Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 9, 1995 TAG: 9509110101
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
It was the second great finish in two nights at Richmond International Raceway, which will stage the sold-out Miller 400 tonight at 7:40 p.m.
Jarrett and Martin swapped the lead six times in the final 55 laps before Jarrett took the lead for good in the second turn with less than two circuits remaining.
``Mark is a lot of fun to race,'' said Jarrett. ``We just had some good racing. I hope everybody enjoyed it because we had a lot of fun. He's going to race you hard every single lap. We used slow traffic on each other to swap the lead back and forth.''
Said Martin: ``We were just racing. There wasn't anything complicated about it. It was just all a matter of who got in front and who passed who. Dale Jarrett beat me.''
Martin dominated the race, leading 147 of the 250 laps.
Jarrett was leading with four laps to go, but Martin used a slower car as a pick and muscled past going into turn 1 on lap 248. The next lap, however, Jarrett did the same thing and took the lead for good.
Johnny Benson finished third, followed by Steve Grissom and Terry Labonte.
With his third-place finish, Benson further extended his lead in the Grand National points championship over Chad Little, who had another late race crash - this one on the last lap with Jeff Green - and finished 16th. Benson is now 206 points ahead.
In other news, Jarrett confirmed Friday night that he'll be returning with Robert Yates in 1996 in a second, as-yet-unnumbered car, with Ernie Irvan planning to return in the No. 28 Ford.
FAMILY CHANNEL, LYSOL RETURNING: The Family Channel, which sponsors the Jack Roush Ford driven by Ted Musgrave, has renewed its multi-year sponsorship with Roush Racing. As usual, the terms were not disclosed, but the company is seeking a partner or associate sponsor.
In other sponsorship news, Lysol announced that it would return as sponsor of Hensley Racing's Grand National Pontiac Grand Prix with longtime Virginia racer Curtis Markham.
IRVAN HERE: Ernie Irvan was here Friday, but wasn't saying anything about his plans except that a news conference has been tentatively scheduled for Sept.19, at the Robert Yates Racing shop in Charlotte. The speculation is that Irvan hopes to announce his return to racing in the NASCAR SuperTruck series race at Martinsville on Sept.23.
by CNB