Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 4, 1993 TAG: 9307040068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Long
"You need to get all you can get when you're fixin' to go on vacation," said Earnhardt, who won the NASCAR Winston Cup race. "He about run too good, though."
Schrader has finished in the top five in five of the past six races. So, as he rested in the back of his team's hauler after the hot, grueling affair, he undoubtedly was thinking this is the worst possible time to be facing a four-race suspension. That was the penalty levied against Schrader and car owner Joe Hendrick on Thursday by NASCAR, after inspectors found illegal engine parts in the car.
"I hope the [National Stock Car Racing] Commission sees right Tuesday, and I don't know what `right' is other than I didn't have a damn thing to do with it," Schrader told team publicist Bob Hice. "The last time this happened, the driver didn't sit. If we miss four races, it would just kill `93."
In 1991, when car owner Junior Johnson and crew chief Tim Brewer were suspended for four races after a slightly oversized engine was found in their car, the commission rescinded the four-race suspension of driver Tommy Ellis, ruling he had nothing to do with the violation.
The commission meets here at 10 a.m. Tuesday to consider the team's appeals. And Schrader obviously is hoping the commission will at least rescind the driver's suspension, so he can continue to battle for the Winston Cup championship.
Saturday's finish boosted him from seventh to fifth in points.
Schrader was running among the leaders throughout the race and led four times for a total of four laps. That in itself seemed to give the depressed team a boost.
"It's lifted our spirits out here, I'm sure," crew chief Ken Howes said during the race.
Schrader's team was not above asking for a little morale booster during the race from a fellow Chevy driver.
On lap 92, as Earnhardt led Schrader in a two-car draft, Earnhardt's car owner, Richard Childress, keyed his radio mike and told his driver: "Rick Hendrick [Schrader's boss] came over and said it sure would look good if Schrader could lead a couple of laps."
Schrader already had led lap 69 and thus already had earned his five bonus Winston Cup points for leading the race.
But on lap 93, Earnhardt moved to the side, just a bit, and let Schrader get his nose ahead at the start-finish line. Then, Earnhardt promptly moved back out in front again.
\ ROOKIE LESSON: Jeff Gordon learned something about stock car racing Saturday.
Around lap 82, the Winston Cup rookie told his team on the radio: "You guys need to check the locks on the shop. I think someone has come in and stole the car we had here in February."
Gordon had finished fifth in the Daytona 500, but upon his return to the track Saturday, he found his car had become wickedly loose. He couldn't hold the low groove and couldn't do much in the high groove.
With 15 laps to go, he said, "Nobody will go with us. They know we're junk."
A couple of laps later, he added: "If you don't have a good car, everybody knows it."
But as the final laps played out, Gordon began to realize that a lot of other cars weren't handling, either.
And when he crossed the finish line, he was in fifth place - his final position in February.
"I was surprised as much as anybody there at the end," Gordon said after the race. "I was junk. But I made a couple of moves and the car really stuck. We just got real fortunate."
\ WALLACE GLAD TO FINISH: Rusty Wallace finished 18th on Saturday, but at least he finished in one piece.
"It was good to finish today, but it was so loose it was unreal," he said of his car.
Around lap 100, Wallace radioed his crew: "I'm doing all I can do, guys. It's just hydroplaning all over the place."
"We didn't have any close calls," he said after the race. "We just weren't even close to handling. We built a new car and we built it wrong."
Crew chief Buddy Parrott told Pontiac's Brian Hoagland: "I'm probably the happiest crew chief in the garage because I've got a car and I've got a driver and we haven't done one of those end-over-end, sailing-through-the-air deals. Now we can go to Talladega and people can say, `Well, Rusty made it through a race.' "
Wallace tumbled and crashed violently in his previous superspeedway races this year at Daytona and Talladega.
\ BODINE'S BAD DAY: It was a rough race for Team Geoff Bodine.
Bodine the car owner saw his Ford Thunderbird, driven by Jimmy Hensley, spin through the pack - without hitting anyone else - and slam the outside wall in turn two of the first lap.
"Cut a right rear tire," Hensley said.
Then, on lap 30, Bodine the driver pulled into the garage with a broken engine on Bud Moore's Ford.
"It just blew," he said of the engine.
After the crew patched up the car, Bodine stuffed some foam padding in Hensley's big driver's seat and wheeled the car back out on the track for 58 more laps.
But Bodine's 37th-place finish in the car dropped him from eighth to 11th in Winston Cup points.
\ MARTIN FINISHES STRONG: Mark Martin fought an ill-handling Ford throughout the race, and with 10 laps to go, he was in 14th place.
"A 14th-place car had nothing to lose with 18 cars on the lead lap, so we came in and got four new tires," he said.
Suddenly, Martin was competitive. And in the shuffling during the final laps, he charged through the field to finish sixth.
"We've lost on situations like that, but today we gained," he said.
\ RUDD RUNS SOLID: Ricky Rudd followed his victory in the Miller 400 at Michigan with a solid fourth-place finish in Saturday's Pepsi 400.
Although he only led one lap - the 76th - Rudd was among the leaders all day.
"We did better on long runs," the Chesapeake driver said. "We didn't need to see those last caution flags come out. On that last lap, I was just waiting for a wreck. There wasn't actually a wreck, but they got to bouncing off each other on the backstretch. It got pretty busy out there."
\ MAST HEADS DOWNHILL: Rick Mast wasn't bad Saturday, but he wasn't too good.
When the checkered flag fell, the Rockbridge Baths driver still was on the lead lap along with 19 other cars. But he was 16th.
"The car was too tight all day," Mast said. "We just didn't run good all day. We had a shot at the pole Thursday, but then we messed the engine up and it was downhill from there."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB