THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 10, 1994 TAG: 9410100176
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Dale Earnhardt had trouble for the third straight race Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway, but he was near the front as always in the end, finishing third in the Mello Yello 500 to edge closer to his record-tying seventh Winston Cup championship.
And when his closest challenger, Rusty Wallace, suddenly slowed while running second on lap 256 and headed to the garage with a broken engine, Earnhardt's advantage became so great as to be almost insurmountable.
No matter what Wallace does at Rockingham in two weeks, if Earnhardt finishes third or better and leads a lap, he wins the title.
With Wallace's 37th-place finish, Earnhardt gained 113 points and leads by 321 with three races left.
``Let's get through Rockingham first,'' Earnhardt said. ``If we can get through Rockingham like we are now, then I'd have to not start (the final two races) and he'd have to win to beat me. We've just got to do three more races now and do 'em right.''
Said Wallace, ``I'm going to take it right to the living end, man. I don't quit, you know. We had 'em smoked off again today, but it just didn't make it. I've got to get consistent finishes. Outrunning them doesn't do the trick.''
Earnhardt's race got off to a rocky start when he clipped Bill Elliott to avoid the Bobby Labonte-Todd Bodine crash in turn three on lap five.
``They got on the brakes and I got into Bill,'' Earnhardt said. ``Then it spun down to the bottom and luckily nobody hit us and we were going the right away again.''
It was the third race in a row where Earnhardt got out of shape. But he has finished second or third in six of the last seven races, and he was seventh in that other one.
GIBBS SPEAKS: Before his driver, Dale Jarrett, went out and won the Mello Yello 500, ex-NFL coach Joe Gibbs, owner of the No. 18 Chevrolet Lumina, said he couldn't say whether Jarrett would be returning to the team next year.
Jarrett said Saturday he has an offer from Robert Yates to drive injured Ernie Irvan's No. 28 Ford Thunderbird and he had ``taken it to Joe.''
``Basically, the less I say about it the better,'' Gibbs said Sunday morning. ``We've got a two-year contract. But there are a lot of things going on. Who knows?''
After Jarrett's victory, Gibbs said: ``I think right now we want to concentrate on this victory and not spend a lot of time worrying about next year.''
NOT UPSET: After dominating most of the race, Geoff Bodine was philosophical when engine trouble ended his day. Bodine finished 32nd after running 290 laps and leading 202 of them.
``I had 'em covered,'' he told Ford's Wayne Estes. ``But we were leaking water and the engine overheated. A little problem like this today, that's nothing. We'll come back.''
FIERY CRASH: The most spectacular incident occurred on lap five, when Bobby Labonte and Todd Bodine went into the third turn side by side. Labonte lost control of his Pontiac, hit Bodine and then slammed backwards into the wall. His car erupted into flames.
``It was just one of those deals,'' Labonte told Pontiac's Brian Hoagland. ``We went down into turn three, me and Todd, and I got all the air taken off the spoiler and it turned around.''
No one was hurt in that crash, but Ward Burton had his bell rung when he blew a tire and went straight into the second turn wall while leading on lap 30.
Burton was taken to Cabarrus Memorial Hospital here and later transferred to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte for observation of a concussion. He was expected to be held 24 to 48 hours.
ANDRETTI LEADS: When John Andretti led 28 laps early in the race in Richard Petty's No. 43 Pontiac, he took another step in his Winston Cup career.
``It's the first time I've led a Winston Cup race legitimately,'' he told Hoagland. ``It wasn't under yellow or something like that.''
Andretti's team later had to replace a shock absorber and he eventually finished 24th, six laps down.
SUPERTRUCK SCHEDULE: The NASCAR Supertruck series unveiled a tentative 1995 schedule with 18 races in 14 states.
The series is still looking for a sponsor and television package.
Most of the races are in the west, but there are some races set for Bristol on June 23, Richmond onSept. 7, Martinsville Sept. 23 and North Wilkesboro Sept. 30 ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Michael Waltrip walks away from his wrecked car after colliding with
brother Darrell late in the Mello Yello 500.
by CNB