Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 29, 1993 TAG: 9303290102
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Gordon was running second on lap 100 and having another outstanding race when Michael Waltrip slammed into the back of his car as they entered turn 1. Gordon's car had old tires; Waltrip was much faster on fresh rubber.
The collision sent Gordon backward into the outside wall.
Gordon's immediate reaction?
"That dumb SOB!"
Gordon limped to the garage for repairs that took 55 laps. While there, he said, "That guy, I don't know. . . . I'm so frustrated right now, I don't want to say much. But how smart do you have to be when you've got new tires and the other guy is on old tires.
"He just drove right into the back of me. I'm third [actually second] in the race, and he took me right out."
Gordon still was steaming when he returned to the race, but he found himself driving with leader Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt.
"If we can't win this thing, at least we'll get some TV time riding with the leaders," Gordon said on his radio.
Waltrip admitted the collision was his responsibility: "I anticipated him getting into the corner deeper. When he let off, I hit him. It was my fault."
\ KULWICKI, PETTY BATTLE: The wear and tear of 500 Darlington miles showed on Alan Kulwicki's sweat-stained face in the first moments after the race ended.
He staggered for a moment like a punch-drunk fighter, but he still took care of business. He had a tire temperature gauge in his hand, and he was checking tire temperatures on his Ford Thunderbird.
For the Winston Cup champion, it had been more than a matter of riding it out to a sixth-place finish. He had to battle Kyle Petty for that spot almost right up to the checkered flag.
"That's what we're paid to do, isn't it?" he said. "Five points is five points, and we all know what it came down to last year. We were both out of tires and slipping and sliding around there. We were about a fifth-place car, and we ended up sixth."
Petty, who finished seventh, said his car wasn't handling at the end.
"There at the end of the race, the car just went away," he said. "We were just having a hard enough time keeping it between the walls and on the bottom of the race track."
Aside from a handful of drivers who led one or two laps, Petty was the only driver besides race winner Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin to be in front for any length of time. He led 19 circuits - laps 122 through 140.
\ GOOD RUNS: After finishing third, Dale Jarrett has four top-10 finishes in five races and remains fourth in Winston Cup points.
"We're headed in the right direction," he said. "We didn't have the fastest car today, but as the day went on we could just kind of hold our own. But I'll take a third place here at Darlington any day."
Ken Schrader's fourth-place finish was his best of the year.
"We had a good one today," he said. "The car was strong all day. We had a good one going at Atlanta and didn't get it, so we'll take this one."
Although Rusty Wallace's fifth-place finish was his second-worst in five races, he and team co-owner Roger Penske were pleased.
"Hell of a run," Penske told Wallace. "I mean, hey . . ."
Said Wallace, "I really thought I had a top three, no problem. But then I just couldn't hold on because I got a bad set of tires right at the end there and it just got so bad loose."
\ TRACK RECORD AVERAGE: Earnhardt's average speed in winning the TranSouth 500 was a track record 139.947 mph, primarily because there were only three yellow flags.
In addition to Gordon's wreck, there were caution periods for Jimmy Spencer's crash into the wall in turn 4 on lap 215 and Jimmy Means's blown engine on lap 178.
\ MAST UPDATE: Rick Mast of Rockbridge Baths, Va., finished Sunday's race with his engine intact, but he was disappointed with 15th place, four laps down.
"We were good until I hit the wall between turns three and four," he said. "The cars were three deep and I was on the outside."
That happened on lap 108.
"It knocked the car out of whack," he said. "And all I could do was just kind of hang on for the rest of the race."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB