THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 20, 1995 TAG: 9502200162
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Long : 127 lines
Throughout a long, gloomy Sunday afternoon in the Daytona 500, there was a yellow brick wall running around Daytona International Speedway disguised as the No. 4 Chevrolet driven by Sterling Marlin.
And when it came down to the end of the race, Dale Earnhardt could surmount every obstacle until he ran into Marlin's brick wall.
Marlin held off a charging Earnhardt to win his second consecutive Daytona 500 by several car lengths, or 0.61 seconds on the stopwatch. Mark Martin finished third, followed by Ted Musgrave and pole-sitter Dale Jarrett.
``I wish everybody here could sit in that seat and feel the feeling to win this thing,'' Marlin said. ``Coming off (turn) four, knowing you're going to win this thing, and all the people cheering, it sends cold chills all over you.''
While the race became interesting at the end, it was a one-man show most of the afternoon. Marlin led 105 of the 200 laps, and although he never edged ahead of the field by more than six or eight car lengths, he broke the draft enough to show everyone that his yellow Chevy was too strong to be beaten.
So now the 37-year-old Tennessean has bagged the biggest race of the year back-to-back for his only two career victories, while the seven-time Winston Cup champion is 0 for 17 in the 500.
``All of 'em are heartbreaking losses if you don't win,'' Earnhardt told reporters as he emerged from his car.
Don't ask Marlin to shed any tears for Earnhardt.
``Maybe when I quit, he can win it then,'' Marlin said.
Marlin's Monte Carlo had been the strongest car all week in practice. His crewmen didn't need any more motivation than that, but they got it anyway when word got back to them Saturday that Earnhardt's crew had been sniping at them.
``The crewman of another car, he'd been talking to the 3 camp and they said they had it won, more or less,'' Marlin said. ``They told him, `We ain't going to worry about them. They'll make a mistake somewhere.'
``It kinda built a fire under us,'' he said. ``I think this time they know we're for real.''
The race was interrupted for an hour and 44 minutes by rain, and it was so cloudy and dark Sunday that the lights along the tri-oval, which are used for the 24 Hours of Daytona, came on late in the afternoon.
In the pits, the big story, particularly early in the race, was a severe tire shortage. Goodyear brought 3,200 tires, but teams were using them up at a fast clip during practice this week. And by the time the green flag fell Sunday, Goodyear was out.
Some teams started the race with only two or three sets. And during the first 60 laps, the five crashes and spins, involving nine cars, triggered a wave of frenzied deal-making on pit road as teams begged the unfortunate for their extra tires.
The shortage was so severe that NASCAR's Les Richter and Goodyear's Leo Mehl jumped in. Prowling up and down pit road, they commandeered unused tires in an effort to dole them out equitably. In the end, everyone appeared to have enough tires, and there were no apparent complaints of unfairness.
But when Dave Marcis fell out of the race after smacking the wall on lap 133, he refused to let Richter take his last set of unused tires. He insisted on giving them to Earnhardt, whose car owner, Richard Childress, had lent Marcis the engine he was using.
And when Bobby Labonte crashed in turn one on lap 187, Earnhardt came into the pits and his crew mounted Marcis's tires for the final dash.
Earnhardt was the only driver among the leaders to pit during that final caution. But it was clear he needed new tires if he hoped to have any chance of winning.
Just seven laps before the yellow, he had led Marlin for 18 circuits until Marlin decided he wanted the lead back. And Marlin blew by him on the backstretch.
``It looked like a slow car came out of the pits and kind of drifted high,'' Marlin said. ``(Earnhardt's) car got real high in turn two and it looked like the front end got to pushing. I just turned down and went by him.''
Earnhardt, with Marcis' tires, headed out of the pits in 13th position. The race restarted with 12 laps to go. And Earnhardt showed once again why he's the best of the best.
He sliced through the field, moving up to second in just eight laps. When he went by Jeff Gordon, Gordon told his crew that Earnhardt had the race in the bag.
After Earnhardt blew past Martin to move into second, Earnhardt's spotter told him: ``Mark says he'll go with you. Mark says he'll go where you go.''
Now he was dogging the leader with the promise of drafting help. It looked as if Earnhardt might finally win his most elusive race in grand fashion. But that's when he hit the yellow brick wall.
Martin couldn't help because Marlin and Earnhardt had moved out ahead of him. And Earnhardt simply didn't have the power or handling to do it on his own.
``If we had some help with somebody out there, we would have got him,'' Earnhardt said. ``But he was awful strong. I reckon the best car won.''
``I figured it would be awful hard for Dale to get back through (the pack),'' Marlin said. ``But Dale done a heck of a job coming back through them. I'd like to see on tape how he got through all those cars.''
``I had her down low, just trying to drive a perfect line. And sure enough, here he came. He just blew by Martin. But he needed a push for him to get up and get by me.''
Starting the last lap, Glover told his driver, ``Hammer down! First one back is the winner.''
Recalled Marlin: ``I was just concerned with going real good in turns one and two because I had trouble there earlier. He got close down the back straight, but once we got into the third corner, I knew we had it. Our car had been perfect in three and four all day. I knew when we got to four that if something bad didn't happen to us, we had it.''
``We were just lucky that we didn't have a couple of more laps. He would have probably gotten me.''
But anyone who saw this race would have to think Marlin was being generous. Earnhardt hadn't busted through that yellow brick wall all afternoon, and it didn't appear he ever would no matter how long this race lasted. ILLUSTRATION: Associated Press color photo
Sterling Marlin celebrates his second consecutive victory in the
Daytona 500. Marlin's only career Winston Cup wins have come in the
series' premier race. ``I knew with about three laps to go, if we
didn't blow no tires or anything like that, we had it won,'' he
said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS photos
The checkered flag falls as Sterling Marlin beats Dale Earnhardt to
the line by 0.61 seconds.
Earnhardt surveys the sky during Sunday's rain delay of 1 hour and
44 minutes.
by CNB