ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 12, 1996 TAG: 9608120141
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: CHAD WILLIS STAFF WRITER
Baseball great Yogi Berra once said, ``It ain't over until it's over.'' Rodney Cundiff, Saturday night's winner of the New River Valley Speedway Pepsi 100 Late Model Stock race, is now a firm believer in Berra's wisdom.
The Boones Mill driver led the final eight laps of a caution-extended, 105-lap race to take his third victory of the season, but a protest from runner-up Tony McGuire kept Cundiff and crew in post-race inspection until 1 a.m.
When all was said and done, McGuire's WDBJ-7 race team was out $700 of challenge money and Cundiff boxed up what was left of his Kowalsky engine, took his trophy and headed for home.
"This win is just unbelievable,'' Cundiff said. "We haven't run really well the last couple of races, then to come from our start position tonight to win is just unbelievable.''
Cundiff qualified at 90.11 mph, just .07 seconds slower than pole-sitter McGuire, but only good enough to start on the inside of row 4.
"I've never been a good qualifier,'' Cundiff said. "We were tickled with our time tonight, but we still started seventh. If I can do a better job, it would make winning a lot easier.''
McGuire dominated the early stages, leading by as much as the entire backstretch by lap 50.
The race's first caution flag bunched up the grid on lap 65, but McGuire smoked the field on the restart and quickly rebuilt a .35 cushion on Cundiff.
"At that point I thought we had no chance of catching Tony because all the cars were pretty much evened out,'' Cundiff said. "The only way we could catch him was with another caution.''
On lap 89, Cundiff got his wish. A medical emergency on pit road forced a red flag while an ambulance left the grounds.
Cundiff sat on the leader's bumper until a slip by McGuire on lap 98 allowed Cundiff to push the only Ford in the field to the front of the pack for good.
McGuire finished second, Chad Harris third, Scott Millington fourth and Mike Porter fifth.
In Limited Sportsman action, Mark Akers (Narrows) picked up his second victory of the season in a caution-extended 38-lap event. Akers grabbed the pole with an 89.04 mph circuit, then led flag to flag for the win.
Akers took the high road and held off last week's winner, Eddie Walls, for the final 15 laps. Division points leader Tam Topham placed third.
Tommy Allie (Christiansburg) extended his winning streak to 13 races, taking the checkered flag in the Pure Stock race. The victory was Allie's 15th of the season. Randy Taylor came in second with John McMahan in third.
Floyd's Ray Sowers outlasted a rash of caution flags to win his fifth consecutive Mini Stock race and eighth overall. Five different caution periods stretched the scheduled 25-lap race to 30 laps.
Robert Cox was the runner-up with Marty Moore in third.
G.E. Chapman picked up a victory in the $500-to win Legends race. Clay Hair finished second with Chuck Gafarar in third.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB