Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508280095
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Medium
Terry Labonte won the two-day survival contest at Bristol International Raceway known as the Goody's 500 - barely.
At 23 minutes past midnight this morning, Labonte slid across the start-finish line and into the outside wall just ahead of Dale Earnhardt to complete his third victory of the season. The race set a NASCAR Winston Cup series record with 16 caution periods.
Earnhardt clearly had the strongest car during the middle stages of the race, and he proved it during two memorable runs through the pack to take the lead.
Earnhardt was 29th before a restart on lap 122, having been relegated to the back of the field by NASCAR officials after causing Rusty Wallace to spin on lap 32.
But he cut through the field like a scythe, passing car after car on a track where passing is notoriously difficult. On lap 195, he blasted past Jeff Gordon to take the lead.
At about lap 260, Earnhardt fell back to the end of the lead lap in about 12th place after a slow pit stop.
But he was back in the lead on lap 308, diving below Darrell Waltrip in turn 3.
Early in the evening, it was a race against the weather.
Although there never was much more than a heavy drizzle all day, it was enough to delay the start for more than an hour and prompt a yellow flag for 18 laps early in the race.
But once the action started on the track, it didn't take long for the fireworks to begin.
Wallace was the first victim of the typically rough racing on the high banks of this .533-mile track. Wallace looped his Ford Thunderbird in a huge cloud of white tire smoke on lap 32 after getting a tap from Earnhardt.
NASCAR's race director, David Hoots, quickly penalized Earnhardt by sending him to the back of the field. Moments earlier, Wallace had pulled up next to Earnhardt and expressed his displeasure.
Hoots was cutting no slack Saturday night. At the drivers' meeting, he had warned: ``You can make a real smooth night of it or you can make a long night of it.''
And when Bobby Hamilton intentionally rammed Brett Bodine into the turn 1 wall on lap 62 (after Bodine retaliated for an earlier encounter), Hoots sent Hamilton to the pits for a five-lap penalty.
``I don't know why it always happens to us,'' said Robbie Loomis, Hamilton's crew chief.
There were a gaggle of other accidents as well, including a nine-car wreck on lap 232 that started when Steve Grissom got into the back of Jeremy Mayfield.
The race was scheduled to start at 7:40 p.m., but the 36-car field didn't get onto the track until about 8 p.m. The drivers ran a number of laps under the yellow flag, but the drizzle picked up and NASCAR brought the field back onto pit road.
At 9:10 p.m., the green flag waved. But on lap 74, the yellow came out again for rain and waved for 18 laps.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB