Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502280029
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Long
Little led 177 of the 197 laps around North Carolina Motor Speedway and won by a whopping 9.39 seconds over fellow Ford driver Mark Martin. Terry Labonte finished third in a Chevy, followed by Johnny Benson in another Chevy and Morgan Shepherd in a Ford.
``I really wasn't driving that hard,'' Little said after his second straight Grand National triumph. ``You don't get cars like this very often. It's a lot of fun to drive a race car like this.''
Martin said he had a good car, but ``it was no match for Chad. He whipped it on us really bad.''
The only other driver to lead the race was Shepherd, who led 20 laps more or less by mistake after a pit stop that was too quick for its own good.
``We didn't realize the rules,'' Shepherd said. ``We thought we could just change two tires at a time.''
The result was that Shepherd's pit stops were quicker, which twice allowed him to take the lead until Little overtook him.
Pole winner David Green never led, and his Chevy engine expired after 112 laps, giving him a 33rd-place finish.
``We were fast qualifying, but Johnny Benson and I were the only Chevy guys up there to battle the Fords,'' Green said.
``I don't think you could ever expect to be that dominant,'' Little said. ``It felt almost as good on 80-lap tires as it did on sticker [new] tires.''
``As a matter of fact,'' car owner and NFL quarterback Mark Rypien said, ``it got rather boring. The excitement in the pits was not the same it was last week.''
With his back-to-back victories, Little has a 30-point lead over Labonte and a 66-point lead over Benson, his closest full-time Grand National competitor. Benson is fourth in points.
``Now we're going to Richmond with a brand-new car that we just tested there last week,'' Little said. ``Could we make it three in a row? I don't know.''
There were five yellow flags for a variety of minor, non-injury spins and crashes.
Kevin Simmons of Narrows, Va., finished 37th after qualifying 36th. His day ended when he crashed his Chevrolet on lap 58.
PROVING GROUND: Jimmy Hensley showed Saturday just how big a difference there is between an experienced NASCAR driver and a regular race car driver when it comes to handling a Winston Cup car.
Hensley was more than 5 mph faster in his Chevrolet than Mike Chase was on Friday. More importantly, Hensley, who replaced Chase as the Active Motorsports driver on Friday after Chase was fired, qualified 32nd for today's Goodwrench 500.
After only one practice session, Hensley requalified the car in the second round of time trials at a speed of 153.503 mph. Chase, the slowest of the 44 drivers who completed qualifying runs Friday, managed only 148.059 mph and was fired immediately afterward.
Hensley, of Ridgeway, Va., was hired to make the race and that's what he did.
``It worked good. We got it in the race,'' Hensley said. ``We didn't get a lot of time to work with it, but they had the car working pretty good.''
Hensley was hired for just this race and he said he doesn't know whether it will go beyond that.
``We really haven't sat down and talked,'' he said. ``We've been busy trying to get in the race. I think if we can be competitive, I can keep the ride.''
Steve Grissom led the second round of time trials with a lap of 155.452 mph in his Chevy, which gave him the 21st starting spot. Grissom crashed during qualifying Friday. Had he run Saturday's lap on Friday, he would have started seventh.
All of the regulars made the race, with provisional starting spots going to Steve Kinser, Dave Marcis, Loy Allen and Ward Burton. Those who failed to make the race were Ben Hess, Gary Bradberry, James Hylton and Billy Standridge.
GORDON SAYS BRICKYARD WIN WAS CLEAN: Jeff Gordon offered his own defense this weekend to suggestions that his popular victory in the inaugural Brickyard 400 last year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway had been manipulated by NASCAR.
``I don't even know what they're suggesting, but I can tell you we were by the books,'' Gordon said Friday after winning the pole position for today's Goodwrench 500. ``I know that it looked too good to be true. I mean, it looked like a fairy tale. It looked like a fantasy. I'd say the same thing. I couldn't believe it was happening.''
Gordon said no matter what the team did on that Saturday afternoon last August, ``it seemed like everything came back to us. There were some cars that were faster than we were at times. Geoff Bodine had a really good car. Ernie [Irvan] had a great car there at the end. And it just seemed like nobody could take it away from us. It was our day no matter what.''
No one has publicly accused NASCAR of manipulating that race or any other event by secretly helping individual teams, but such talk is common in private garage conversations, and Gordon's Brickyard win is frequently mentioned in that regard.
In an anonymous poll of 30 drivers, crew chiefs, owners and team members by the Roanoke Times and World-News at Daytona Beach, Fla., last week, 14 who responded said they believed NASCAR helps certain teams, and two people said it had happened to their teams. But 16 said they don't believe it happens.
Gordon said he doesn't think NASCAR helps any teams, ``but it doesn't matter if they were helping you, you wouldn't be able to go out and do what we did. All the help in the world isn't going to make things happen like they did that day.''
NASCAR officials, he said, ``certainly don't try to help us. I think they treat everybody the same. I think they've got a really good system right now and they're really making it work. I think if a guy goes out and wins 10 poles and 10 races in a row, I think they need to take a look at that car. But if you go out and win one race, I don't think measures need to be taken.'' They are as hard on us as they are anybody else out there. And I feel like they're just as hard on that 3 car [Dale Earnhardt] at times as they are on other cars. I think they're strict on everybody.''
BACKUP FOR LAJOIE: Randy LaJoie and his team were forced to begin preparing their backup car for today's Goodwrench 500 after LaJoie spun on the backstretch and hit the wall during Winston Cup practice Saturday.
LaJoie, who was not hurt, will have to drop to the back of the 42-car field before the start. LaJoie said he lost control of his car.
Rusty Wallace's Ford was smoking at the start of the session, but a team spokesman said it was a loose oil line that was easily fixed.
by CNB