THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 12, 1995 TAG: 9506120135
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LONG POND, PA. LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Dale Jarrett's miserable luck continued Sunday in the UAW-GM 500 at Pocono International Raceway. For the second race in a row, he was spun out before five laps had been completed.
This time, Sterling Marlin got him on lap four, and Jarrett crashed backward into the outside wall.
Even before his car stopped, a furious, frustrated Jarrett cued his radio mike and said, ``Damn, I got spun out again! What can you do?''
He pulled into the garage and then marched out to Marlin's pit, where he complained loudly to Marlin's crew chief, Tony Glover, who implied that it was Jarrett's own fault. Glover told Jarrett that Ernie Irvan, for whom Jarrett is filling in as driver of the No. 28 Ford, had said on the TNN telecast that Jarrett had gotten loose and let off the gas.
Jarrett was so upset that he wouldn't talk to reporters while his car was being patched up. But he told his father, Ned, ``I was just slowing up and taking it easy, getting by the 40 car.''
Marlin told Chevy's Ray Cooper: ``Jarrett was loose. He was crossed up when I hit him. I hate it for him, but he slowed way down.
``They've had a rough year, but there wasn't anything I could do.''
Jarrett returned to the race and completed 126 laps, but so few cars fell out, he still finished only 38th in the 42-car field.
ENGINE WOES: Pocono is one of the few tracks where drivers can really let loose with their 700-plus-horsepower engines, which means the power plants fail more frequently than at other tracks.
Darrell Waltrip didn't even get to the starting line before his engine broke a piston, ending his day before it started.
Last week's winner, Kyle Petty, also succumbed to a broken engine.
Randy LaJoie's Pontiac engine failed before the halfway point, prompting him to tell a radio reporter: ``Looks like we broke the end of the crankshaft off. We'll charge it on the credit card and come on back next week.'' LaJoie's car is sponsored by MBNA bank.
Jimmy Spencer, Robert Pressley and Jeff Burton also dropped out with engine failure, and several other drivers had sour engines by the end of the race, including Mike Wallace, Dave Marcis and Rick Mast.
WHERE WAS DALE? Dale Earnhardt had an unusually quiet day at the track. But he's a master at making something out of nothing, and he managed to finish seventh.
``We were junk all day,'' he said. `` `Missed' ain't the word for that set-up. We were totally out of shape, totally out of lunch.
``We were lucky we didn't lose any more points than we did today.''
Earnhardt's 100-point lead in the championship race shrunk to 77 over Sterling Marlin, who finished fourth.
``I FEEL GOOD'': After his second-place finish, Ted Musgrave was ready for more.
``I know I feel real good right now,'' said Musgrave, driver of the No. 16 Family Channel Ford. ``I feel like I could go another 500 miles.''
Musgrave's teammate, Mark Martin, was not as exuberant. Martin's team had two air wrenches fail during pit stops. His alternator quit. And his radio had problems, preventing him from talking to his crewmen, although he could hear them. Martin finished 11th and gave up fourth place in the points to Musgrave. by CNB