THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 22, 1996 TAG: 9604220146
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
In a record-breaking Goody's 500 at Martinsville Speedway, Ironman Terry Labonte slipped out of the spotlight just in time for Rusty Wallace to steal a bit of glory.
Wallace passed Jeff Gordon with 12 laps to go to win a record-setting fourth straight spring race here in front of a record-breaking crowd estimated at 66,000.
Labonte made his 514th consecutive start Sunday, breaking Richard Petty's record. And he was a contender for much of the race. But in the end, Labonte didn't have the brakes.
Ernie Irvan didn't set any records Sunday, but he passed Jeff Gordon in the final laps to finish second - his best finish of the year.
Gordon was third, followed by Jeremy Mayfield and Dale Earnhardt, the last driver on the lead lap.
Wallace's victory gave Ford its second win of the year. Thunderbirds also finished second and fourth.
Gordon led the most laps - 210 - but his tires swelled too much in the final 53-lap run under the green flag, giving Wallace the edge to make the race-winning pass in turns three and four on lap 489.
``I knew that if I was going to pass Jeff, I had to get my nose up under his left rear quarterpanel. ...'' Wallace said. ``We went into turn three and we had a bunch of traffic. But he was all bogged down and he was having trouble getting into that corner.
``That particular lap, he got in and went about a car length high, and when he did, I got that nose up in there and throttled up on it. I was able to get alongside of him and I was able to drag race him down into the corner. And that was it.''
Wallace thought Gordon was having brake problems. Bad brakes felled a number of others, including Labonte.
But Gordon said his problem was too much air in the tires.
Crew chief Ray Evernham made a gamble for the final pit stop and aired the tires at the same pressure that ``made the car take off'' at North Wilkesboro. But it didn't work at Martinsville.
``We were real good most of the day, but on that long run, the air pressure built up too much,'' said Gordon. ``The car started bouncing a little bit in the turns. And I couldn't drive into the turns or drive out the way I wanted to.''
Wallace led 164 laps and won by 2.52 seconds for his sixth victory here and his 42nd career victory. But he said there has been nothing similar with his four straight victories in the spring here.
``I can tell you one thing - all those four races, they've all been different cars, different chassis set-ups and different shock set-ups,'' he said. ``So you can't say Rusty's got a golden chassis set-up that he sticks in there all the time.
``And we pay attention to the chassis - an unbelievable amount. Some guys golf and hunt. I get my jollies making the car handle.''
Labonte, meanwhile, seemed in great position to win his record-breaking race after capturing the North Wilkesboro race last weekend.
He took the lead from Gordon on lap 405 and led 10 circuits until a yellow flew for oil on the track. Gordon beat him out of the pits, but Labonte was challenging for the lead with 75 laps to go.
A few laps later, however, Labonte was falling back.
``I'm losing fluid,'' he told his crew on lap 435. ``I've got a feeling we busted a brake line.''
By lap 437, he had fallen back to fifth. When the final yellow flag flewon lap 443 for debris on the track, Labonte headed for the pits. But it was already over for him.
When the green waved on lap 448, Labonte was still in the pits. He eventually finished 24th, 20 laps down.
``The brakes went out and it blew out the O-ring on the caliper,'' Labonte told Chevy's Ray Cooper. ``It was a tough deal. I thought we were being pretty easy on the brakes all day long. I was trying to get around Jeff there, and I guess I wasn't as easy on them as I thought I was.
``Now we can get back to normal and maybe we won't have as much attention on us,'' he said. ``I'm glad we got the record behind us, but I told everybody it was going to be tough to top last week.''
In victory lane, Wallace was relishing the new-found attention that accompanied his first victory of 1996.
``I haven't been able to talk a whole lot lately because we haven't been finishing good,'' he said. ``But they tell me if you keep beating it over the head long enough, you'll finally get it. We've been running real, real good all year long. We were in Talladega last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and ran quicker than I ever thought we'd run.
``For the first time in my life, I can't wait to get there next week.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Don Peterson, Landmark News Service
Rusty Wallace says his four spring victories at Martinsville have
all been different.
by CNB