DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704070481

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE:    - BOB ZELLER

                                            LENGTH:   90 lines

NASCAR REPORT

Martin zips past

Spencer to claim

debut Busch race

Mark Martin swept beneath Jimmy Spencer on the backstretch with 13 laps to go and went on to win the inaugural Coca-Cola 300 by 1.57 seconds on Saturday.

Spencer was second, followed by Jeff Burton, Todd Bodine and Mike McLaughlin. Twenty-four drivers finished on the lead lap.

The race revealed that Texas Motor Speedway is, indeed, a one- groove track. But it wasn't the worst race of the year by a long shot, and while there were eight yellow flags, there were no disastrous crashes.

One driver, Randy Porter, was taken by ambulance to Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth complaining of right shoulder pain but was released after examination. Porter hit the wall in turn 4 in a single-car crash on lap 66.

Martin said the only reason he was able to pass Spencer was because Spencer's tires gave out. Spencer took the lead on lap 161 after improving his track position by taking on only two tires during his final pit stop.

``The only thing I could do was keep the pressure on Jimmy and hope that he slipped or an opening would come up,'' Martin said. ``There's not much side-by-side racing going on out there. Jimmy made a valiant effort there by taking two tires and getting track position. He drove his heart out, but we kept the pressure on him and he finally slipped.''

Eight different drivers led. McLaughlin led the most laps (67); Martin led only the final 13.

This was Martin's fourth victory in six Busch races this year and leaves him one victory behind all-time Busch winner Jack Ingram, who won 31 races.

Todd Bodine, who finished fourth, holds the championship lead by 60 points over Randy La-Joie, who finished ninth.

Qualifying scrubbed

Winston Cup qualifying was canceled Saturday after it took NASCAR longer to dry the track than expected.

Rain fell most of the night Friday, but the biggest problem Saturday morning were ``weepers'' - small streams of water that emerged from the base of outer walls and drained across the track.

The cars finally got on the track at 10 a.m. for practice as NASCAR decided that the practice session was more important than qualifying.

But the cancellation of qualifying was a brutal blow to nine drivers. Robert Pressley, David Green, Wally Dallenbach, Rick Wilson, H.B. Bailey, Randy LaJoie, Mike Bliss, Gary Bradberry and Ed Berrier miss the race after losing a battle of entry-blank postmarks.

NASCAR officials reverted to postmarks, and then to owner points when there were too many entries postmarked the same day.

Green questioned the fairness of the postmark method of filling out the field because his team members returned their entry blank the day they received it. NASCAR told him the team's entry arrived one day later than those who qualified by postmark.

``I'm confused,'' he said. ``NASCAR said they received entries on the 17th (of March). But we didn't receive ours until 1:50 p.m. on the 18th and we turned around and sent it in by FedEx that same day. They said we should have gotten it on the 17th. It's unfortunate.''

Even though there was no ex-champion to fill the 43rd starting spot, NASCAR used the so-called champion's provisional to create a 43-car field so the maximum number of drivers could compete.

Points leader Dale Jarrett will start on the pole, while the ``post- mark'' spots at the back of the field went to Dave Marcis, Derrike Cope, Chad Little, Greg Sacks, Joe Nemechek, Bobby Hillin, Mike Wallace and Billy Standridge.

Two broken ribs

Doctors have diagnosed Winston Cup driver Ricky Craven with two broken ribs in addition to the concussion and the broken right shoulder he suffered in a crash during practice Thursday.

``Ricky had a very uncomfortable night,'' said Jimmy Johnson, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports. ``He looked like a million dollars (Friday), but I talked to him this morning at 8 o'clock and he said he was hurting on his right side.

``Other than a lingering head-ache, he's had no problem with his head at all. His vision has come back and his hearing seems to be fine. He wants to go home (today).''

Final practice

Kyle Petty was the fastest driver in Saturday's final Winston Cup practice, reaching 183.730 mph on the best of his 36 laps during the session. He was followed by Mike Skinner, Terry Labonte, Dale Earnhardt and Brett Bodine. ILLUSTRATION: Winston Cup points leader Dale Jarrett will start

on the pole for today's Interstate Batteries 500.

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