Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 9, 1992 TAG: 9202090171
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
BODINE CAPTURES CLASH
Geoff Bodine thinks the Busch Clash is "a little goofy" as a two-act play, but the intermission between the dual 10-lap sprints Saturday at Daytona International Speedway allowed his team to make a crucial tire change that turned his "demon" car into an angel.Starting third in the second segment, Bodine passed Rusty Wallace's ill-handling Pontiac with eight laps to go and kept his Ford firmly planted at the front to capture the $35,000 first prize.
"The format is a little goofy, you know - stopping and going - but we won by the way they got the rules and it feels wonderful," Bodine said.
Ernie Irvan finished second in his Chevrolet, proving that a General Motors car can keep up with the fast-running Fords, at least in the short haul.
"It was a fun race and it taught me a lot about what I'm going to need Thursday and Sunday," Irvan said. The Daytona Twin 125 qualifying races are Thursday, and the Daytona 500 is next Sunday.
Five Fords tailed Irvan across the finish line. Mark Martin was third, followed by Davey Allison, Alan Kulwicki, Sterling Marlin and Bill Elliott.
For some of the Fords, the 15-minute shootout was a minor reprise of last July's Talladega (Ala.) race, where the drivers were incapable of helping each other in the draft.
Marlin again was unhappy with Allison's driving, and Elliott complained: "Nobody would help us."
Bodine, however, neither sought nor received any help from his fellow drivers. For him, the crucial help came from his crew.
"We had a tire go bad" in the first segment, Bodine said. "It was a demon in the first 10 laps. It was vibrating pretty bad. I was going to wreck myself and everyone else if I didn't get out of it."
So he dropped back to a 13th-place finish in the first segment, which allowed him to move to third when the field was inverted for the restart.
During the intermission, car owner Bud Moore's crew twice changed four tires.
"The first set we put on vibrated again," Bodine said. "I said, `Hey, guys, we need to change four more.' Plus, they adjusted the car a little bit."
Bodine said he still was loose during the final 10 laps, but his car was good enough to run "wide open and low through the corners. That was the key to staying out front."
After the race, Goodyear Tire specialists inspected Bodine's tires and said they found something wrong with only one. The left rear tire Bodine used during the first segment was over-inflated by about 15 pounds, Goodyear spokesman Bill King said.
Marlin won the first segment after starting 10th. After two laps, he had moved to fourth as the entire field battled in furious, three-wide duels on the straightaways.
On lap 6, Marlin took the lead from pole-sitter Brett Bodine and held on from there. Of course, that meant he had to start 15th (last) in the second segment. In those final 10 laps, he advanced only to sixth.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING