THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 26, 1994 TAG: 9409260235
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Dale Earnhardt hasn't won a race since May. But his second-place finish in the Goody's 500 Sunday at Martinsville Speedway was his fifth consecutive in the top three.
That's what wins championships.
But Earnhardt was still taking nothing for granted after the race, which ended with Earnhardt 217 points ahead of Rusty Wallace in the stretch run for the 1994 Winston Cup championship.
``I feel better about it every race, but it's five points (lost) here and 10 points there,'' Earnhardt said. ``Rusty got 15 on us in the last two weeks. So Wilkesboro should be ours. We finished second to him again, though.''
Earnhardt is clearly happy with his fall performance, but he wants more.
``We've been consistently finishing in the top five lately, but we need to win another one,'' he said.
Earnhardt's day included two spins before lap 100.
``We was in circles, and the wrong kind of circles, too,'' he said.
But he was back at the front in the end, battling nose-to-tail with Wallace for 15 laps as he tried to get the lead.
His challenge ended with about 10 laps to go.
``I just overworked the brakes,'' he said. ``I used the brakes up before the tires.''
WALKING WOUNDED: Martinsville always manages to chalk up a few casualties. Kyle Petty and Ricky Rudd were the victims Sunday.
The bug that kept Kyle Petty sick all week did not let up on race day. After about 200 laps, Petty had had enough. He stopped and let Todd Bodine, a crash victim earlier, take over. Petty's temperature when he got out of the car reportedly was 105 degrees. He was treated at the infield care center and released.
In the second half of the race, Rudd had to battle carbon monoxide and exhaust fumes. Although his team lined up Dick Trickle as a possible relief driver, Rudd was able to finish the race. He recovered in the lounge of his hauler.
JARRETT STOUT: Dale Jarrett's fifth-place finish - one of his best runs of the season - came despite a broken left wrist. And without the injury, he probably would have done better.
``I really thought we had a legitimate shot at it,'' Jarrett said. ``The problem came on the longer part of a (green-flag) run. When you really had to hustle the car, I couldn't do that very well with one hand.
``I'm just sorry I didn't have both hands. All I had was my fingers to grip with. I couldn't do anything with my palm.''
GOOD DAY FOR KENNY: Kenny Wallace's fourth-place finish in Ernie Irvan's No. 28 Ford Thunderbird was his first top 10 since he took over for the injured Irvan five races ago.
``It was a good run,'' Wallace said. ``Dale came out of nowhere and got me. I didn't expect that. I think the two surprises at the end were Earnhardt and Bill Elliott.''
Elliott, who finished third, was also pleased: ``We ran good all day long and I kept waiting on those other two up front to take each other out so I could win this thing.''
Elliott was briefly sick after the race.
``Carbon monoxide tears me up here,'' he said. ``I'm fine until I get out of the car, but I guess when I start breathing good air, it gets to me. But I'm OK now.''
NEW FINES: NASCAR fined two crew chiefs $2,000 each for using trailing arms on their cars that were too thin.
Mike Hillman, crew chief of Dick Trickle's No. 32 Chevrolet, and Ken Glenn, crew chief for Jeremy Mayfield's No. 98 Ford, were fined and the improper trailing arms confiscated.
NASCAR rules calls for a wall thickness of 0.120 of an inch for trailing arms; the violators were using arms with a wall thickness of 0.083 of an inch. by CNB