them guys. We got the luck of the caution, and it all worked out for us."
Bodine was disappointed by his bad luck but was pleased to have a good finish after so many poor ones since taking over the late Alan Kulwicki's team last year.
"We had an awful good combination today," he said. "It's just a shame we got caught in the pits. But you know, we proved a lot of things today. We proved [Hoosier President] Bob Newton is for real. His tires are good.
"We didn't have one problem with them at all - no blowouts, no flats and they ran fast. And this is just the beginning of the year."
The Hoosier cars had qualified poorly. Bodine was the fastest but started in 27th. After about 20 laps, however, he started slicing through the field. By the 80th lap, he was third. He took the lead for the first time on the 123rd lap.
"A little bit of luck is all we needed," Newton said. "I think we had 'em covered. We're coming. The next two weeks you're going to see some things."
Sunday's tire problems were particularly galling for Wallace and Martin, because the consensus was that both of them had faster cars than Earnhardt.
"I've got to look at what's going on," Wallace said. "It looks like [Earnhardt's team] has figured out how to keep from tearing up tires. . . . We're going to have to do the same thing - be real easy on the right front. Which, hell, I thought I was easy. And it blisters the right front. It's a real fast, sticky tire, but it's right on the border of being too soft."
Martin, who finished 21st after crashing out of the race on lap 425, blew out two tires before his turn 3 crash, which also involved Jeff Gordon and Hut Stricklin.
"It's not fair to say we blew a tire out the last time, because I looked at the tire and I didn't see any evidence," Martin said. "I don't know what happened."
But he added: "If I can't race on tires that I can drive hard on, then I may as well just spend the day hitting the wall, because I can't drive like a grandmother. I'm a racer. I can't ride around. But this is exactly what you get when you have a tire war."
Goodyear racing director Leo Mehl, who was in Phoenix on Sunday at the Indycar race, issued this statement through company spokeswoman Mai Lindstrom: "The tire situation was mostly caused by low air pressure, which caused overdeflection and loss of air in the shoulder area. That did require tire changes. Goodyear also is not happy with the tire construction or pleased with our performance."
After the troubles at Darlington, Mehl admitted that the tire war with Hoosier has caused Goodyear to produce tires that have less margin for error.
Earnhardt's 61st career victory, and his eighth here at Bristol, came in a car that did not have his total confidence. He had qualified only 24th Friday.
"I was really disappointed with our qualifying run," he said. "I was pretty much down on the car. I didn't know it could win a race, but it did. Richard [Childress, the car owner,] told me after the race that we'd sold it. But he was just jerking my chain. Maybe we should have brought it out earlier."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB