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With a final pit stop decision of taking 4 tires instead of two the Coors Light team helped Sterling Marlin to take his first win in 5 years. Marlin’s late race pass on fellow Dodge driver, Bill Elliott, gave Dodge their first win since the late Neil Bonnett won at Riverside, CA in 1977. |
Pause… all of my regulars know of my history of being a Sterling fan since I worked with him in his rookie year. When I write my race reports every week I try to remain as even handed as possible for every driver out there. Like most fans I have drivers I like, drivers I don’t and drivers I just haven’t given much thought to. And often, it’s really hard to hold back those feelings when you want to scream “That jerk couldn’t drive a shopping cart at Wal-Mart!” Well for once I’m going to let my hair down and say exactly what I feel.
Let’s Go Racing!
Bill Elliott all but had his Busch trophy in hand when Ricky Craven showed up late and threw down the fastest lap of qualifying, finally giving PPI and Cal Wells something to show for their theft of Tide. So my first attaboy goes out to the whole #32 team for staying with it, not giving up and believing in Craven. I’ve always said DuPont went with the wrong driver and Ricky deserves a good ride. But Bill didn’t like starting 2nd and so when the green flag dropped the #9 took off fast and by the time the first lap ended Elliott was on the point. Ricky Rudd, starting in 3rd hooked up with Elliott and both cars slid by to drop Craven to 3rd.
Rudd continued pressuring Elliott until lap 10 when he made a low dive and high slide to slip past Bill for the lead. It was all Rudd then for the next 30 laps with Ellioot battling Craven for 2nd and Casey Atwood fighting John Andretti over the 4th and 5th spots. Just behind these two there was a glint of silver as the front end of the Silver Bullet showed up in 6th from his 15th place start. It was clear early the #40 of Sterling Marlin was going to be strong. By lap 40 when the first round of green flag stops began Rudd was still running hard out front, followed by Craven, Elliott, Atwood and Marlin.
It was Elliott and the Evernham led Intrepid Warriors that pulled off the quickest stop giving Elliott a long 4 second lead after every car had stopped. Getting out a little slower were Rudd, Atwood, Craven and Marlin. Craven and Rudd fought over second allowing Elliott to pull off to a substantial lead before Rudd shook loose from Craven and headed off after Elliott for the lead. By lap 70 was closing fast and it looked like the day could belong to the Texaco car. He retook his lead he had given up after a slow pit stop when he drove by Bill at lap 73. Elliott continued to drop as it looked like his tires were used up. Craven easily took second with a new hard charger showing up to take third, Rusty Wallace. As Wallace began to work on Craven for the runner up spot the second round of green flag stops began and when the front runners started to give up their spots it was Rudd leading, Wallace second and Craven, Marlin and Elliott filling out the top 5.
Many teams gambled, worrying about the all important “fuel mileage” and as they stretched for those last extra laps John Andretti and Tony Stewart ran out of gas. With the last few cars that hadn’t stopped yet still out on the track a light drizzle began. And at lap 97 the yellow came out for the first time today for rain. Mark Martin was sitting out front with a nearly empty tank of gas but decided to wait for the weather. The pace car led them around until at lap 100, half way, an “official” race, the red was brought out and the cars parked on pit road. It looked like Mark may have made the smart move and you could see the Viagra pit crew praying it would just get a little harder. Meanwhile, Bill Elliott had once again got the fast green flag pit stop and was sitting 2nd praying for sun.
After a brief interlude (about a day and a half I think) in which we were offered up my “Quote of the Day”, “I’m wearing them now”- Wally Dallenbach, Jr., we finally returned to racing and Martin was forced to head for pit road. This turned the lead back over to Elliott with Wallace, Craven, Atwood and Marlin holding 2nd through fifth. It was now Rusty’s turn to show off his power as he easily swept by Elliott and Craven came along for the ride. Ricky Rudd, who had been strong early lost a cylinder and by lap 123 he brought out the second yellow flag of the day when his engine blew oil all over the track.
A round of pit stops, with darkening skies, in which some stayed out, some took two tires and some took four saw Ron Hornaday line up out front but having just lost a cylinder, already making plans to drop inside fast. Jeremy Mayfield and Elliott Sadler also remained on the track for 2nd and 3rd, while Elliott, Sadler, Park, Blaney and Spencer took two tires. Sterling was the first car back on the track with four tires followed by Wallace to fill out the top 10.
With the rain approaching it looked like it would be a “get to the front quick and pray for rain” finish. Hornaday got out of the way fast as Bill took the #9 low and quickly did away with the cars that hadn’t stopped. Behind him, Mayfield and Craven grabbed 2nd and 3rd but closing fast was a bright silver flash with four fresh tires. By lap 140 he was up to 2nd and running down Elliott. With the rain approaching and the laps running down Marlin went by at lap 145 and started to open up a gap. Craven chased down Elliott, eventually passing him but as he closed on Marlin the rains began. At lap 156 NASCAR threw the yellow for rain and at lap 161 Marlin took the checkers and a rain shortened finish. And I finally predicted the winner correctly on the message board!
Kudos go to Ricky Craven (2nd) for a terrific run when it just wasn’t quite his turn (but soon), Bill Elliott (3rd) for a great run today and an uplift for the geriatric crowd, Matt Kenseth (4th) who was hard charging at the end, Johnny Benson (5th) who only has a couple more races before he wins at Dover, Dave Blaney (6th) getting a hard fought top 10, Jeff Gordon (7th) who came on near the end to save a few points on Sterling, Mark Martin (8th) who needs some top 10’s, Steve Park (9th) who was strong in mid-race, and Casey Atwood (10th) who had a top 5 car until the end. An attaboy to Ricky Rudd for his hard run early and to Robin Dallenbach, just because. But the big yahoo (see above) goes to my man Sterling Marlin. Great win Sterling, let’s do it again soon!
Next week we’re off to Bristol and maybe another win for Sterling (hint, hint). And now since it’s past my dinner time…
Keep The Shiny Side
Up!