THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502190186
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
The last time a Busch Grand National series regular won the Goody's 300 was the year Dale Earnhardt won his first Winston Cup championship.
Chad Little, whose Ford is co-owned by NFL quarterback Mark Rypien, made his way to Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday from the 42nd starting spot. He watched in his rear-view mirror as the rest of the field piled up in the tri-oval with two laps to go.
Going into turn 3 on lap 117 of the 120-lap race, Little was holding tight to race leader Steve Grissom's rear fender. Little made a move to the inside as they reached turn 4 and got past Grissom, but Grissom got loose, let off the gas and left Mark Martin, who was running third, with nowhere to go but into the rear of his car.
Grissom and Martin got sideways going into the tri-oval, and most of the leaders plowed right into them.
Little raced to the stripe and took the final caution flag. Pole-sitter Michael Waltrip managed to drive through the melee and finish second. Terry Labonte was third, followed by Kenny Wallace and Rich Bickle.
``Grissom was just entirely too loose,'' Martin said. ``He was in bad shape. His car kept getting sideways and the people behind him kept lifting to save him and finally he just couldn't save himself. And then I plugged him, and then I got plugged from behind. It was just a chain reaction.''
Mike Wallace had been running up front with Grissom and Martin for most of the afternoon until he ran into the wall formed by their cars.
``It's a shame that any one of us got taken out,'' Wallace said. ``We put on the race all day long. I was fifth, I guess, when it happened and I was heading to the top and one of them got loose in front of us and it was just a heck of a wreck from there.''
Little, a former Winston West series champion, had never won a race on the East Coast. He failed to make the Daytona 500 field and had to use a provisional to get into the Busch race. Even then, there were concerns about the car all week.
``We struggled with a miss all week,'' Little said. ``We changed everything we possibly could for the last practice session. We had to just troubleshoot it. We couldn't find it, so we changed everything that could possibly have to do with a miss. We don't know what it was, but we had a decent practice session (Friday).
``You always think you can win starting anywhere, but when I was 10th, I was thinking this is a good day.''
When the fourth caution flew on lap 104, most of the leaders pitted, but Little didn't.
``I'm glad we stayed out and things started just happening,'' Little said. ``We picked off one at time.''
Jack Ingram won this race in 1980 running in what then was known as the Late Model Sportsman division. That also was the last time a Ford went to Victory Lane. Only one other time has a Grand National event been won from a provisional starting position - by Tommy Houston in 1991 at South Boston, Va.
Rypien, who played high school football with Little in Spokane, Washington, termed this his driver's Super Bowl.
``This is a great place to win, especially against some of the Cup guys,'' Rypien said. ``This is Chad's Super Bowl. I almost hit my head on that awning (on pit road) jumping up and down, I was so excited.''
Jeff Green, defending Grand National series champion David Green's younger brother, started third in the black No. 3 owned by Earnhardt's wife, Teresa, and stayed with the leaders all day.
``We had a top-five car or even a top-three car today,'' Green said. ``Everything was working great. I screwed up on the last pit stop and tore first gear out.''
Then came the accident.
``All I saw was smoke,'' Green said. ``I just let off the gas, that's all it took and somebody plowed me in the rear.''
Green still wound up seventh.
On lap 110, Dennis Setzer had reached the lead pack and was drafting in third with Grissom and Wallace when the window net came loose.
``I was riding around trying to hold it up,'' Setzer said. ``And I tried to hold the wheel with my knees on the back stretch, that's when we started sliding back into the pack.''
Chesapeake native Elton Sawyer qualified better than he ever has here - sixth - but went out on lap 63 with a broken piston.
``Our race car was real tight and then it got real loose and we adjusted it and I thought we were going to be fine,'' Sawyer said. ``We were still up in that lead draft.''
Sawyer's wife, Patty Moise, spun and brought out the second of five cautions on lap 10.
``I just barely got together with the 47 car (Jeff Fuller) and we were just loose enough to turn me around,'' Moise said. by CNB