Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 29, 1993 TAG: 9303290074
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Earnhardt didn't believe it then, but he believes it now, after his convincing victory in the TranSouth 500 on Sunday at Darlington Raceway.
And he especially believes in his new crew chief, Andy Petree, who has "Ol' Ironhead" back in Victory Lane for the first time in 10 months and solidly atop the NASCAR Winston Cup points standings.
"There's just an air about the team," Earnhardt said after his 1.63-second victory over Mark Martin. "I feel different than I did last year. It's an exciting atmosphere around the team.
"We are very fortunate to have Andy in that position. It's as easy as I've ever had it. It's as easy as working with Kirk. I think Andy and I are going to have the same relationship and trust."
Earnhardt, leading 212 of 367 laps, won Sunday after coming back from almost a lap down early in the race. Martin led 124 laps but had nothing for Earnhardt for the final 150 laps.
Dale Jarrett was third, followed by Ken Schrader, who was the last driver on the lead lap. Rusty Wallace was fifth, one lap down. Alan Kulwicki finished sixth after a late-race duel with Kyle Petty, who was seventh. Geoff Bodine was eighth and Terry Labonte was ninth; both were a lap down. Everyone else was at least two laps down.
It was Earnhardt's 54th career victory, which ties him on the all-time win list with Lee Petty. Eight of those wins came at Darlington.
After Earnhardt took the lead from Martin on the pit road when they stopped during the race's third and final caution period, it became a matter of riding it out to the finish.
His lead over Martin was more than five seconds until about 20 laps remained, when Earnhardt began backing off.
"They got better and better and we couldn't do anything with them at the end," Martin said. "Those guys just got going good and that was it. We just got beat by a better car."
Earnhardt's car was smoking slightly at the end, but that's not unusual at this car-killing track.
"We had a little something going wrong there at the end," team owner Richard Childress said. "It wasn't a bad problem. It would just be evident when the car would bounce."
A bigger problem was when Earnhardt fell to the tail end of the lead lap after the first yellow flag on lap 101 of the 367-lap race. He and Wallace had just made pit stops under the green flag, setting them back in the field. Martin and the other leaders hadn't pitted yet, so they were able to stop during the caution.
Earnhardt and Wallace were strong enough to stay ahead of Martin after the race resumed. They made up the lost distance during the next caution period 78 laps later.
After that, Earnhardt said, "the key was changing my line on the race track. The car liked [the high groove] better. I don't think the driver was driving it the way it was supposed to be drove.
"When I got up in the high groove, the car started coming off the corners better and it didn't wear the tires. So when the driver sort of got his attitude right, the car showed what it could do.
"This is the car that ran too fast on pit road at Richmond, so you know it's a good car."
Earnhardt said he knew Petree was the man to replace Shelmerdine after he and Childress interviewed him during the off-season. Petree had been Harry Gant's crew chief, but he told Earnhardt at Atlanta last November that he wanted to talk.
"After that interview, that sort of made our minds up," he said.
Said Petree, "I tried to come in and not upset everything. I wasn't going to come in and tell them how to do their business. Obviously, they know what they're doing."
Still, the relationship between Earnhardt and Petree got off to a painful start, at least for Earnhardt.
"He bloodied my nose in one of the first tests we went to before Daytona, so I don't backtalk him anywhere," Earnhardt said.
It was at North Wilkesboro. Earnhardt was trying to adjust the steering wheel and he had removed the pin that holds the wheel in place. Petree thought Earnhardt wanted the wheel off.
"He grabbed it and pulled, and it came right off and hit me in the nose," Earnhardt said. "I said, `Andy, don't hit me no more. The car drives great.' "
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB