
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 23, 1994                   TAG: 9410250030
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: E-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ED HARDIN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

`ROCK' STILL A HARD PLACE FOR DRIVERS

Dale Earnhardt gets behind the wheel today with his eye on history. Harry Gant will be looking for one more memory. And Jeff Gordon will be looking for Ricky Rudd.

With only three races left on the NASCAR Winston Cup schedule, most everyone already is looking to the end of the 1994 season.

``When you come here, you know it's almost over,'' Rudd said. ``That's what's nice about Rockingham.''

And little else, if you ask some of the drivers in today's AC Delco 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway. The fall race traditionally is one of the circuit's longest and most grueling. A new asphalt surface has made this week one of the longest in Rockingham's 30-year history.

Rudd will start from the pole, his first since 1992, and will lead a 42-car field on a track dominated in recent years by two drivers - Rusty Wallace and Kyle Petty. Wallace has won the past three Winston Cup races at Rockingham; Petty won three of the previous five.

``This is a new track,'' Wallace said. ``We'll see.''

The new track was tested for the first time Saturday during the 200-mile Busch Grand National race, and what most people saw was a lot of spinning and crashing. The first race on the track since this summer's repaving job was delayed by 11 caution periods. Mark Martin won the race, but was not very complimentary of the smooth surface.

``The race track has not got a good outside groove at all,'' said Martin, who picked up his first Winston Cup victory here five years ago. ``I'm not looking forward to [today].''

Earnhardt can't wait. The Winston Cup points leader needs only a 28th-place finish or better in each of the three remaining races to win his seventh title, joining Richard Petty as the only seven-time champions.

Rudd and Gordon will be on the track for the first time since the wreck at Charlotte on Oct.9 when Rudd sent both spinning into the wall and out of the race. While Rudd will start from the pole, Gordon will start 15th, hoping to stay off Rudd's bad side.

``I still like Jeff,'' Rudd said this week. ``I hope Jeff and I can still be friends.''

Gant, in his final run at Rockingham, hopes to add one more race to his long career. The 54-year-old driver has said he much prefers the smaller Grand National tour to the demanding Winston Cup circuit. After three more races, he will retire altogether.

With a victory today, Wallace might retire the AC Delco trophy. He would become the only driver to win four consecutive races at North Carolina Motor Speedway, a track that opened in 1965 with Curtis Turner winning the first race. Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson are the only others to win three in a row.

Keywords:
AUTO RACING

by CNB