Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408160035
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
Starting from the pole, Martin breezed to his first Winston Cup victory of the 1994 season, leading 75 of the 90 laps around the 11-turn, 2.45-mile road course in his Ford Thunderbird. He beat Ernie Irvan by eighty-eight-hundredths of a second. Dale Earnhardt was third, followed by Ken Schrader and Ricky Rudd.
``We didn't have any trouble anywhere at all today,'' Martin said. ``It kind of surprised me. I was sure something would go wrong and spoil the day. But it was just hard to hold us back today. That's the strongest car we've had this year.''
Irvan, who never led a lap, conceded as much.
``I just got outrun all day,'' he said. ``Mark did a great job today. He hardly made any mistakes and he was very smooth. I was back there running over the bumps, hitting everything I could hit, and he was just as smooth as he could be.''
But after Martin crossed under the checkered flag, he gave the credit to his crew.
``You all won that thing in the pits, man,'' Martin told his team by radio. ``We could have lost that thing in the pits real easy, but you guys were awesome all day.''
If there was a twist to Martin's victory, it was in the pits, where his team used a different tire-changing technique than it does on oval tracks. On each pit stop, the team first changed the right-side tires, which were closest to the pit wall, then ran around the car to the left side and changed those.
``I think it did save time,'' said crew chief Steve Hmiel, ``because the [No.]28 car [Irvan] did it the normal way and we beat them just about every time. And the [No.]3 car [Earnhardt] did it like we did and was about equal.
``I think the procedure was better. I don't think we were better.''
The technique was pioneered by Robin Pemberton, who recently rejoined Roush Racing as the crew chief of Ted Musgrave's car.
``That was one reason we won with Kyle [Petty] here two years ago,'' Pemberton said. ``We were the only ones to do it then.''
Watkins Glen is the only track in the Winston Cup series where the cars pit with their right side next to the pit wall. At all the other tracks, including the other road course at Sears Point in California, the cars pit with their left side nearest the wall.
Among other benefits, Hmiel said, the team is more comfortable with that method because the crew usually changes the right-side tires first anyway. ``And the jack man runs in the direction he is used to,'' he said.
``We worked on that for three days straight last week.
``This year, we've been close [to winning] and our pit stops have been off. Today we were close and our pit stops were really good.''
For Martin, the most critical time of the race came after a yellow flag flew with 10 laps to go when Hut Stricklin spun in turn 4.
A lap before the re-start on lap 84, Martin feinted toward pit road.
``It was one of those things where I didn't want to pit, but I didn't want to be the only one on the lead lap who didn't pit,'' he said. ``We just wanted to make sure we were in position to come in if we decided to at the last minute.''
As it turned out, none of the leaders pitted. And after the race resumed, Martin remained in control to the end.
``The longer my car ran today, the worse we outran everybody, even Ernie. Ernie would run right with us for about 12 or 15 laps, but during the next 15, if it was green, we would just check out.''
This was Martin's second consecutive victory at The Glen. His triumph here last year was the first of four consecutive victories. And he won at Phoenix in November for his fifth victory of 1993.
``If you told me last year after we won at Phoenix that there would be another Woodstock before we won again, I would have laughed at you,'' Hmiel said.
``This is just our best time of the year,'' Martin said. ``We're poised and ready to whip up on 'em here in the last 10 or 12 races. It might be another year before we win, or we might win five in a row. You never know.
``I do know one thing: We're ready.''
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB