THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 20, 1995 TAG: 9502200167
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE MICHAUX, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Maybe if the Daytona 500 were held on a Thursday or Saturday, the ending would be different.
But it isn't and it wasn't.
Although he is now 0 for 17 in the Daytona 500 after coming up short once again, Dale Earnhardt climbed out of his black Chevrolet Monte Carlo wearing a big smile.
``I'm not supposed to win the damned thing, I don't reckon,'' Earnhardt said with a laugh.
One wonders.
He is the winningest driver at Daytona International Speedway with 26 career victories. He won his sixth Busch Clash last Sunday, his eighth Twin 125 on Thursday, his third IROC race here on Friday. He has seven Busch Grand National Goody's 300 victories to his credit. Add to that a pair of Pepsi 400s and it would seem he has the whole thing figured out.
``We gave it our all,'' said Richard Childress, Earnhardt's car owner. ``I'll take odds that Dale Earnhardt will win the Daytona 500 before his career is over.''
Given the recent history, those still might be pretty long odds.
Earnhardt has finished out of the top five in the 500 only twice in the past five seasons. He has finished second twice, including Sunday.
He dominated the races in 1990 and '93, only to lose the former because of a flat tire on the last lap and the latter when Dale Jarrett passed him on the way to the checkered flag.
On Sunday, Earnhardt took the lead on lap 163 and stayed there until lap 180, when Sterling Marlin got back around him. The car had developed a bad push and was losing ground when the caution flew on lap 187 of the 200-lap race. The Goodwrench crew had a decision to make. Earnhardt radioed in and asked crew chief Andy Petree and car owner Richard Childress what they should do. Childress and Petree opted for the gamble.
They brought Earnhardt in for a four-tire change, while Marlin and Mark Martin and the rest of the leaders remained on the track. That put Earnhardt 13th for the restart with 11 laps to go.
``It's one of those deals where if you don't gamble, you don't win,'' Childress said. ``Where we were running, we knew we didn't have chance to win. So we decided we go for tires and if we get hung and run 10th, that wouldn't be anything to regret because we knew if you didn't gamble, you weren't going to win.''
It almost paid off. Earnhardt wove through the pack with a little bit of drafting help from Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon and blew past Martin into second place. Had Martin been able to keep up, Earnhardt's chances of challenging Marlin would have increased.
``We were no match for those new tires Dale had,'' Martin said. ``The only thing that held him back was he didn't have anybody to help him when he got by me.''
MORE HEARTBREAK: At this point, Rusty Wallace would be happy with a top 20 finish. He has not finished higher than 27th in the Daytona 500 since coming in seventh in 1990.
Sunday was no different.
On lap 159, the caution flag was coming out for a spin on the backstretch. When Wallace, who was running in the top 15, tried to get in line coming through turns three and four, he brushed with Bobby Hamilton and spun into the wall.
``I went to the bottom of the racetrack and started to slow down, and the 43 never lifted,'' Wallace said. ``I just can't get away from rookies that get to crashing out there, it is so aggravating. I had a good car out there today, again, like I have here for five years in a row and this happens.''
Said Hamilton, who actually was in his fifth 500: ``I was up on the outside. I think his spotter must have said clear, but I was plumb up to his door and I locked on the brakes to keep from getting into him and just clipped him and turned him.''
PROUD FAMILY: Ted Musgrave did The Family Channel blimp, which circled the speedway all afternoon, proud by driving The Family Channel Ford to a fourth-place finish, his best career showing.
``I finished eighth here one year (1992) and thought that was going to be the highlight of my career,'' Musgrave said. ``Getting in the top five and just being competitive all day long is really it. You might have a statistic that says I finished in the top 10, but it could be due to wrecks. This wasn't. This was no fluke. We ran strong all day.''
OH, BROTHER: Michael Waltrip, who was among the five sets of brothers to start Sunday's race, had his best career finish in the 500 at sixth and was the only Pontiac driver to lead any laps - two.
``We were fortunate to lead and I wanted to jump on that opportunity and get those five bonus points,'' Waltrip said. ``But we knew when we went in the front that we were probably going to go for a ride toward the back before it was over.''
He did, quickly. The train behind him dove low into turn one and when Waltrip tried to go in, his car got loose and never recovered.
Darrell Waltrip finished 32nd.
The other brother actss were the Bodines, Labontes, Wallaces and Burtons.
MUCH-IMPROVED: Ward Burton had some anxious moments trying to avoid the accidents that led to 10 caution flags and said the last one was the last thing he needed. But his 15th-place finish was a big leap over last year, when he failed to make the field.
``If you could have given me 15th this morning, I'd have taken it,'' Burton said. ``But then, once I was running in the top 10, I wanted that.''
Burton was trailing Ricky Rudd, with no one behind him, when the caution came out on lap 187. He said his biggest problem was that ``the other cars really upset the handling on my car. It just made me push like a freight train going off the corner. I was better when I didn't have anybody behind me like when Ricky and I were running.''
A VICTORY OF SORTS: Just finishing was a major victory for Rick Mast, who went through seven engines in 10 days at Daytona.
``I feel like I won this sucker,'' Mast said. ``We made it all day, no wrecks, no nothing. We lost oil pressure the last restart and I had to baby it. . . . We'll take a 21st and go on to Rockingham.''
Mast had borrowed an engine from Ernie Elliott after blowing an engine in Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying race. MEMO: The Daytona 500 at Orlando, Florida
THE RICKY RUDD REPORT
Started: 18th
Finished: 13th
Laps: 200 of 200
Earnings: $60,620.
Summary: Rudd had no ammo for the leaders all afternoon, but he
managed to stay in the battle for all 200 laps. He dropped several
positions in the final laps when he elected to stay out on the track
during the final caution period and a number of cars passed him on new
tires.
Quote: ``We just missed it all day. Toward the end, we got the car
better, but it never was right. The front end was plowing. Probably in
another 500 miles we would have got it closer.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Rusty Wallace is helped out of his car after spinning during a
caution. Since 1990, he hasn't finished better than 27th in the
Daytona 500.
by CNB