THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 23, 1996 TAG: 9609230141
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE, VA. LENGTH: 92 lines
For a couple of hours in Sunday's Hanes 500 at Martinsville Speedway, it looked like the days of old.
The afternoon sun was shining brightly on the little, half-mile track and that familiar blue, red and white No. 43 Petty Enterprises stock car was leading the field, lap after lap after lap.
But the trip down memory lane ended 115 laps early when Bobby Hamilton, the driver of Richard Petty's Pontiac Grand Prix, gave way to the Petty of 1996 - Jeff Gordon. And instead of seeing the first Winston Cup victory for Petty Enterprises since 1984, the crowd of 66,000 saw Gordon's ninth victory of the year.
Terry Labonte finished second and Hamilton third after a furious shootout on the final lap. Rick Mast was fourth - his best finish of the year - and John Andretti fifth.
Morgan Shepherd was sixth, followed by Geoff Bodine and Kyle Petty in the only other cars on the lead lap.
Hamilton led 332 of the 500 laps, but Gordon was on his bumper almost the entire time.
``The whole time I was thinking, boy, I know what guys used to feel like when Richard Petty was driving it,'' Gordon said. ``I was sitting there behind it all day long, watching the bumper. It was a good car. It was strong. He could drive off the corners very well.''
But throughout the grandstands, thousands of fans must have been thinking: When will the hammer fall?
It fell on lap 385, not on the track but in the pits.
Hamilton came in before Gordon on the final round of green-flag pit stops. But his team took a relatively long 23 seconds to get Hamilton back out.
Gordon pitted several laps later and his team took 20.1 seconds, which translated to about a half a straightaway on the track.
``I'd definitely say that was the turning point,'' Gordon said. ``Those guys on my crew are good. They know when to bust them off. When it really counts, like that, they've been able to get me out front.''
Said Hamilton, ``We got behind on that pit stop. You can say this was disappointing. But it ain't that bad when you lead so many laps, sit on the pole and have a good showing for STP and Pontiac.
``Believe it or not, we pushed in traffic,'' he said. ``That's why I fought so hard to stay in the lead. We just got behind there and then it pushed in traffic.''
Although brakes are critical at Martinsville, Gordon's brakes never gave out. But his foot almost did.
``It was hurting so bad from pushing the brake pedal,'' he said. ``All the circulation was gone. I felt like I was down to the bone on the bottom of my foot.
``I had plenty of brakes, but not enough effort to push the pedal. Luckily, we got a caution and I got some circulation going.''
It was not the most action-packed race at Martinsville. In fact, it was sort of like one of those old Petty victories when he lapped the field.
No one lapped the field Sunday, but only two drivers besides Gordon and Hamilton ever led. Labonte led one lap and Rusty Wallace led 34. Wallace, however, lost his water pump, cooked his engine and was gone by lap 148 - the first driver out of the race.
But the pace picked up in the final 50 laps, when three of the race's seven yellow flags flew. The last caution period ended with one lap to go, setting off a frantic final 20 seconds of racing.
Labonte slowed behind Gordon. Andretti, who was running third, hit Labonte's rear bumper. Hamilton hit Andretti, knocking him out of shape. Then Hamilton and Mast slipped past Andretti to take third and fourth.
Andretti was furious.
`It was a very undeserving third for him,'' Andretti said of Hamilton. ``I had it under control on the last lap and Bobby Hamilton just knocked me out of the way.''
``It wasn't intentional,'' said Hamilton, who has had several racing run-ins with Andretti this season. ``(My car) slid on in there because I was getting hit from behind. It was just one of those last-minute deals. It was great for the fans, anyhow.''
Gordon was in front of all the mayhem and came across the finish line several car lengths ahead of Labonte. He averaged a track-record 82.223 mph, breaking the mark of 79.336 set by Cale Yarborough in 1978.
``I was able to get it really hooked up for the last few laps,'' Gordon said. ``But I was pretty nervous there with that last green-flag run with one (lap) to go. I didn't know what was going to happen.''
He also didn't know how much racing was left. He thought he saw the checkered flag, but he wasn't sure. So he was still racing for all he was worth in turns 1 and 2 while his team was celebrating.
``Good job, Jeff, good job,'' crew chief Ray Evernham told him on the radio.
``Is it over?!!'' Gordon shouted. ``I thought that was the dang white (flag).''
``Yeah, it's over,'' Evernham said. ``You won.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Jeff Gordon crosses the finish line just ahead of Terry Labonte, who
is now 81 points back in the series championship race. by CNB