THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605050207
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SONOMA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
For only the second time this season, all of the regulars in the Winston Cup series have made Sunday's race.
The 44-car field in today's Save Mart 300 at Sears Point Raceway includes every full-season campaigner except Chesapeake native Elton Sawyer, whose unsponsored team chose not to make the trip to the West Coast.
Second-round qualifying Saturday was busy but uneventful. Nineteen cars ran in the session. Jeff Burton again struggled; he was 45th-fastest - slowest of the regulars.
But Burton earned one of the provisional starting spots, along with Steve Grissom, Mike Wallace and Dave Marcis. Two other provisional spots went to NASCAR Southwest Tour regulars Larry Gunselman and Rich Woodland Jr.
The only other race this year in which all of the regulars made the field was the TranSouth 400 at Darlington in March.
CHANGING TIMES: A few years ago, you could count on either Rusty Wallace or Ricky Rudd winning the NASCAR road races.
But Dale Earnhardt's first road-course victory here last year and Terry Labonte's first pole here Friday demonstrate how that has changed.
``There's a bunch of guys you've got to factor in now,'' Rudd said. ``It seems like we've been chasing Mark (Martin) and Jack Roush on these road courses ever since they paired up.
``And Labonte, he was a good road racer, but he wasn't in good equipment for a lot of years. But now he's in good equipment. So that's two more you've got to race.
``And all of a sudden Earnhardt knows how to get around this place pretty good. You can go down the list, but it used to be simple when you came here.''
LOOKING FOR MORE: Trans-Am road-racing star Tommy Kendall doesn't mind getting the calls to substitute for injured drivers in Winston Cup road races, but he hopes it will turn into something more in NASCAR racing.
``It would be nice if it could springboard me into more opportunities,'' he said. ``Schedule permitting, I'd like to do some more this year.
``I've tried to put some deals together to run some Busch races and some truck stuff, but the fact of the matter is, the Trans-Am work is full time as it is. Doing as well as we do there in a way hampers my ability to pursue this.'']
HANGING ON: Doug McCoun of Prunedale, Calif., managed to keep his slightly smoking Pontiac ahead of Craig Raudman's Chevy in a wild final lap of the Pennzoil 200 for NASCAR Southwest Tour cars.
Raudman pulled even with McCoun in the final turn, but ``I knew if the motor kept running, I was going to win the drag race to the finish line,'' McCoun said.
``At that point, I was either going to crash and burn or go for it.'' by CNB