Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 18, 1994 TAG: 9407180081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LONG POND, PA. LENGTH: Medium
"I'm not going to lie to you; if we'd been on the other guys' tires, we would have been back with the other guys," Bodine said after taking the checkered flag 1.26 seconds ahead of rookie Ward Burton.
Two more rookies - Joe Nemechek and Jeff Burton - completed the Hoosier sweep and made the Indiana tire company's first NASCAR Winston Cup victory of 1994 a stunning one.
Morgan Shepherd was fifth in the highest-finishing Goodyear car, followed by Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt, the only other cars on the lead lap.
This race came close to being a gas-mileage victory for Burton. As it turned out, Bodine beat Burton on horsepower after starting from the pole and leading 156 of 200 laps. Either way, it was Hoosier on top at the end.
And the traditional powerhouses in the Winston Cup series were not happy about it.
"They're kicking our butt," Ernie Irvan said after failing to finish his second race in a row when his engine broke.
"I've got no comment on the tires," Earnhardt said. "We were just beat on tires today."
Bodine said: "Really, I haven't worried about it. I don't care what people say. To win a weekly show - a points race - we're really proud of that.
"Hopefully, this will silence a lot of critics about [Hoosier president] Bob Newton, about Hoosier being back in Winston Cup racing, [about] critics criticizing me and my decision to run Hoosiers. That makes me feel good."
Bodine's own brother, Brett, sniped at the Hoosier superiority.
"If you can't win a race with that kind of advantage, you might as well stay home," Brett said.
"That's my brother," Geoff said.
Said Newton: "It's going to get real intense before the year is over."
No one knew how good the Hoosiers would be when the teams arrived here Friday morning. At the same time, this was no fluke victory.
Bodine has spent much of his spare time this year testing Hoosier tires. And he tested this particular style of tire four times at three tracks.
"We first tested at Watkins Glen, probably a month ago," Bodine said. "And right away we say, `Hey, we've got something here.' We've been at Loudon [N.H.] twice and we've been at Indy with this tire."
Bodine said the test at Indy last week "was the worst day I ever spent in a race car in my life." It was 95 degrees. The humidity was 90 percent. One of his crewmen got sick on pit road. "But we had a real good tire test," Bodine said.
That sort of dedication paid off Sunday.
"I tried to tell you fellas we didn't have a problem," Bodine said.
Actually, Bodine did manage to put two dime-sized blisters on one of his right-rear tires, but that was the only blistering he had all afternoon. The Burton brothers and Greg Sacks had huge, multiple blisters on their right-rear tires after a long green flag run before the halfway point.
But none of the blistered tires blew. More importantly, the blisters didn't seem to affect the handling or performance of those cars.
Still, the only way anyone was going to beat Bodine on Sunday was to snooker him. And Ward Burton tried.
During the final yellow-flag caution period, Burton, Nemechek and Shepherd slipped into the pits on lap 159 to top their gas tanks so they could go the final 40 laps without stopping.
Bodine knew he couldn't go 40 laps on a tank of gas, so he didn't bother to stop then. Instead, he tried to stretch his lead as much as possible before making his final stop. And he was about 16 seconds ahead when he motored into the pits on lap 189.
"I said, `How far ahead are we?' " Bodine said. "They told me and I said, `Is that far enough? Where am I going to be when I come out?'
"Silence. Silence is deadly. Nobody wanted to answer the tough questions. They said, `We don't really know. We can't figure it.' Well, right then I knew I was going to be behind somebody."
Bodine's gas-only stop lasted about four seconds.
But by the time he got back up to speed, Bodine was 2.78 seconds behind Ward Burton.
"There were one or two laps when I didn't know if I could catch Ward," Bodine said. "He looked awfully strong. But then I saw him slip over the tunnel and I made up a lot of ground there. And he slipped a little up here in [turn] 3 and I said, `That's all I need right there.' "
On lap 195, six laps after his final stop, Bodine passed Burton between turns 1 and 2.
"We knew there was going to be a development period with Hoosier," Bodine said. "But we're investing in the future and it's paying off now. There's going to be more. This is the start of a lot of good things."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB