Monday, April 19, 2004
A loose section of concrete on the track pavement caused an hour-plus delay.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Rusty Wallace left his doubts -- and the competition -- behind at Martinsville Speedway. Wallace ended an agonizing 105-race victory drought Sunday, holding off Bobby Labonte in the Advance Auto Parts 500 for his 55th Nextel Cup victory.
"Finally!" the 47-year-old Wallace said. "I questioned myself a little bit. I was like, 'Man, this schedule is wearing me out and these bad performances are wearing me out.' I questioned a lot of things for a long time during that dry spell. It feels good to finally get back in Victory Lane."
Wallace took command with 45 laps to go Sunday, and made sure he didn't let it slip away.
"Once I got in the lead, I just talked to myself. 'Get smooth. Hit your marks. Don't screw up. Don't give this thing away,' " Wallace said.
The race took more than five hours to complete because of a hole in the track that appeared just past the halfway point.
The delay
The delay came with 210 laps remaining when a hunk of concrete came lose in the third turn, leaving a hole a foot long and a foot wide.
Repairs took an hour and 17 minutes, but when the race finally restarted, a refreshed Wallace started making his move. He came out of the pits third after a caution with 120 laps to go, passed teammate Ryan Newman for second with 55 laps to go and then ran down Jimmie Johnson, who was stuck on older tires after failing to pit with the lead.
Wallace passed Johnson with 45 laps to go, pulled away on a restart 10 laps later as the contenders behind him fought for position, then held off the charging Labonte after he, too, broke free from the pack.
"I looked up and I saw Bobby Labonte break loose, too, and I thought, 'Uh-oh, this is going to be a dogfight here,' " Wallace said.
It was, with Wallace winning by just 0.538 seconds.
The victory -- his first since April 29, 2001, at California Speedway -- was his seventh at Martinsville and enabled him to break a tie with Lee Petty and take over sole possession of eighth on the career victories list.
Labonte knew his odds of winning weren't good with Wallace ahead.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished third and Johnson was fourth, giving Chevrolet the next three spots on the grid behind Wallace's Dodge.
"I just love this race track," Earnhardt said after his fifth straight top-five finish on the Virginia track. "I want to win here so bad I can't stand it."
Earnhardt points leader
Earnhardt took the lead in the season standings, five points ahead of Kurt Busch and 12 in front of defending champion Matt Kenseth.
Johnson, "a sitting duck" according to crew chief Chad Knaus after ducking in like he was going to pit with about 85 laps to go, then staying out while all the leaders pitted, said he was surprised to be left alone.
Newman emerged second after taking just right-side tires, and Earnhardt was third with Wallace right behind him on the restart.
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