Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 26, 1994 TAG: 9411090019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
That's what wins championships. But Earnhardt was taking nothing for granted after the race, which ended with Earnhardt 217 points ahead of Goody's 500 winner Rusty Wallace in the stretch run for the 1994 championship.
``I feel better about it every race, but it's five points [lost] here and 10 points there,'' Earnhardt said. ``Rusty got 15 on us in the last two weeks. So [North] Wilkesboro should be ours. We finished second to him again, though.''
Earnhardt is clearly happy with his fall performance, but he wants more.
``We've been consistently finishing in the top five lately, but we need to win another one,'' he said.
Earnhardt's day included two spins before lap 100.
``We was in circles, and the wrong kind of circles, too,'' he said.
But Earnhardt was back at the front in the end of the field, battling nose-to-tail with Wallace for 15 laps as he tried to get the lead. His challenge ended with about 10 laps to go.
``I just overworked the brakes,'' he said. ``I used the brakes up before the tires.''
WALKING WOUNDED: Martinsville always manages to chalk up a few casualties, and Kyle Petty and Ricky Rudd were the victims Sunday.
The bug that kept Petty sick all week did not let up a bit on race day. After about 200 laps, he'd had enough. Petty stopped and let crash victim Todd Bodine take over as the car's driver. Petty's temperature when he got out of the car reportedly was 105 degrees. He was treated at the infield care center and released.
In the second half of the race, Rudd had to battle carbon monoxide and exhaust fumes. Dick Trickle relieved Rudd late in the race. Trickle recovered in the lounge of his hauler.
JARRETT STOUT: Dale Jarrett's fifth-place finish - one of his best runs of the season - came despite a broken left wrist. And without the injury, he probably would have done better.
``I really thought we had a legitimate shot at it,'' Jarrett said. ``The problem came on the longer part of a [green flag] run. When you really had to hustle the car, I couldn't do that very well with one hand. I'm just sorry I didn't have both hands. All I had was my fingers to grip with. I couldn't do anything with my palm.''
MAST'S TROUBLES: The Goody's 500 weekend is one Rick Mast will want to forget.
After a slow qualifying run Friday and an even slower one Saturday that forced him to take a provisional starting spot, the Rockbridge Baths driver started the race and discovered he had a great car, perhaps his best ever at Martinsville.
But on lap 35, as he was moving up from his 35th starting position, Mast wrecked in turn 1.
``When the race started, we were picking them off right and left,'' Mast said. ``Then we go down in the first turn and someone nailed me in the back. I hit the [No.]12 car and there was a big wreck.''
Later, he broke a sway bar and limped to a 29th-place finish, completing 388 of the 500 laps.
GOOD DAY FOR KENNY: Kenny Wallace's fourth-place finish in Ernie Irvan's Ford Thunderbird was his first top 10 run since he took over for the injured Irvan five races ago.
``It was a good run,'' Wallace said. ``Dale came out of nowhere and got me. I didn't expect that. I think the two surprises at the end were Earnhardt and Bill Elliott.''
Elliott, who finished third, also was pleased.
``We ran good all day long and I kept waiting on those other two up front to take each other out so I could win this thing,'' he said.
Elliott was sick briefly after the race.
``Carbon monoxide tears me up here,'' he said. ``I'm fine until I get out of the car, but when I guess I start breathing good air, it gets to me. But I'm OK now.''
NEW FINES: NASCAR fined two crew chiefs $2,000 each for using trailing arms on their cars that were too thin.
Mike Hillman, crew chief of Trickle's Chevrolet, and Ken Glenn, crew chief for Jeremy Mayfield's Ford, were fined and the improper trailing arms were confiscated.
NASCAR rules calls for a wall thickness of .120 inch for trailing arms; the violators were using arms with a wall thickness of .083 inch.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB