Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507040024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Long
Petty had been in the top 10 all day, running as high as third, in one of his best efforts of the year. But then trouble struck.
``I think the ignition went out when I was running fourth with about 20 laps to go,'' he told Pontiac's Brian HoaglandPetty said. ``I went in for a pit stop and they said Mark [Martin] had iced his down, so they threw me an ice pack and I iced it down. It ran on the restart, and then started slowing down again. When the ignition was down, it would lose a couple of hundred RPM.
``It just so happened I kept a jug of water in the car with me - why God only knows. I just took the top off it and poured it on the ignition box, and it ran the last lap. That's all I had to do. We did good to finish'' seventh, best among the Pontiac Grand Prix entries.
MARTIN A SPECTATOR: Mark Martin, who won the superspeedway race at Talladega on April 30, could do little but watch the powerful Chevys in this one, even though he was fourth in the top-finishing Ford.
``That's all we had,'' he said. ``It was just defensive driving, that's all. We didn't have anything for the Chevrolets. It's just unbelievable how much faster they were. Unbelievable. They stick to the race track. We ain't even in the race.
``But we somehow managed to get a fourth place anyway,'' said Martin, who had to overcome the same ignition problems that plagued Petty. ``I'll take it today.''
JARRETT'S FURTHER TROUBLES: For the fourth time in five races, Dale Jarrett failed to finish. This time, his Robert Yates engine let go after 40 laps, when he was running sixth.
``Something happened to the engine,'' Jarrett said. `'Boy, that thing was really running,'' Jarrett said. ``I'd like to have gotten a chance to get up there and run with the Chevys. But it just wasn't our day again.''
Jarrett finished 42nd in the 43-car field.
LABONTE BURNED: Bobby Labonte, winner of two of the past five Winston Cup races, was an early dropout in the 400 after running in the lead pack. Labonte's day was done after 48 laps because of engine trouble.
``All right, man, burned a piston,'' crew chief Jimmy Makar told his driver on pit road. ``I guess we're out. Push it back to the garage, guys.''
Labonte, who finished 41st, said, ``That was our first [breakdown] of the year. Can't complain about it. The car was working pretty good, but we wanted to gain on it a little more.''
A SMASH HIT: When Jimmy Spencer parked his car in the garage after finishing ninth, the rear end was badly smashed. It was not something that happened during the race, though.
Spencer had a number of close encounters with other drivers during the 400, and the postrace love tap came from Robert Pressley. Both drivers all but ignored it.
``I guess I was so tied up in the race I didn't realize the race was over and I ran into someone after the checkered flag,'' Pressley told Chevy's Ray Coopersaid. ``I had a good head of wind going and I wasn't going to waste it.''
SWAY DELAY: After complaints from some teams, NASCAR officials changed their minds and decided not to immediately ban the rear sway bar from Winston Cup cars.
``We're still evaluating it. For New Hampshire [on July 9], it's kosher,'' said Mike Helton, NASCAR's vice president of competition.
The move to ban the part, which helps prevent the car from rolling onto the right-rear tire in flatter turns, brought howls from several teams, particularly Hendrick Motorsports, while no one seemed willing to step forward to oppose its use.
``If they ban it, we've wasted every test we've done this year,'' said Rick Hendrick, owner of the Chevys driven by Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Ken Schrader. ``Teams have been using sway bars since 1950, and you need them with the radial tire.
There were rumors Richard Childress led the campaign to have them banned, but Childress denied it. ``I don't have any opinion, really,'' Childress said. ``I'll put that rumor to rest. I did not start anything.''
In other technical news, NASCAR reportedly will give the Fords another eighth of an inch on the height of their rear spoilers beginning with the New Hampshire race.
SAME OLD STORY: For Rick Mast, who finished one lap down in 26th, it was the same old Daytona story.
``We were out to lunch all week here,'' said the driver from Rockbridge Baths, Va.. ``We've been out to lunch at Daytona for two years and we're still out to lunch here. The car just didn't handle.''
A LONG DAY: Jimmy Hensley's first race behind the wheel of Bill Davis' Pontiac Grand Prix was a grind. The Horsepasture, Va., driver finished 30th, one lap down.
``We were off all day,'' Hensley said. ``And we blew a motor on the last lap. But it's the first race. We'll get better.''
WINSTON CUP POINTS STANDINGS
Driver Points Behind Previous
1. Sterling Marlin 2200 - 1
2. Jeff Gordon 2193 7 3
3. Dale Earnhardt 2184 16 2
4. Ted Musgrave 2090 110 4
5. Mark Martin 2059 141 5
6. Rusty Wallace 1859 341 7
7. Terry Labonte 1855 345 8
8. Michael Waltrip 1843 357 9
9. Bobby Labonte 1838 362 6
10. Morgan Shepherd 1799 401 10
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB