THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702230328
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: 65 lines
Mark Martin continued his domination of Saturday racing at North Carolina Motor Speedway in the Goodrench 200, but it took a spectacular late pass to do it.
Racing with the advantage of fresher tires, Martin caught Dale Jarrett on lap 195, passed him on the outside on lap 196 and finally pulled away on the final circuit to win by 0.16 of a second.
Defending Grand National champion Randy LaJoie was third, followed by Phil Parsons and Elliott Sadler.
``Whoo!'' Martin said on his radio after crossing the finish line. ``Ah, man. I'm glad we came on.''
``That's the way to win races there, standing up in your seat and getting all you can get,'' team manager Steve Hmiel replied.
Martin, who has won six of the last 10 Grand National races at The Rock, including the last three, dominated this event after starting from the pole.
He had led 131 of 169 laps when Jarrett muscled past him on the backstretch on lap 170.
``Jarrett was faster than we were,'' he said.
But when the fifth and final caution flag flew on lap 173 for Tracy Leslie's spin in turn 2, Martin made a last-second decision to dive into the pits for four fresh tires. When the race restarted on lap 173, he was sixth.
``Dale jumped way out ahead and I didn't think I was going to catch him at all,'' Martin said. ``With about 12 laps to go, I thought it was way too much and that I would never make it.''
But with five laps to go, Martin pulled up on Jarrett's bumper.
``I knew I wasn't going to get under him, so there wasn't any doubt in my mind what I was going to have to do,'' Martin said of his pass to the outside of Jarrett. ``But we didn't have much time to think about it. We had to do it.''
Said Jarrett: ``I thought I could get far enough ahead. He just ran me down. I made him try to go to the outside, and he beat me to the outside, so you've got to give the man that.''
Chesapeake native Elton Sawyer started 10th and finished 12th, one lap dowN. FALK TEAM FALLS SHORT AGAIN; ELLIOTT TAKES A PROVISIONAL
For the second week in a row, Mike Wallace, driving Chesapeake auto dealer Joe Falk's No. 91 Spam Chevrolet, came up short in qualifying and earned an early trip home.
The team suffered a major setback on Friday when NASCAR inspectors ordered crewmen to strengthen several side-door roll bars before qualifying.
``It hurt us big-time because we didn't get to practice at all prior to qualifying,'' crew chief Vic Kangas said. ``NASCAR was kind enough to let us qualify without practice.''
Kangas said the team bought the car from another team and no one had any idea that the bars were too thin. He said the problem was with the vertical door bars.
NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said he had no immediate information on what, if any, fines would be levied.
Chad Little, Billy Standridge and Gary Bradberry also failed to make the race during second-round qualifying. Eight drivers made qualifying attempts Saturday, but most of them were slower than they were on Friday and none was able to crack the 38-car regular starting field.
The regular provisional starting spots went to Michael Waltrip, Jimmy Spencer, Robby Gordon and Loy Allen, and a champion's provisional went to Bill Elliott to create a 43-car field for today's race.
- BOB ZELLER