Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 17, 1994 TAG: 9405170118
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SONOMA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
Ernie Irvan, the winner of the Save Mart 300 road race Sunday at Sears Point International Raceway, pondered the question for a moment and then shook his head.
``Not really,'' he said.
``I don't know how to make an easier day of it than we did. I didn't want anybody close enough to me to screw my day up.''
Irvan led 68 of 74 laps around the 2.52-mile road course. When the checkered flag fell, he was almost 10 seconds ahead of Geoff Bodine, who finished second.
Irvan said the only mistake he made came at the end of the race.
``I missed one shift all day, downshifting going for the checkered. . .'' he said. ``And I thought, `Now this would be a fine time to spin out.' So I just waited until I got it slowed down real good and just jammed it back into gear and motored on until I finished the race.''
FROM BACK IN THE PACK: Perhaps the best unsung performance of the race was Mark Martin's run to eighth place after a spin sent him to the back of the pack.
Martin was running in third on lap 22 when Ricky Rudd hit him in the back in turn 11, spinning him out. Martin rejoined the race in 22nd, then pitted and went to the back of the field on the lead lap.
From there, he gradually clawed his way forward.
``We did good to come back from where we were,'' he said. ``Most folks couldn't have gotten back to where we did.''
MUSGRAVE AWED: Ted Musgrave was in awe of his Jack Roush-prepared Ford Thunderbird after finishing sixth. It was his best finish this season.
``It was really incredible,'' he said. ``I've never ever had a road race car like that before in my life. It shifted good, it drove good, it stopped good. It was just awesome to run it.
``You know, road courses were never a favorite of mine, but when you've got good equipment like this, I'm looking forward to going to the Glen now. I'd told the guys that this was going to be our weakest point of the year. So far, it's been our strongest.''
INMAN'S HELP: While on his way to a fourth-place finish - his best of the year - Wally Dallenbach said he kept his patience in part because of the guidance of team manager Dale Inman, who is his race-day spotter.
``I got off the track once or twice,'' Dallenbach said. ``It's so easy driving the car in front of you here that if you do that, you wind up getting off the race track.
``I just had to calm myself down and drive the race track. I had Dale Inman on the radio a lot talking to me, which helped. He kept me calmed down.''
Car owner Richard Petty said the team knows ``if they have the car, the driver can do the job.''
JUNK ALL DAY: ``We were junk all day,'' said Rick Mast of his run at Sears Point. ``And then we tore up a rear end gear. We didn't have the handling right. We tried different things out here and got ourselves in trouble. We had a good car last year and we'll have to go back to that.'' He dropped out after 62 laps and finished 34th.
by CNB