Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 30, 1990 TAG: 9007300211
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRANK VEHORN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
As Earnhardt pulled away from Bill Elliott, his closest challenger, Jimmy Spencer's Pontiac hit the wall and made three midair rolls before landing upright.
Spencer drove his battered car back to pit road while Earnhardt beat Elliott to the finish line for his sixth victory of the season.
Sterling Marlin was third, followed by Alan Kul wicki and Chesapeake driver Ricky Rudd, who started 25th in the 42-car field.
Spencer's acrobatics began after Ken Schrader tagged Michael Waltrip, hit the wall, and bumped Spencer into the wall.
The incident happened so far behind the Earnhardt-Elliott duel that neither was even aware of it.
The only major concern for Earnhardt was having enough fuel to get to the finish line and claim his second victory of the season on the 2.66-mile speedway.
"I knew that it was going to be close, and it turned out I had just enough to win the race, make a cool-down lap, and get to victory lane before it finally ran out," Earnhardt said.
Earnhardt led 134 of 188 laps, enough for an event record, and could have collected more if not for relinquishing the lead to Elliot for 18 laps to preserve fuel.
Elliott, who made his final stop for fuel after Earnhardt had made his, knew he had enough gas to finish the race.
Earnhardt's crew only thought it did.
"After my last stop, I asked [car owner] Richard Childress if I could make it," Earnhardt related. "He told me not to worry. But he quickly added that I might want to draft Bill to save some fuel just to make sure.
"Reading between the lines, I figured that maybe I should worry a little."
Earnhardt allowed Elliott to take the lead on the 151st lap, then easily regained it on the 169th lap.
"I figured he let me take the lead so he could save some gas," Elliott said. "So it didn't really surprise me when he went back ahead with about 20 laps left.
"My car wasn't quite good enough to beat Earnhardt by itself. I think if I had someone else in the draft pushing me that I might have had a chance to beat him.
"I gave it my best shot, but, boy, he was strong."
Both Elliott and Earnhardt agreed that the decisive point in the race may have been when Mark Martin had to pit for fuel 10 laps from the finish to drop from the lead draft.
"If Mark hadn't stopped, he would have been there in the draft and maybe would have given me the help I needed," Elliott speculated.
More disappointed was Martin, who wound up ninth after his stop.
"I ran hard all day just to run out of gas at the end. That's tough to swallow," said Martin, who saw his championship points lead trimmed to one by Earnhardt.
Earnhardt said he was glad the two Ford drivers didn't have the opportunity to team up against him.
"It would have been much harder to beat both of them than it was just one of them," Earnhardt said.
As it was, Earnhardt was amazed that Elliott was the one left to challenge him in the final portion of the race.
"Where did he come from, anyhow?" Earnhardt asked.
Elliott, running 10th on the 110th lap, was thrust back into contention when he made his next-to-last pit stop a few laps later.
"My team got me back into contention with a great pit stop. I drove good, but my pit crew guys were the heroes of the day," Elliott said.
The most serious mishap of the race came on pit road when Stanley Smith's car was tapped out of control and into four crewmen who were servicing Tracy Leslie's car.
NASCAR officials said Smith's car was hit by Jim Sauter as Sauter pulled out of his pit stop to trigger the incident.
The crewmen were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were treated and released.
There were only two caution periods, which allowed Earnhardt to set a near-record average speed of 174.429 mph.
The record of 174.700 mph was set in 1978 by Lennie Pond.
Earnhardt also received a record $152,975 payoff, which included a $68,000 bonus for winning the race from pole position.
The only times Earnhardt was passed on the track were at the start by Davey Allison, who led the opening three laps, and when he moved over for Elliott to lead.
The other lead changes came when Earnhardt was on pit road.
Earnhardt became the first driver since Pete Hamilton in 1970 to win three of the four races at Talladega and Daytona.
"And I'd have got all four of the suckers if not for that cut tire on the last lap in the Daytona 500," Earnhardt reminded.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB