ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997 TAG: 9704080046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: ROANOKE, TEXAS
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER THE ROANOKE TIMES
The first NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway looked like a typical stock car race and most certainly had a typical winner.
Mark Martin swept below Jimmy Spencer on the backstretch of tight Texas Motor Speedway with 13 laps to go and went on to win the inaugural Coca-Cola 300 by 1.57 seconds.
The race revealed that Texas Motor Speedway is, indeed, a one-groove track. But it wasn't the worst race of the year by a long shot, and while there were eight yellow flags, there were no disastrous crashes.
Randy Porter was taken by ambulance to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth complaining of right shoulder pain, but he was released after examination. Porter hit the wall in turn four on lap 66.
Martin said the only reason he was able to pass Spencer at the end was because Spencer's tires gave out. Spencer took the lead on lap 161 because he changed only two tires in his final pit stop.
``The only thing I could do was keep the pressure on Jimmy and hope that he slipped or an opening would come up,'' Martin said. ``There's not much side-by-side racing going on out there. Jimmy made a valiant effort there by taking two tires and getting track position. He drove his heart out, but we kept the pressure on him and he finally slipped.''
Said Spencer: ``I saw him back there waiting. Mark saw me slipping more and more and what could I do? He got a good run at me.''
Martin said one reason the race was so trouble-free was because so many cars finished on the lead lap.
``I really expect the real trouble to surface tomorrow when we have lapped cars,'' Martin said. ``Everybody was on the lead lap in the Busch race, almost. When we started lapping those cars at the end of the race, it started to get pretty tense. We could have lost the race really easy on a lapped-car situation.''
Spencer was second, followed by Jeff Burton, Todd Bodine and Mike McLaughlin. Twenty-four drivers finished on the lead lap.
Eight different drivers led the race. McLaughlin led the most laps (67) while Martin only led the final 13.
This was Martin's fourth victory in six Busch races this year and leaves him one career Busch victory behind all-time Busch winner Jack Ingram's 31. Todd Bodine, who finished fourth, holds the championship lead by 60 points over 1996 champ Randy LaJoie, who finished ninth.
QUALIFYING SCRUBBED: Winston Cup qualifying was canceled Saturday after it took NASCAR longer to dry the track than expected.
Rain fell most of Friday night, but the biggest problem Saturday morning were numerous ``weepers'' - small streams of water that emerged from the base of outer walls and drained across the track.
The cars finally got on the track at 10 a.m. for practice as NASCAR decided that the practice session was more important than qualifying.
The cancellation of qualifying for today's Interstate Batteries 500 was a blow to nine drivers.
Robert Pressley, rookie David Green, Wally Dallenbach, Rick Wilson, H.B. Bailey, Randy LaJoie, Mike Bliss, Gary Bradberry and Ed Berrier will miss the race after being the losers in the battle of postmarks on entry blanks
NASCAR officials reverted to postmarks, and then reverted to owner points when there were too many entries postmarked the same day.
Green, for one, questioned the fairness of the postmark method of filling out the field because his team members returned their entry blank the same day they received it. NASCAR told him the team's entry arrived one day later than those who qualified by postmark.
``I'm confused,'' he said. ``NASCAR said they received entries on the 17th [of March]. But we didn't receive ours until 1:50 p.m. on the 18th and we turned around and sent it in by FedEx that same day. They said we should have gotten it on the 17th. It's an unfortunate situation.''
Even though there was no ex-champion to fill the 43rd starting spot, NASCAR used the so-called champion's provisional spot to create a 43-car field so the maximum number of drivers could compete.
Points leader Dale Jarrett will start on the pole, while the ``postmark'' spots at the back of the field went to Dave Marcis, Derrike Cope, Chad Little, Greg Sacks, Joe Nemechek, Bobby Hillin, Mike Wallace and Billy Standridge.
There were suggestions that those who failed the postmark test at Richmond (where qualifying also was rained out) were given a break here. The three drivers who missed the Richmond race because of postmarks - Wallace, Standridge and Sacks - made the race here. Green, for one, made the Richmond race on the postmark rule.
``Who missed the race at Richmond because of postmarks had no bearing whatsoever on who made the race here,'' said Kevin Triplett, a NASCAR spokesman.
TWO BROKEN RIBS: Doctors have diagnosed Winston Cup driver Ricky Craven with two broken ribs in addition to the concussion and the broken right shoulder he suffered in a crash during practice Thursday.
``Ricky had a very uncomfortable night,'' said Jimmy Johnson, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB