Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 27, 1995 TAG: 9503270113
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S. C. LENGTH: Medium
But the victory didn't electrify one of the sport's most laid-back characters. While his team was exploding in joy in the pits, Marlin was laconic in the cockpit.
``All right,'' he said on his radio. ``Always wanted to win here.''
After the wreck-filled race, Marlin explained why.
``It means a whole lot,'' he said. ``I used to come over here with my dad [Coo Coo Marlin]. He let me practice his car. I was 17 or 18. He didn't like Darlington too much, but I loved it. I ran a little faster than him the first time I ran on this track and that kind of made him mad.''
While two-thirds of the 42-car field was involved in one crash or another during the race, Marlin escaped unscathed.
``I think we may have had one little tire mark on the door and that was about it,'' he said. ``We had one little scary moment. On a restart, I got into the Sta-Dri [oil absorbent] in turn 2 and the car went sideways. It looked like a desert with the sand blowing across the track from all the Sta-Dri on the track. It was about one of the worst deals I've ever seen for Sta-Dri being on the track.''
SPONTANEOUS COM-BUSTION?: Could the sparks from all the crashing among the race cars on the track Sunday spread beyond Darlington Raceway?
Shortly before the end of the race, a towering column of black smoke rose behind turn 4. A volunteer fire crew stationed with its truck outside turn 2 scrambled into action and headed toward the fire, sirens wailing.
The fire was at Clanton's Auto Auction a few hundred yards north of the raceway on Harry Byrd Highway, where six cars went up in flames.
ANOTHER BAD DAY FOR MAST: When is Rick Mast going to get a break?
The driver from Rockbridge Baths, Va., appeared headed for a solid finish Sunday when he was spun out by the lapped car of Billy Standridge, triggering the worst wreck on a record-setting day of 15 crashes.
Mast slammed hard into the inside wall, along with Bobby Labonte, and it was some time before Mast crawled from his car.
``My neck's a little sore,'' he said upon leaving the infield care center. ``We've had a lot of wrecks today, but the problem is ... the biggest problem is the lapped cars are getting into the only real groove we have here and they're running all over it and wrecking everybody. The [No.]47 car [driven by Standridge] has been all over the rack track. I was trying to get by him and he ran me high and he ran me low.''
EARNHARDT'S ASSESS-MENT: Dale Earnhardt, who finished second Sunday for the third time in five Winston Cup events this year, was asked to explain all the wrecks.
``Narrow groove is what it was,'' he said. ``They need to widen it. They need a little wider racing surface for as fast as these cars are going.''
Earnhardt said he had no chance to hold off Marlin, who passed him on the backstretch with 12 laps to go.
``We didn't have nothing for him,'' Earnhardt said. ``We were lucky to get second, really. It wasn't loose on new tires, but it got looser and looser as it went on.''
MORE WIND TUNNEL: With all the wrecks Sunday, it was mildly surprising that NASCAR had a Ford, a Pontiac and a Chevy at the end of the race that were sturdy enough for the comparative wind-tunnel tests scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday.
But at the end of the race, the three cars selected were Marlin's Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the Ford Thunderbird of Derrike Cope, who finished fifth, and the Pontiac of Bobby Hamilton, who finished ninth.
During the postrace inspection, one of the cars torn down for a more thorough examination was the Junior Johnson-owned Ford driven by Brett Bodine. Johnson's crew has been ordered to tear down its Ford after every race this season, even after it has been wrecked, after the team was caught cheating at Daytona.
by CNB