THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996 TAG: 9609150199
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BRIAN J. FRENCH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: 47 lines
Conservationists could learn a lot from Mike Buffkin when it comes to tires.
For the third straight week, Buffkin drove a conservative line to cut down on tire wear and came from behind to win a Late Model race at Langley Speedway.
Saturday night's race ran like a condensed version of last week's 250-lapper. Buffkin fell off the leaderboard early, dropping as far back as fifth, before moving back up and overtaking Greg Edwards for the lead on lap 86.
``Early on, the car is not as fast as the others anyway,'' Buffkin said. ``It's set up for the long run. I could try to run all-out early, but then I'd just burn out my tires.''
That almost happened to Shawn Balluzzo. Balluzzo ran aggresively in the early stages of the race - leading laps 21-56 - before dropping back. He made a late run, but lapped traffic ended his bid.
``If it weren't for the lapped cars, we (Balluzzo, Buffkin and Greg Edwards, who finished second) would have crossed the finish line three-wide.''
Buffkin admitted he had concerns about his strategy when Edwards passed Balluzzo on lap 56 with Buffkin still in third.
``I was really worried,'' he said. ``If it weren't for the caution, I don't know if we would have caught Greg.''
The win moves Buffkin closer to the series championship, adding two points to his lead over Edwards with two races remaining.
In Saturday's other races:
In Grand Stock, Rhett Bussler picked up his series-leading seventh win of the season. Kevin Wagner challenged until hitting the wall on turn 4 in lap 25 after he was bumped by Trevor Falls.
Paul Lubno used a lapped car as a pick on the backstretch on lap 23 to overtake Jerry Scott and win his eighth Limited Stock race.
Joe Lupton won his fourth straight Mini-Stock race, taking the lead on lap 13 and running neck-and-neck with Chris Smith until lap 22, when Smith's car got loose on turn 2.
Sam Zoellner picked up his sixth Pure Stock win of the season, avoiding a pair of lap 1 crashes that affected most of his competitors. The second crash sent six cars to the pits, including Kenny Phares
Steve Mendenthal won the 30-lap Legends feature after going out in front on lap 19 after then-leader Dale Levens spun out. Jason Rudd, newphew of Ricky Rudd, placed second. by CNB