THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 9, 1994 TAG: 9410090189
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Mark Martin dominated much of the All Pro 300 Grand National race Saturday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but Terry Labonte led the final 53 laps to win his fourth Busch event of 1994.
Martin finished second, followed by Derrike Cope, Chad Little, Elton Sawyer, Jim Bown, Sterling Marlin, Ricky Craven, Jimmy Hensley, Jeff Green and Johnny Benson Jr., all on the lead lap.
Martin was about a car length behind Labonte when the yellow flag flew with two laps to go after Phil Parsons and Larry Pearson crashed in turn two. The race ended under caution.
``It wasn't easy,'' said Labonte. ``Mark Martin made a heck of a run there. He got up beside me a couple of times. I thought he had us beat, but I was able to hold him off. I knew he was going to be tough throughout the whole day.''
Martin was toughest, however, during the first half of the race. He led laps 49 through 147 of the 200-lap race and was in front for a total of 109 circuits.
``Terry just beat us today,'' said Martin. ``We had one set of tires we put on that made us a little bit tight. We got tangled up trying to lap a car and got shuffled back in the pack and I just didn't have enough race car to come back through.
``We got back to second and I thought I had Terry, but he kind of squeezed me out there. He had too much for me after that.''
Said Labonte: ``If he'd ever got by me, I would have probably been racing for second.''
Points leader David Green was sailing along comfortably until lap 121, when he clipped the car driven by Dave Rezendes as it spun out of control toward the wall.
Green limped home to a 19th-place finish, five laps down.
``Racing luck can either smile on you or frown on you and it frowned on me today,'' he said.
Green's problems cost him about a third of his points cushion. He led Ricky Craven by 92 points coming into this race. His lead is now 56 points. And Chad Little lurks in third, only 76 points behind Green with two races to go.
``I'm not nervous at all about the last two races,'' Green said. ``Those other guys are nervous. They're trying to figure out how much they've got to do between now and then.''
In other racing action Saturday, Marty Ward led 29 of the 67 laps in the Duron 100 for sportsman cars and won by 1.9 seconds over Steve Knipe.
There was some great side-by-side racing between Ward and Gary Laton until Laton lost it and smacked the inside wall in turn two. Three other caution periods slowed the race, including one for a six-car wreck in turn four on lap 46. No one was hurt. by CNB