Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509120037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
After spectacular NASCAR races at Richmond International Raceway Thursday and Friday nights, Rusty Wallace won the Winston Cup finale Saturday night in a runaway.
Wallace led 254 of the 400 laps, including the final 102 circuits, and won by 5.6 seconds for his his second victory of the year. He was never seriously challenged during most of the second half of the race.
``Good job, guys, real good job,'' Wallace told his crew after he took the checkered flag. ``Real proud of all you guys.''
Behind Wallace, most of the usual suspects chalked up top-five finishes.
Defending champion Terry Labonte was second after holding off Dale Earnhardt in a spirited battle at the finish. Dale Jarrett was fourth, followed by Bobby Hamilton and Jeff Gordon, the only other drivers on the lead lap.
There were several periods of close racing early, but things settled down quickly as Wallace took control for the first time on lap 99 and led the next 62 laps.
Wallace gave a lot of the credit to crew chief Robin Pemberton, who has been under a lot of pressure in his first year with Wallace because the team hasn't been winning with its usual regularity.
``Robin did a killer job today making this thing handle,'' Wallace said. ``He's took all the crap off this deal. People have been saying the car's not running and pointing all the fingers at Robin. But the car's been running faster than it ever has. He's number one in our book.
``The pit stops were great. I just aimed the thing.''
Labonte summed up the feelings of the other top competitors, saying, ``We weren't as good as Rusty. We just got outrun.''
And so the last of three races this weekend at the 3/4-mile track at the Virginia State Fairgrounds was a snoozer compared to the first two.
Thursday night, Labonte beat Geoff Bodine by about 18 inches in the truck race after a side-by-side final lap duel. Friday night, Jarrett and Mark Martin swapped the lead several times in the final laps of the Grand National race before Jarrett prevailed.
A record crowd estimated at 88,000 flocked to the track for the Winston Cup race.
But they were pouring toward the exits by the hundreds with 50 laps to go to beat the notoriously difficult post-race traffic, which was jamming up before the checkered flag flew.
Perhaps the biggest winner Saturday night was Gordon, who turned in a less-than-stellar but steady top-10 finish to further extend his lead in the Winston Cup championship.
Gordon leads Earnhardt by 279 points. Coming into the race, he had a 217-point lead over Sterling Marlin. But Marlin had to come behind the pit wall to replace a rear-end gear on lap 275 and finished 33rd.
Marlin dropped to third in points, 308 behind Gordon.
And Martin, who finished 15th, three laps down after experiencing engine problems, dropped to 433 points behind.
There were only four yellow flags for relatively minor spins and crashes, none involving more than two cars, and none during the second half of the race.
One involved Elton Sawyer, who was on the outside of a three-car sandwich going into turn 1 on lap 68. When Jeremy Mayfield made it three-wide, Sawyer's car was knocked into a spin and hit the first-turn wall.
``Unfortunately, they didn't build this race track to run three wide,'' Sawyer said. ``Somebody needs to tell Jeremy that.''
But there were two injuries in the pits. Winston Cup official Alan Bryson received a chest injury when a car ran over an air wrench, which kicked up and hit him. And Gordon's public relations specialist, Ron Miller, suffered a probable broken heel when he was struck by a rolling tool box. Both men were taken to Richmond Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB