THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609010233
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: 55 lines
For the first time since 1992, someone other than
Mark Martin went to victory lane in the Labor Day weekend Grand National race at Darlington Raceway.
Terry Labonte broke Martin's string of three straight victories, winning the Dura Lube 200 by about eight car lengths over (who else?) Martin. Dick Trickle was third, followed by David Green and Randy LaJoie. Five other cars finished on the lead lap.
``The Busch car has run good the last several races, but we just hadn't been able to get to victory lane,'' Labonte said. ``This was finally our day.''
``Mark could beat me off turn four a little bit, but I could really beat him off turn two. I could really get back in the gas over there.''
Martin, who started from the pole, said there was actually an advantage to not winning. ``When we win 'em all, people get awful sick of that,'' he said.
Labonte led the most laps - 66 - and inherited the lead from Ricky Craven with 33 laps to go when Craven failed to pit with the rest of the leaders
during the last of four caution periods. The reason? Craven's crew chief was arguing with a NASCAR inspector and failed to get him on pit road.
Craven restarted the race in seventh and finished sixth.
With his fourth-place finish Grand National points leader Green now has a lead of 100 points with five races left in the season.
SECOND-ROUND QUALIFYING: Ward Burton, who walked away from a fiery frontstretch crash in Friday's first round of qualifying, was quickest in the second round in his backup Pontiac Grand Prix.
Burton posted a lap of 167.174 miles per hour and will start 35th in today's Southern 500.
Only eight drivers participated in the second round.
There was one significant casualty - Joe Nemechek was 42nd fastest and failed to make his first race of 1996. He was fifth on the list for the four provisional starting spots, which went to Jeff Burton, Ricky Craven, Kyle Petty and Robert Pressley.
Other drivers who failed to make the race were Randy MacDonald, Jay Sauter and Robby Faggart, who wiped out the Dole-Kemp Chevy in a practice accident before qualifying.
CALE ON ANDRETTI: Cale Yarborough, who has signed struggling John Andretti to a three-year contract, is undaunted by Andretti's miserable year.
``I think he's got a lot of talent,'' Yarborough said. ``And there are a lot of people in this sport who have trouble one year and turn around the next year and go the other way. He's young, he's a good clean-cut kid and he's got a lot of want-to.''
WHICH MILLION? Dale Jarrett says there's no question which is more important if he has to decide whether to protect his hopes for the Winston Cup championship - which pays a bonus of more than $1 million - or go all-out for the Winston Million with a Southern 500 victory.
``It would have to be the championship,'' he said. ``The opportunity of winning a million dollars in a single race is great, but the championship is what it's all about and that would be the ultimate for our race team.'' by CNB