Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 9, 1992 TAG: 9203090117
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
"We finished sixth, and there's nothing great about that," Rudd said. "But the way our season has been going, that's like winning."
Rudd finished 40th in the Daytona 500 and 28th last weekend at Rockingham. He had his strongest run of the year Sunday and was able to stay on the lead lap throughout the race.
"We were getting beat down the straightaways and in the corners a little bit," Rudd said. "The main thing looked like we were down on horsepower just a little bit.
Rudd said he got a mismatched set of tires on the last pit stop. That allowed Darrell Waltrip to pass him in the final stages of the race.
"But that really wasn't the problem," Rudd said. "On the restarts, the Fords take off and get out in front. When they level off and we level off, they're so far ahead it's hard to race 'em when you can hardly see 'em."
\ Dale Earnhardt said he had another "tough day all the way around" after finishing 11th, one lap down.
On his second pit stop, Earnhardt's crew put on a set of tires that made his Chevrolet loose in the corners and allowed the leaders to lap him.
"We fought all day and just couldn't get [the lap] back," he said.
Earnhardt was not optimistic about the immediate future.
"We're going to Atlanta now, and that's usually a pretty good track for us," he said. "But after the way we tested down there [last week], I don't think too much of it."
\ With his fourth-place finish, Davey Allison has three top-five finishes in the first three races. He won the Daytona 500 and finished second last week at Rockingham.
"We can't sit back and live off the Daytona 500," he said. "We got another top five. But there were three cars better than us.
But Allison said he wasn't frustrated.
"I'll take those top-five finishes all day," he said.
Allison's early season consistency keeps him atop the Winston Cup points standings. He holds a 63-point lead over Harry Gant.
Two other drivers who had strong cars at Daytona and Rockingham - Ernie Irvan and Mark Martin - had miserable performances Sunday.
Irvan, who was never a factor, finished 15th, three laps down.
"That's the worst we've ever run from start to finish," said Irvan's crew chief, Tony Glover.
Martin already was a couple of laps down when he crashed in turn 4 after being hit from behind by Rick Mast.
"We weren't great, but we didn't deserve that," he said.
\ Rick Mast had a so-so afternoon on the track, but his 18th-place finish was good enough to keep him 10th in the Winston Cup points standings.
"We were just a little bit off today," he said. "We had some trouble with tires and matching them to the [chassis] setup. We had a loose setup."
\ Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs finally saw his new Winston Cup team finish a race.
Driver Dale Jarrett was 13th, two laps down, but he finished the race. He crashed at Daytona, and a broken camshaft ended his day early at Rockingham.
"Today, everything stayed together and we stayed out of trouble," Gibbs said.
Jarrett had handling problems early, Gibbs said.
"When we finally started running pretty good, we were a couple of laps down," he said. "Then, with about 20 laps to go, we developed a miss in the engine and lost another spot" in the standings.
\ The Petty family also had a rough day. Richard was 21st, just behind son Kyle, who finished 20th. Both were five laps down.
\ After hassling with creative but illegal body work on the rear deck lids of Winston Cup cars the past two race weekends, NASCAR Technical Director Gary Nelson Sunday warned the teams to cut it out.
"Lots of teams are making adjustments with deck lids," Nelson said during the drivers meeting two hours before Sunday's race. "We'll take away the [deck lids] that aren't right. NASCAR is just trying to keep a level playing field for all the competitors."
At Rockingham two weeks ago, Nelson discovered that five teams had extended the length of their rear deck lids by two or three inches. That allowed them to mount the spoiler a couple of inches further behind the rear wheels, which had the effect of increasing the spoiler's leverage on the wheels, thus improving the downforce on the back of the car.
Nelson said "about five or six" more cars arrived at Richmond with the illegally modified rear deck, prompting complaints from the teams that had been forced to change their cars at Rockingham.
Nelson, of course, had to make the new offenders change their deck lids for Sunday's race. And he warned all that if they come to Atlanta next weekend with an illegal deck lid, they had better have a legal one in their haulers to replace it with.
by CNB