THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407110184
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
With Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt in front of him, former champion Rusty Wallace behind him and a crumbling New Hampshire track beneath him, Ricky Rudd vowed to win or crash Sunday in the finale of the Slick 50 300.
``I was either going to win it or get into the fence,'' Rudd said. ``I made my decision that I was going to try to win this thing, whatever it takes. I wasn't going to do anything stupid, but I wasn't going to hold back.''
And win he did, passing Earnhardt to take the lead with only six laps to go after a side-by-side duel all the way around New Hampshire International Speedway.
It was Rudd's first victory as a car owner. It was crew chief Bill Ingle's first Winston Cup victory ever. And it was the first time Rudd's wife, Linda, has missed going to Victory Lane with her husband.
Linda Rudd, about seven weeks from delivering the couple's first child, was home alone, watching her husband race on television.
And then her cable went out.
``It was wild,'' she said from her home on Lake Norman, north of Charlotte. `I had MRN (the Motor Racing Network radio broadcast) in one ear and Christie Cagle in the other ear, telling me the blow-by-blow on the telephone.''
Cagle is the wife of Dale Cagle, Rudd's spotter, who was having a hard enough time containing his excitement as he peered down at the 1.058-mile track from above the packed grandstands during those final, exciting laps.
``I didn't blink for the last 10 laps,'' he said.
Rudd crossed the finish line in his No. 10 Ford Thunderbird 0.69 seconds, or several car lengths, ahead of Earnhardt. The win was the 15th career victory for the 37-year-old Chesapeake native. And it preserved his streak of winning at least one race a year since 1983.
But none were more exciting than this one, he said, even his first victory at Riverside, Calif., in June 1983.
Wallace finished third, followed by Mark Martin, Todd Bodine, Morgan Shepherd, Ted Musgrave, Kyle Petty, Rick Mast and Sterling Marlin. The top 18 cars finished on the lead lap.
The 300-lap race was plagued by a deteriorating track surface that caused crash after crash, including a late-race accident that knocked Ernie Irvan out of the show and down to second in the Winston Cup points championship. Earnhardt now leads by four points.
There were 17 caution periods, a staggering number for a race of this length. Eighty-three of the 300 laps were run under the yellow flag. The average speed of the race was a creeping 87.619 mph.
No one had anything complimentary to say about the track surface, which crumbled and broke up all through the race under a baking afternoon sun. But Irvan's bitter comments were the most biting.
``It's just a joke,'' he said. ``I didn't know this is what Winston Cup racing was all about. Somebody's gonna get killed racing through this gravel and then they'll say we should have done something about it.''
But Rudd and Earnhardt proved that with skill and caution, you could still drive on it, and even race on it.
``It wasn't pleasant, but the racetrack was driveable,'' Rudd said.
Rudd and his team, after qualifying third, had a good feeling about Sunday's race after a strong final practice on Saturday afternoon.
And on the sixth lap, he passed pole winner Irvan going into turn three and took the lead. Rudd stayed in front for five laps, but Irvan's stronger Ford repassed him and began pulling away to dominate yet another race. Irvan led 174 laps. It was the ninth of 16 races this year in which Irvan has led the most laps.
By lap 40, Irvan was flying. He actually lapped Earnhardt on that circuit, but on the next one, he tangled with Ward Burton and spun on the backstretch. Earnhardt got his lap back and Rudd retook the lead for 39 more laps.
But Irvan was back in charge again on lap 103 as Rudd began having handling problems. Rudd was fourth on lap 120, but by lap 160, he had fallen to eighth.
And then his team had its biggest disaster of the day. An air wrench broke during a pit stop on lap 172. By the time he was on his way again, the stopwatch had clicked off more than 30 seconds. And Rudd was mired in 14th place.
It appeared Rudd was headed for another decent but uninspired finish.
With only 60 laps to go, he was in 10th and his Ford still wasn't handling.
``Push! Push! Push!'' he complained to Ingle on the radio around lap 240.
``10-4 on the push,'' Ingle replied.
But Ingle made a decisive call on a pit stop around lap 268 that gave Rudd the chance to win. Ingle called for only two tires, and the quicker stop allowed Rudd to restart the race in third, behind Geoff Bodine and Bobby Labonte but ahead of Earnhardt, Irvan and Wallace.
On the restart, Bodine, Labonte and Irvan hit the loose gravel in turn one and spun or crashed.
``My car almost went with them,'' Rudd said.
With that scare fresh in his mind, Rudd questioned Ingle's two-tire decision.
``Are you sure?'' Rudd said. ``These tires are junk.''
``Ricky, please give it a chance. It's going to work,'' Ingle replied. He had seen it work on other cars throughout the afternoon.
There were two more yellow flags before the final eight-lap run to the checkered flag, but when the final sprint started, Rudd knew his car was quick.
``My car was quite a bit better than everybody else's at the end,'' he said. ``It's kind of remarkable. That's the best the car had run all day, when we changed just two tires. That was the call that won us the race.''
The final challenge was to get past Earnhardt.
``Having to deal with (Earnhardt) was not something I was going to enjoy getting tangled up with,'' Rudd said. ``I didn't know what to expect. Dale raced me hard. But he raced me clean.''
Earnhardt, whose Chevy was overheating, pushed high in turn four on lap 293 and Rudd got beside him. But when they went into the first turn, Earnhardt shoved back under Rudd and they raced side-by-side all the way around the track until Rudd edged ahead as they started lap 295.
And then he began pulling away.
With two laps to go, Ingle, with a touch of amazement in his voice, told Rudd his lap speed was 30.60 seconds - only about a tenth of a second slower than the best lap speeds all day.
And as Rudd crossed the finish line, he shouted: ``All right! All right! All right!'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS color photo
Chesapeake's Ricky Rudd, the victor at new hampshire, has won at
least one winston Cup race each year since 1983.
Chart
Top 10 Slick 50 finishers
For copy of chart, see microfilm
Chart
The Ricky Rudd Report
For copy of chart, see microfilm
by CNB