THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 25, 1994 TAG: 9407250140
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Two months ago, Jimmy Spencer left Talladega Superspeedway with his ears ringing from the wrath of his fellow Winston Cup stock-car drivers.
After causing a 12-car wreck in the May race, the man know as ``Mr. Excitement'' was branded ``an idiot'' by Terry Labonte. Rusty Wallace suggested he was unqualified. Dale Earnhardt said he had made a lot of enemies.
But when Spencer left Talladega on Sunday, it was with the DieHard 500 trophy and new-found respect among his peers.
``I made a lot of mistakes in May and . . . I probably shouldn't have said some of the things I said,'' Spencer said after beating teammate Bill Elliott by a couple of car lengths in the 500-mile race. ``I couldn't believe it today because every one of the competitors helped me. Kenny Schrader, Terry Labonte - everybody respected me, and I respected them.
``Jimmy Spencer has learned a lot as a driver and a human being over what happened here in May.''
Ernie Irvan finished third, followed by Ken Schrader, Sterling Marlin, Mark Martin, Ricky Rudd, Wally Dallenbach, Kenny Wallace and Terry Labonte. Sixteen cars finished on the lead lap.
Spencer's win was his second superspeedway victory in a row. And it came only three races after his first career Winston Cup victory, in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona on July 2.
The one-two finish by Junior Johnson's cars was equally gratifying to the 63-year-old ex-moonshiner from the hills of North Carolina, who offered more evidence Sunday that he is finally out of his long slump as a car owner.
``It's been a tough, tough deal,'' Johnson said.
Spencer had an easier time of it Sunday than he did at Daytona, where he had to battle side-by-side with Irvan on the last lap. This time, carrying Elliott with him, Spencer bolted into the lead past Irvan with 19 laps to go.
And in the final laps, although Elliott bobbed and weaved behind him, and Irvan tried everything he could to get past Elliott, Spencer flew under the checkered flag unchallenged.
``Man, I tried everything,'' Elliott said after posting his highest finish this year. ``I never could get Ernie to help me. I didn't know what else to do at the end. He (Spencer) was just a little bit better, and that was it. We're just tickled to death to finish second, the way our season's going.''
It was the same story for Irvan.
``I knew Bill was going to be too strong for us,'' Irvan said. ``He could pretty much do what he wanted to do with me, and then here came (Spencer). He made mincemeat of Bill, so I knew I was in trouble.''
Said Spencer: ``I wish we had three or four more superspeedway races to go. They built me a heck of a race car.''
He was not exaggerating.
No less a driver than Wallace was interested in getting it away from him.
``I asked (Wallace) about buying an airplane yesterday and he said, `I want to buy your car,' '' Spencer said. ``If Rusty Wallace wants to buy this car, there ain't enough money.''
The genesis of Spencer's double-victory Ford came in the ashes of disaster. Spencer had a decent vehicle in the Daytona 500 in February, but it was destroyed in a multicar crash.
``The car he's got is a replacement for that one we lost at Daytona,'' Johnson said. After it was built by Banjo Matthews and tested, ``it ran awful good,'' he said. And after they discovered that the extra speed was ``more in the car than anything else, it did change our whole program, as far as the chassis,'' Johnson said.
But even with the best car on the track, Spencer had his problems.
Still learning the finer points of the sport, Spencer got things off on the wrong foot Sunday after suggesting an adjustment following the final practice on Saturday afternoon. His crew questioned that move, but went ahead with it.
It made the car handle worse at the beginning of Sunday's race, even though Spencer led the first two laps and was able to run with the leaders.
``I was just hanging on,'' he said.
From there, things got worse. Spencer's team decided against changing tires not only on the first pit stop, around lap 14, but on the second one as well, which came around lap 25.
By lap 30, Spencer had dropped out of the top 20 and was junk. One crew chief thought Spencer had tapped the wall, he was running so poorly.
``That hurt us,'' Spencer said. ``We were on worn-out tires.''
Mr. Excitement was getting excited. But the laconic Johnson fairly growled at him: ``Take it easy! Just pull up to the top and let `em go!''
Spencer obeyed.
And as the race rolled along under a green flag for more than 100 laps, with Irvan in front most of the way, Spencer was not to be seen among the leaders.
But when three yellow flags flew between laps 138 and 164, Spencer caught up and was ready to rumble.
And at the end, when Elliott tried to challenge, ``I never let Bill get alongside of me,'' Spencer said. ``He tried, but I made sure he didn't get alongside of me and then I knew I had him.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
It was a 1-2 DieHard 500 finish for car owner Junior Johnson - Jimmy
Spencer first and Bill Elliott second.
RESULTS
[For a copy of the results, see microfilm on page C6 for this
date.]
by CNB