Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 1, 1993 TAG: 9303010087
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Long
WALLACE IS MR. GOODWRENCH
The only flying Rusty Wallace did Sunday in the Goodwrench 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway was on the ground.Two weeks after his amazing crash in the Daytona 500, Wallace kept all four tires of his Pontiac Grand Prix firmly on the asphalt at Rockingham and beat Dale Earnhardt by a half-second in a grueling four-hour Winston Cup race.
"This is probably the sweetest win because of what happened at Daytona," he said. "I mean, we came from 34th to third and there was a possible chance that I was going to win that race."
Instead, with 31 laps to go in Florida, Wallace's car was hit by Michael Waltrip's. Wallace flipped, tumbled and cartwheeled eight times down the backstretch in one of the most spectacular Daytona crashes ever.
Wallace walked away from the wreck with only a cut chin. He hardly was even stunned. Instead, "I was fuming mad about the wreck," he said. "I lost a lot of [Winston Cup] points right there."
Revenge really wasn't on his mind Sunday. It was more a matter of proving what he said time and again over the winter: "This team is going to be super strong."
Wallace led 203 of 492 laps, including the final 70, for his third Rockingham victory and 22nd career victory.
He wasn't pulling away at the end, but Earnhardt had nothing for him, even though Earnhardt led 133 laps in his Chevrolet Lumina.
"We just got beat," Earnhardt said. "I drove as hard as I could those last 50 laps. I tried as hard as I could, but we couldn't do it. The steering joints were smoking. My hands and everything else are as tired as they can be right now. I could get to Rusty, and then I'd slip a little and he'd get away."
Ernie Irvan, who led 80 laps and finished third, also was no match for Wallace.
"We had a good car all day," he said. "But Rusty came on toward the middle of the race and we didn't have enough for him."
Defending Winston Cup points champion Alan Kulwicki was fourth in the highest-finishing Ford Thunderbird, followed by Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, Ted Musgrave and Phil Parsons, all on the lead lap.
Even though the day was sunny and the temperature moderate, there were plenty of empty seats and the crowd for the long race was estimated at a modest 37,900.
Wallace said it was "not real tough" to concentrate throughout the 4 hour, 1 minute event, but "your mind does wander a little bit."
The man who kept Wallace's mind on his job was his co-car owner, Roger Penske. Penske was perched high above the track, spotting for Wallace.
"He was talking to me every single lap," Wallace said. "He would say things like, `I like that low line. That's the way to do it. Get back down there. Quit running so high, get down low.' Stuff like that, you know? He was getting me pumped."
Wallace, in turn, was getting Penske pumped.
"He did something today I could never believe," Wallace said. "In his whole career in Indy racing, he's never ever gone to Victory Lane with all the races he's won. Today . . . he hightails it across the spotter's stand, leaps the fence and jumps into Victory Lane. So this guy is really jacked up about stock car racing."
There were several keys to Wallace's victory.
First, his crew, led by Buddy Parrott, gave him fast pit stops, including one 17.4-second, four-tire stop.
There's a new exercise room at Wallace's shop, and the crew has been spending more than an hour a day working out.
"We never did get beat all day long in the pits," he said. "I believe you'd have to say all that exercise helped them."
Second, his Pontiac engines are stronger than ever. He was talking about that all weekend.
During the race Sunday, he said he pushed the accelerator "pretending I had an egg between my foot and the pedal" to keep from pushing too hard. The engine was so strong, the back wheels would spin if he jumped on the gas too hard.
Third, Harry Gant's Chevrolet engine broke an oil pump belt, forcing him out of the race after 457 laps. Gant, using the high groove, was able to pass Wallace twice during the second half of the race after Wallace's tires wore down.
"Harry's car would run longer faster," Wallace said. "His car was slower at the start, but then it would come back."
Since Daytona, Wallace's biggest challenge was not recovering from his big crash. It was recovering from the flu.
At one point last week, Parrott said he made a few phone calls to arrange for a backup driver "just in case."
After Wallace arrived here Friday, he never left the track. He lived in his motor home in the infield.
"I locked myself in [my motor home] for three days. I never went to a bar, never did nothing.
"Now I guess I'll have to stay in that damn thing every night," he said. "I'll be a race-track camp-out guy."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING