Race Recap

GOODWRENCH 400 - Earnhardt Wins - Race Recap

Rockingham, NC

Dale Earnhardt won todays running of the Goodwrench Service 400. It was his third win at the Rock and 69th career Winston Cup vistory. The following is a recap of the days events.

Note: Loy Allen Jr., after a mid-race wreck was flown to the Carolinas Medical Center where it was determined that he has a broken right shoulder. He is said to be alert. He is undergoing additional testing.

Terry Labonte started the Goodwrench Service 400 from the pole and for the first 136 laps dominated the competition. From the start he pulled away from the field and looked to be in complete control.

The race looked like it would be for second place. However, soon after informing his crew that he felt a loss of power, Jimmy Spencer quickly moved by Labonte on the outside to take the lead for the first time and had built a 1.5 second lead over Labonte, and the Dales, Earnhardt and Jarrett.

Spencer was a surprise to everyone in the early stages as he made it look easy when he moved to the from his 28th starting spot to the point. Problem for the field - he did it convincingly.

Dale Earnhardt demonstrated the same patience he showed at Daytona and stayed poised in the top-5 biding his time.

But as was the case at Daytona, you can't bank on your finish until you see the checkered flag fly. Wrecks and engine failures continued to take their toll on the top cars and drivers that should have been in the hunt.

The 1995 Champion - Jeff Gordon - woes continued again this week when he lost a cylinder and was forced to the garage for repairs. He attempted to continue for Winston Cup points but decided to park the Dupont Monte Carlo at lap 175. This setback will cause him to fall even further behind the points leaders. Gordon tried to smile when he said, "It's hard to smile, but we're trying. We're being humbled right now."

Rusty Wallace was involved in a number of early cautions. Hut Stricklin started a chain reaction on lap 108 that did heavy damage to his Circuit City Ford that also collected Wallace again, Ted Musgrave, Johnny Benson, Bill Elliott, Rick Mast and Loy Allen Jr.

Loy Allen Jr initiated the next caution, hitting the turn two wall hard after blowing a tire. His Healthsourve Thunderbird then hit the retaining wall by the backstretch pit entrance. In a related incident, Bobby Labonte then spun, with some help from Jeff Burton, when he checked up when his spotter informed him of Allen's wreck.

Allen suffered a shoulder injury as a result of his contact. This caused the track workers to take extra care while they attempted to remove him from his car. The front and back pit roads were closed during this extraction.

Because of the delay, the closed pit roads and the fact that many pf the top cars were running out of fuel, NASCAR decided to red-flag the race while Allen was being tended to. Allen was reported to be alert, but suffering a shoulder injury.

The red-flag lasted 9 minutes and 15 seconds.

The first to pit after the red-flag was lifted was Jimmy Spencer, who was in second at the time and needed fuel. Problem for Jimmy, the pits were still closed and he was forced to the back of the field. As well as his car was running it would only be a matter of time before he moved back to the front.

When the racing resumed Terry Labonte made it out first followed again by the Dales. Earnhardt and Labonte put on a 10 lap duel just before the half-way point, racing door-to-door with each taking turns leading the lap. After Labonte grabbed the $10,000 for leading at the half-way point. Labonte looked strong again, but the next challenged he faced was his engine's overheating.

On each lap he continued to lose water through the overflow until ultimately he pitted with a blown engine as the loss of water took it's toll.

The running order after Labonte retired - Earnhardt, Spencer, Bobby Hamilton, Dale Jarrett and Ricky Craven. With no Labonte to run out front - it seemed that all the top cars wanted to be out front.

First Spencer passed Earnhardt, then Dale Jarrett passed Spencer, then Ricky Rudd passed Jarrett until Bobby Hamilton put the the STP Pontiac in the top position.

Spencer's great run ended when his engine expired and he dropped some debris on the racetrack bringing out a much need caution for the leaders.

Earnhardt exited the pits first, but it wasn't long before Hamilton took the lead. The two started racing - like we've seen all day. With Hamilton in the lead, Earnhardt but a nose under him and made contact sending Hamilton to the wall. The contact looked innocent enough, but after a pit stop and new tires it was clear that the damage would be enough to take him out of contention.

This left Earnhardt, Jarrett, Craven, Rudd, Kenny Wallace and Sterling Marlin.

The shoot-out was underway.

Earnhardt pulled to the front and checked out. It appeared that he was holding back a tad.

Problems on the racetrack for Wally Dallenbach and Bobby Hillin brought out the 10th caution flag of the day - resulting in the race to finish under caution with Dale Earnhardt capturing his third career win at the Rock, his 69th career win and 42nd at a superspeedway.

Rounding out the top-10 were Dale Jarrett, Ricky Craven, Ricky Rudd, Steve Grissom, Sterling Marlin, Kenny Wallace, Derrike Cope, Joe Nemechek, and Rick Mast.

With both the Dale doing will in the race, they end up in a tie for the Winston Cup championship. The RJR Bonus of $10,000 was won by Earnhardt for winning the race and ending up a top the points list. The Unocal bonus rolls over to Richmond and will be worth $98,800.