THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996                 TAG: 9603310195
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: C6   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN.                     LENGTH: Short :   50 lines

MARTIN STILL RULES THE BUSCH ROOST HE'S WON 3 OF 5 GN RACES HE HAS ENTERED IN '96, ADDING BRISTOL TO HIS LIST.

Mark Martin continued his relentless shredding of the Busch Grand National series Saturday, leading 145 of 250 laps in the Goody's 250 at Bristol International Raceway to win his third race of 1996.

It was Martin's 23rd career Busch victory.

``He's tough,'' said Jeff Green, who finished second, about four-tenths of a second behind Martin. ``I don't know what we're going to have to do to beat him.''

The only answer at this point appears to be keeping him out of the Grand National races altogether. Martin has won half of them this year. He won at Darlington last week, and led 151 of 197 laps to win the Rockingham race from the pole. He also dominated at Atlanta, leading 119 of 197 laps before finishing seventh. And he finished third at the season-opening race at Daytona.

``We've got some awful steamy engines in these cars,'' Martin said. ``We've got a lot of power, and these guys have put me in good race cars. We were off a little bit today, but we had enough to pull it off.

``My car was OK on the long runs but wasn't real swift after the cautions, and we got a couple of those right there at the end and had to really work at it.''

Green remained close to Martin's bumper for a couple of circuits after the final restart with seven laps to go. But Martin edged away.

``My car was good for three or four laps, but then I'd start pushing,'' said Green, who had his first top-10 finish of the year.

``Our season starts today,'' he said.

The race featured the usual assortment of crashes and spins, and the yellow flag flew six times. Among the victims was Jimmy Spencer, who summed it up best: ``It's Bristol, man. This place owes me a lot, but evidently it isn't paying off.''

Kenny Wallace finished third, followed by Phil Parsons and Steve Grissom. David Green, who was seventh, remains the series leader with a 140-point lead over Martin, who skipped the race at Nashville. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

``We've got some awful steamy engines in these cars,'' Mark Martin

said after winning the Goody's 250 at Bristol.

by CNB