THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 2, 1995 TAG: 9510020124
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
For a NASCAR race that every driver finished - a race interrupted by only two minor yellow flags - there sure were some angry drivers Sunday afternoon at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Mark Martin was not one of them. He won the Holly Farms 400 by .88 seconds over Rusty Wallace after leading 126 of the 400 laps.
Ernie Irvan was positively joyous. He finished sixth and proved to himself and some 60,000 fans that he still has the skills to compete in NASCAR's big league.
And Jeff Gordon was in a pretty good mood. He finished third and extended his Winston Cup championship lead to 302 points over Dale Earnhardt, who finished ninth.
But Ricky Rudd, who finished fifth, was in a rage, charging that NASCAR had, in effect, stolen the race from him.
Dale Jarrett was not particularly happy after getting spun into the wall by a lapped car late in the race when he was running third.
And Kyle Petty and Jimmy Spencer had steam coming out of their helmets during the event.
But everybody was still running when the black and white flag waved for Martin - Spencer finished 36th and last, 10 laps behind.
Martin won his third race of the season on a track where his Ford Thunderbird is not normally the strongest car.
``This win is kind of a surprise to us, and it feels real good to pull it off,'' Martin said. ``I'm going to expect to run good when we come back next time.
``Today, the car was fast on new tires and old tires. A lot of times the best we can hope for is to be fast on new OR old tires. We got lucky today. We hit the set-up that worked all the time.''
There was a full complement of traffic on the track throughout the race, but Martin said he had no trouble with it.
``Traffic can give you fits when your car is not handling, but my car was so good today, it wasn't a problem,'' he said. ``If I really wanted to pass a guy, I'd just abuse the tires to get by. But with a lot of guys, I didn't even have to do that.''
One guy Martin had to pass was Irvan, who claimed the lead from Bobby Labonte on lap 125 and held it until eventual winner Mark Martin overtook him.
Irvan didn't regain the lead, although he did stay on the lead lap and linger in the top 10 throughout except for pit stops. Problems in the car's handling had him on a yo-yo, charging toward the front, then dropping back in the pack. Although the car was loose early, he said the Robert Yates car got better with each pass.
Martin made the race-winning pass on lap 346, diving under Jarrett coming out of turn four. From there, it was clear sailing until Jarrett's wall-banger on lap 368, which put Wallace on Martin's tail when the race resumed with 26 laps to go.
``He started out right behind me on that restart,'' Martin said. ``I had to settle down there and concentrate and put some distance between us so if we encountered any lapped traffic or encountered any problems, we wouldn't lose the race. There at the end, the car probably ran as good or better than it did all day.''
``He really beat me at the end,'' Wallace said.
Rudd, however, was certain he could have beaten Martin if NASCAR had not intervened.
The fateful moment came during the final round of pit stops on lap 370. A crewman only got four out of five lug nuts on the left front tire and the NASCAR pit inspector spotted it.
Rudd was ordered back in the pit to put the last nut on.
``I've never ever since I've been racing had to come back and get lug nuts. I've never known any team that had to come back in for one (lug nut) off at the short tracks,'' Rudd said. ``Terry Labonte's car is sitting up there at the gas pumps right now with one or two lug nuts off. I tried to get ESPN to take a picture of it and they wouldn't do it.
``I think it was pretty obvious NASCAR didn't want to see us win a race. I had Mark. I was just sitting there waiting for him, just watching him.''
``Any underlying thought that we don't want Mr. Rudd to win a race is unfounded and unfair,'' said NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett. ``The call was not made from the (NASCAR control) tower. And we brought other cars in.''
That much was true. Rick Mast and Spencer were called back for missing lug nuts. Mast said he'd never seen it happen before, either, and Spencer vented his shock and surprise with a stream of furious, unprintable language.
Petty's problem wasn't lug nuts, but speeding on pit road. He was called in for a stop-and-go penalty, and then called right back in again. And again. The third penalty may have had something to do with a report that Petty directed an obscene gesture toward the NASCAR tower after the second penalty.
Triplett said NASCAR was concerned that teams might be leaving one nut off to speed up pit stops, adding, ``Safety issues are not places to cut corners. We do not do it for political reasons.''
He did not dispute that one of Labonte's wheels did not have all five lug nuts, but said, ``We know we can't catch them all.'' by CNB