Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 18, 1994 TAG: 9404180055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
For more than 300 laps of the First Union 400 Sunday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, south grandstand fans were thrilled only by the beauty of the distant, purple Blue Ridge mountain range framed against a cloudless western sky.
Then, finally, on the track directly below them, they saw a race.
Then, there was a late-race pass for the lead.
And when it was over, a new face was smiling in Victory Lane.
Terry Labonte's 7.23-second victory over Rusty Wallace was only the second time someone other than Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin or Ernie Irvan has won a Winston Cup race since June.
It's hard to believe, but except for Sterling Marlin's Daytona 500 victory in February, the last driver other than one of the fearsome foursome to visit Victory Lane was Ricky Rudd on June 20, 1993, in the Miller 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
"There's only been a few guys winning races for the past long time," Labonte said after the race. "They've been tough to handle. So I feel good that we're finally able to work our way into that bunch."
For Labonte, the word "finally" really does mean a long time. He hadn't won since he drove for Junior Johnson in 1989. After his victory at Talladega on July 30, 1989, he ran 135 races without a victory.
"It really feels good to be able to win again and to be with a team that is capable of winning," said the 37-year-old driver. "The last time I was with a good team, I guess, was with Junior's team. It's been kind of a dry spell since then. I'm just excited to be with Rick Hendrick and the [No.] 5 car. I told everyone this is a second chance for my racing career."
Ernie Irvan finished third behind Wallace and Labonte. Kyle Petty was fourth, followed by Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd, the only other cars on the lead lap. Geoff Bodine and Harry Gant were seventh and eighth, respectively, a lap down. Ken Schrader was ninth, two laps down, followed by Rick Mast, who was three laps down.
Labonte's victory wasn't exactly handed to him.
He was on the lead lap all afternoon as his crew steadily adjusted his car, fine-tuning it for the stretch run.
Labonte was in fourth place on the last restart on lap 333. During the final run, he passed Rudd and Petty to move into second. And on lap 372, he passed Wallace going into turn 3.
"The car was loose all day long and we just missed the setup a little bit," Wallace said.
But it was Irvan who dominated the show, leading 320 laps to Labonte's 29. Irvan, the pole-winning driver, was doing exactly what he had preached against in a lengthy news conference Friday - producing a dull race by running away from everybody.
Then, on his last pit stop during that last yellow flag, Irvan made a mistake while the car was jacked up.
"I just didn't have my foot on the brake and the left-rear tire rolled," Irvan said. The tire began spinning while the tire changer was trying to tighten the lug nuts.
"I was switching from braking with my left foot to heel-toe braking so I could clutch it and I let the wheel spin," he said. "That cost us a couple of seconds." More significantly, it cost him track position.
Instead of emerging from the pits in the lead, Irvan came out in fifth place. And on the last run, while Labonte was pulling away, Irvan was mired in traffic with a bad set of tires.
"We ran the best today, but that's the way it goes," Irvan said.
Said Labonte: "The last time the [green] flag came out, we felt like we could beat [Wallace] and [Petty], but we didn't think we could beat [Irvan]. But we beat them out of the pits. They got hung up in traffic and we were able to drive off."
If the race had gone green all day, Irvan "would have lapped everybody," Labonte said.
And what about the tire war? How did Labonte's Goodyear tires . . .
"Let's don't talk about the tire situation," Labonte said. "This is a happy day. Goodyear tires won. [The tire war] is a bad deal. Let's talk about something else."
So he did.
"We had a good run going last week and got caught in a wreck," Labonte said. "We had a good run at Darlington [on March 27] and blew up. We just hadn't run well at the right time in the race. And it finally happened today."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB