ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604290119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
The typical Late Model Stock victory is constructed of a number of crucial and interlocked elements.
First, there is the car, carefully built and tuned. Then there is the crew, professors of wrench-turning fine arts. Also, there are backers, guys whose pockets bulge with disposable income that they want to spend on cars that do nothing but make left turns at high speeds.
In winning the New River Valley Mall 100-lap feature Saturday night at New River Valley Speedway, Jeff Agnew had that and more.
The more?
``We've been lucky,'' the anvil-footed Floyd driver said. ``We've been real lucky.''
Good, too.
The win was the third in as many starts this season for the defending track champion. (Results in Scoreboard. B4.)
Agnew started on the pole and never saw anything but open asphalt the whole way. That was, when he wasn't looking in his rear view mirror.
There was no shortage of pursuers, with Phillip Morris, the eventual runner-up, being the primary one. As much heat as Morris, third-place Kenny Prillaman, fourth-place Rodney Cundiff, and fifth-place Johnny Rumley put on Agnew, he kept cool in a breeze that only blows on those who enjoy the wide-open spaces at the front of the pack.
Agnew earned his personal space with a 16.42-second qualifying lap. Up front was the only place to be for Agnew.
``I couldn't pass him,'' Morris said. ``If we'd just had some more green-flag laps ... ''
More green-flag laps might have left Agnew a little green around the gills.
``The cautions came near the end of the race, when we needed them most,'' Agnew said. ``We had a better car than Phillips did in the first couple of laps, but after that, we got looser and looser.''
Morris knew exactly what was going on. He had the ideal vantage point as he stayed zeroed in on Agnew's rear bumper.
``At the beginning, we were too snug ourselves on the setup,'' Morris said. ``Jeff was getting looser. Every restart, we watched him wiggle coming out of the turns. But I'd either have lapped traffic on the inside to worry about or we'd be pushing the first four or five laps after the restart.
``If we could have just had a stretch of 20 or 25 laps, I think we would have caught him.''
Agnew held the same view.
``There was enough difference in the cars that you could see that eventually, he would have run us down,'' he said. "The longer we ran, the looser we got. For Phillip, the longer he ran, the better he got.''
You could say the same about Agnew, particularly if you were speaking of the long haul. Agnew has won track crowns in 1994, 1992, and 1991.
``He's awesome,'' said Cundiff, who swept in in fourth despite a chassis that was too snug. ``Once Jeff gets up front, he's tough.''
In other races, Tam Topham won the Limited Sportsman class for the second time in as many weeks. On this occasion, he outhustled runner-up Eddie Walls, third-place Jay McCray, fourth-place Rob Fain and fifth-place Ronnie Byrd.
Tommie Allie won the Pure Stock race, followed by Ducky Phillips, Dean Sutphin, John McMahan and Gary Davis.
Dennis Worley took the checkered flag in the Mini Stocks and he was followed in close order by Vernon Landreth, Kevin Light, John Cox and Ken Moxley.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB