RACE DAY REPORT
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
MARTINSVILLE, VIRGINIA
SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 2004
RUSTY BREAKS THROUGH WITH MARTINSVILLE WIN;
SEVENTH AT MARTINSVILLE 7 55TH CAREER VICTORY SNAPS 105-RACE VICTORY DROUGHT & MOVES HIM TO 8TH IN POINTS
Larry Carter, crew chief for Rusty Wallace and his Miller Lite Dodge racing team, best summed up what his team is looking for here at Martinsville in today's Advance Auto Parts 500.
"It'll be the same story here today as always," Larry predicted. "The key is survival. You have to exercise patience, keep the fenders on the car and take it easy on the brakes. If you can do that and have good pit stops all day, you can be up there regardless of where you start."
Rusty clocked in with the 14th fastest lap in yesterday's final "Happy Hour" practice session, but he was as consistently fast as any driver on long runs of 30 laps or more.
"Brakes are just so critical here and we think we're on top of that for today's race," Carter said in the garage area this morning. "We were showing a little heat up on the right front after one 30-lap run yesterday morning, but we've worked to remedy that situation."
With Rusty's 17th-place qualifying position posted here on Friday came the 17th pick as for pit locations here today. The team chose the 23rd pit spot and they'll operate between the teams of Jeff Burton (in front) and Matt Kenseth (behind).
Under sunny skies and with the temperature at 82 degrees, the engines were fired here this afternoon at 1:24 p.m. The cars rolled off at 1:27 p.m. and the green flag fell the third time by the starter's stand at 1:30 p.m.
While most of the first half of the race belonged to pole-winner Jeff Gordon, the Penske cars showed promise.
From his 17th starting spot, Rusty showed the strength of his Miller Lite Dodge early and was into the top 10 by Lap 70.
Great work in the pits and super hustle from the driver's seat had Rusty all the way up to third 100 laps later.
However, problems on a Lap 215 pit stop under the yellow (lug nut popped off the right front wheel) saw the No. 2 car fall back to eighth for the Lap 224 restart just behind teammate Ryan Newman, who had used two-tire strategy earlier in the race in order to get track position.
At the half-way point of the race (Lap 250), Gordon held a 1.5-second lead over teammate Jimmy Johnson, with Jamie McMurray third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. fourth, Mark Martin fifth, Sterling Marlin sixth, Rusty seventh, Ryan eighth, Elliott Sadler ninth and Kevin Harvick 10th.
Earnhardt grabbed the lead during pit stops under the sixth yellow of the race on Lap 269 and was holding Gordon off for the top spot when Michael Waltrip spun in Turn 3 on Lap 283 to cause the seventh caution period of the race.
The strangest incident of the year occurred during that yellow when a hole developed in the Turn 3 concrete. A huge piece chunked out and caused considerable damage to the front end of Gordon's Chevrolet. NASCAR officials were forced to red flag the race to address the situation by placing an epoxy solution in the hole and let it dry and adhere.
An hour and 17 minutes passed before the action on the track resumed.
With Gordon relegated to pit road for repairs, it was Earnhardt leading on the Lap 302 restart. McMurray was second, with Marlin third and Rusty fourth. Ryan had moved back up to 12th after falling to 15th on his last pit stop.
Johnson had a slow pit stop earlier and had fallen out of the top 10, but now was the man on the move. He got around Martin for fifth on Lap 352 and cleared Rusty for fourth five laps later.
Kasey Kahne and Morgan Shepherd crashed in Turn 4 on Lap 371 to bring out the eighth caution of the race and again tighten up the field.
The race restarted with 120 laps remaining. Earnhardt had the lead, with Johnson breathing down his neck. Rusty was third, Bobby Labonte fourth and McMurray fifth. Gordon had restarted 21st after the red flag period and now was back up to seventh.
Johnson cleared Earnhardt for the lead with 90 laps to go and held the point when Scott Wimmer spun in the fourth turn to cause the ninth yellow of the afternoon.
Johnson made what would be a disastrous mistake when he faked a move to enter pit road and instead stayed out. All the leaders behind him hit pit road for fresh rubber.
Ryan and crew again went with only right side tires and lined up behind Johnson in second for the Lap 422 restart. Earnhardt was third, Rusty fourth and Bobby Labonte fifth.
Rusty quickly disposed of Earnhardt and was back up to third with 75 laps to go. He was challenging Ryan for second on Lap 429 when Matt Kenseth and Harvick crashed in Turn 3 to cause the 10th caution.
Of course, none of the leaders pitted with less than 70 laps remaining and the race restarted with 65 laps to go. Rusty and Ryan raced side-by-side for several laps until Rusty finally cleared the No. 12 car on Lap 434. He then tried Johnson to the inside and the outside before finally wrestling the lead away on Lap 449.
A three-car crash on Lap 456 involving Joe Nemechek, Kevin Harvick and Ricky Craven bunched the field back up once again. But when the green flag flew for the final time with 38 laps to go, Rusty took off.
Bobby Labonte made a late race charge to challenge Rusty, but the 1989 champ wouldn't allow this win to slip through his grasp. At the checkers, it was Rusty taking a popular seventh career Martinsville win by four car lengths over Labonte - picking up his 55th career victory and snapping a 105-race winless streak.
Earnhardt finished third, with Johnson fourth and Ryan fifth. Gordon, McMurray, Kenseth, Marlin and Dale Jarrett rounded out the top-10 finishers. Brendan was credited with a 17th-place finish.
With his win here today, Rusty climbed to the eighth spot in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings with 1,010 points. Earnhardt is now the leader with 1,167, Kurt Busch second with 1,162, Kenseth third with 1,155, Johnson fourth with 1,088, Elliott Sadler fifth with 1,069, Tony Stewart sixth with 1,067 and Gordon seventh with 1,046.
The NASCAR tour now moves from the smallest track on the circuit to the largest - Talladega Superspeedway - for next Sunday's running of the Aaron's 499. That race has a 12:30 p.m. local (CDT) starting time and features live coverage by FOX-TV and MRN Radio.
POST-RACE QUOTES:
RUSTY WALLACE (No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Intrepid)
Breaks 105-race losing streak with 55th career victory. Gives Dodge its first victory of the season. Wallace moves to eighth in series standings.
"It's been so long, and we've been so close. The fans have been behind me for so long, and this one is for them. We finally got this Miller Lite Dodge in victory lane like it deserves to be. We've been running great. I want to thank Larry Carter (crew chief) and my entire Miller Lite racing team. The engine was good. The brakes worked good. I had a great time. I'm going to go home and have a cold Miller Lite and think about it. That's pretty cool.
"He (Jimmie Johnson) had a great car. He knew I was coming. We had fresh tires and he didn't pit that last time for whatever reason. I just took advantage of it. I had a top five car, top three car all day long. Ryan two tired it, and he had a great car, too. I'm sitting there saying, 'man, the 48 is on used tires and Ryan is on right sides. I've got four stickers. I can win this thing, man.' I kept driving and digging and put the thing in victory lane.
"The second at Bristol felt really great to me. The fans have been great to me. I want to thank the fans for sticking with me.
"It was a great day. We had an easy top five car all day long. I brought the same setup that I ran the second race last year and it worked so good for me. The new tire is a little softer, and it fits my driving style. Honestly this was a real smooth race for us. We had one bad pit stop and lost some positions, and I was able to pick most of them back up. Right there at the end I saw the 48 car stay out and Ryan take two tires. I knew he was doing that for track position, but I was thinking to myself I could win this thing. The 48 was on old tires. Ryan was on right sides and I was sitting there with four stickers. My car was handling great. I got past Dale Jr. and I finally got around the 48 and set sail.
"I've been there a lot. Should I pit or not pit? My car was really handling good and I didn't want to give up track position. I was confident if I could hit pit road with 50 or 60 to go it would be the right call. Bobby Labonte would close in a couple and then lose a couple, close in a couple and then lose a couple.
"I'm happy that Larry Carter, our new crew chief, shined so good out there. He's been shining since we got him. He reminds me a lot of Buddy Parrott.
"I was getting known as a hard guy to work for. I really wasn't a hard guy to work for. We've got to get the job done. We can come in and everybody is doing a 13-second pit stop and we're doing a 17. That's what happened at Rockingham. We had a shot to win that race and after that I told Larry we had to find a person. The problem was always the right rear. It never was the front. My right front tire changer is bullet fast. We just needed someone to compliment him. The jack guy was good, the tire carriers were good. We needed one person. We brought in that one person at Bristol and we almost won the race.
"I got really sick of hearing "why aren't you winning?' But it made me look at the pit crew, myself, my driving style. It made me look at a lot of things. With all the crew changes and everything we did, and I adjusted. Sometimes I'd make a suggestion about the shocks and they'd punch me. This weekend I got ready to come to the track and I looked at the car behind the front end and there were no bars in there. I told them I needed the bars.
"I questioned myself a little bit. I said, 'man, this schedule is wearing me out. I felt like I was driving as hard as I could, and I thought if we could get this right or that right we'd get back in victory lane, but you know I'm not a quitter. I've never quit. If anything I just keep moving things around to compliment what I've got to have;
"If you look at the qualifying sheet you'll see the fastest guy and the slowest guy are within five tenths of a second. It's so close it's unreal. Everybody's got the best crew guys they can find, the best engineers. When it gets right down to it it's still a people thing and everybody stepped up to the plate. I remember in '88 and '89 when I won the championship and in '93 I won 10 races. The next year I won eight races. Everybody stepped up to the plate and they all got the good stuff. They've got the good crews. You end up with these unbelievably tight qualifying times, and then when you get out in the race it's still separates everybody. I'm the biggest fan in the world of this new tire. There was so much strategy involved in it, and my teammate was smarter than everybody figuring it out last year. We missed a lot last year.
"The decisions I'm stepping back from are the pit calls. I'm completely staying out of the pit calls. They rely on me quite a bit to help with the setups. I've got a great engineer in Roy McCauley. They ask me what I think the car needs, and I'm still involved in that. You'll never hear me on the radio saying, 'I want to pit now.'
"I was on the way here today, and I told my wife, even though you've got great braking and all the stuff that's available to you now, you're still driving deep in the corners and we're using the brakes still. The last time I was here I had a great car, probably as good as the one I had today, but I got involved in an early accident and lost the brakes. After I got past the 250-lap mark and with 210 to go we had a red flag. My foot got kind of hot and it was irritating me. I was glad to get out for a little bit. I went to the big red truck and sat there for about an hour watching TV and hanging out and drinking water. I got back to the car and I felt like a brand new guy. My car was sitting there with good brakes on it, four brand new tires and I knew we had a car we could win with now.
"Money is one thing. We all love money. We can't spend those trophies. Martinsville always has the big, big clock. Billy is not changing tires for me now. We tried it and he decided not to do it. He's working at the shop with the 77 team. He's one of my best friends. We play golf together. I know he's super happy for this win for me, too. If we had started off with a new crew chief and won everything, it might have made Billy feel a little bad. We started off a little bit slow, worked our way through it and put some numbers down. He's a great guy. He's a great asset to our team, and he always will be. That's why he's still with the organization. We think a lot of him.
"I didn't come close to hitting it (concrete) at all. I saw it. It was about a 10-inch junk at the time. The thing I think that was cool, they fixed the problem quick and got back racing. We've been to a lot of places where we've had to cancel and go back the next day.
"I love this place. I love what Clay is going to do to it with the repavement. I didn't see one empty seat out there all day long. People love short track racing.
"If you look at our record there's a lot of fifths and thirds and fourths and finishes like that. We finally got it all right, and I was really paying a lot of attention to save the brakes all day long so I'd have good brakes at the end of the race. Once I got the lead I just kept telling myself to be smooth and hit your marks, don't give this thing away. Even if the caution flag came out, I knew no one was going to pit.
"When I first started running Martinsville, the track looked a lot different than it does right now. I grew up with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson and all those guys. I would watch them struggle and fight and claw and win races. It's a little different now. It's a little easier now than it was back then. Lee Petty was stuck right in the middle of that. It's a real honor for me (to pass Lee Petty in career victories)."
