Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 25, 1995 TAG: 9509250123
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRUCE STANTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Bodine, who finished fifth at the Goody's 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, is trying to nail down a sponsor for next season. He and Exide Batteries will part ways after this year.
``We're still looking,'' said Bodine, whose previous best finish in a points race this year was sixth at the Miller 500 in Long Pond, Pa., in July. He had a fifth-place finish in the Winston Select, a non-points race.
Bodine won three races in 1994, his first season as an owner-driver. He also won five poles, but those feats came on Hoosier Tires, which dropped out of Winston Cup racing at the end of last season.
``We proved last year this team can win, and now we're still proving this team can run up front,'' he said. ``To run this good after we ran so bad in the spring here [finishing 35th out of 36 places] shows we're an improved team. Hopefully we can get [a sponsor] before the year's out.''
NO TROUBLE: Jeff Gordon saw his Winston Cup points lead shrink from 309 points to 275 based on his seventh-place finish and Dale Earnhardt's victory.
But Bodine said Gordon did what he had to do.
``Gordon did good,'' Bodine said. ``He stayed out of trouble.''
Gordon started on the pole, but he led only four laps - and those came under caution when every other car on the lead lap pitted.
``Our car had no forward bite at all,'' Gordon said. ``But it was looking a lot worse there a couple of times than it actually ended up. We feel pretty fortunate to finish seventh. As bad of a day as we had, we can't complain too much.''
``Crew chief Ray Evernham did everything he could do, but we just couldn't hit it. We got lucky at the end. Hopefully we'll run a little better at North Wilkesboro [next Sunday]. It could have been a lot worse today.''
FEELING FINE: Dale Jarrett raced with a cracked rib on his left side, but it didn't affect his race performance, he said.
Jarrett suffered his injury when his car tangled with Mike Wallace at Dover last week.
``I'm fine,'' Jarrett said. ``I didn't feel a thing. We put an inflatable pad deal in my seat, and it worked well. It might prevent further injury in another wreck. I'd like to think I'd not wreck again, but that's probably farfetched.''
Jarrett led 12 laps and ran strong until he collided with Derrike Cope on lap 474.
``I got a little impatient because I thought we should be in second or third,'' he said after running into Cope when he was sixth and Cope was fifth. ``I got up beside Derrike, and that's just short-track racing.''
Jarrett finished 10th; Cope ninth.
ABOUT PAR: Rick Mast of Rockbridge Baths finished 28th in the Skoal Ford, which was right on his average finish of 27th in his past seven races.
Mast was in 16th place on the lead lap when his brakes failed, sending him to the pits more than halfway through the race.
``We pushed a seal out of the caliper and lost the brakes,'' he said. ``That's a brake problem, and this is Martinsville, but this isn't a Martinsville problem.
``We've done that two or three times this year. We haven't figured out what's causing it. We were OK at times but not great.''
Mast has finished higher than 26th in only one of his past seven races since an eighth-place finish in the Brickyard 400.
LUGNUTS: Seven drivers have won 24 of the 26 races this year. ... Earnhardt is the only Chevy driver to win at Martinsville in the '90s. His other victory came in 1991. ... Third-place finisher Rusty Wallace had won three straight races at Martinsville.
by CNB