THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060136
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SONOMA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
Rusty Wallace's fun-filled California weekend ended, ultimately, in victory, but also a slap on the wrist, when NASCAR fined him $25,000 after he won the Save Mart 300 at Sears Point Raceway.
More than an hour after his Victory Lane ceremony, Wallace was in street clothes, relaxing on a golf cart and signing autographs outside his transporter, when he got wind of trouble from NASCAR's postrace inspection.
His car was too low. When the Ford passed under the height bar, it was about 3/16ths of an inch lower than the 51-inch minimum.
Crew chief Robin Pemberton at first seemed unconcerned.
``The jack bolt plate is bent,'' he said. ``We're a little bit low. But you can't be perfect when you're getting the pieces beat off it.''
But by then, reporters had begun milling around the NASCAR transporter after being alerted that NASCAR would have an announcement. Second-place finisher Mark Martin was already gone, but his car owner, Jack Roush, and crew chief, Steve Hmiel, were advised to stick around.
When Pemberton told Wallace of the situation, the driver headed to the NASCAR transporter, only to be stopped at the door by Buster Auton, who had been delegated to guard the inner sanctum while NASCAR officials pondered what to do.
Wallace eventually was allowed inside. And when he emerged about 30 minutes later, he said: ``Got fined. Won the race.''
A few moments later, he expounded on the issue:
``They (NASCAR) know we didn't screw them at all in any way. But since it's low, there has to be a fine. What's upsetting is that it taints the win. We know and they know we didn't do anything to make the car go faster with this.''
NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said: ``We fined him $25,000. He keeps the win, he keeps the points. We did not feel this was a competition-enhancing situation. We did not feel this was intentional. But the car was too low.
``The jack screw plate on the right front was damaged and the shock was bottoming out. With the jostling around here, the right and left turns and off the berms, we feel like the damage we found was the result of that, and it was unintentional.''
Wallace said his car ``would have been quicker if it was right.''
But it was quick enough to allow him to snatch the lead from Jeff Gordon on a restart with five laps to go, then held off Martin and Wally Dallenbach to win by 0.45 seconds as Fords swept the top three spots.
Dale Earnhardt was fourth in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, followed by Terry Labonte, Gordon, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Bobby Labonte and Ward Burton. Seventeen other drivers finished on the lead lap.
The pass of Gordon, who had led the previous 12 laps, was the key.
``There wasn't a damn thing I could do, guys,'' Gordon told his crew on the radio after losing the lead. ``I just spun the tires all over the place. I knew this was going to happen. It happened all day on restarts. I tried, but there wasn't anything that was going to make the tires stick.''
Afterward, Wallace said, ``Getting the tires cleaned off was a real key part - getting a lot of grip in the rear tires so when I launched, I wouldn't spin the tires. We were having a bad, bad problem with buildup on the tires.
``I got it all off and Jeff didn't get it as cleaned up as I did. I just got a jump on him, got alongside him, and that was the key factor.''
And although things got tense when the NASCAR bigwigs began huddling, their ruling preserved Wallace's first visit to Victory Lane on a road course since 1990. And it perserved his fond memories of what is annually one of the best road trips of the season.
``I think that coming out here to California - if anybody coming out from the East Coast didn't enjoy themselves this weekend, they're crazy,'' he said. ``The weather was beautiful. Broke the record for drinking beer every damn day I've been out here.
``When you're all doing the same thing all the time on the East Coast, his feels kind of like a mini-vacation for us. Even if I hadn't won, I would have still been smiling and, damn, we topped it off with a win.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Rusty Wallace
AP photo
Rusty Wallace crossed the finish line 0.45 seconds ahead of Mark
Martin. But the victory still was far from secure.
Graphic
Top Finishers
Point Leaders
Results
For complete graphic, see microfilm
Graphic
The Ricky Rudd Report
For complete text, see microfilm
by CNB