Waltrip, Rudd and Track Are Winners at Riverside

Darrell Waltrip won the Winston Cup championship, Ricky Rudd won the race and Jim Robinson the West Coast championship, but the biggest story Sunday at Riverside International Raceway was the huge crowd.

Oldtimers, who have seen every race since the track opened in 1957, claim the outpouring of fans was the largest for any stock car race ever held here. Perhaps it was because the venerable old road course is rumored to be closing, or perhaps it was the hoopla over the Waltrip-vs.-Bill Elliott points race.

Whatever, an hour before the race, traffic was backed up six miles to University Avenue in Riverside and it was taking an hour and a half to reach the track from there.

Track officials refused to announce a crowd for Sunday’s Winston Western 500, the final event on the NASCAR schedule--but estimates ranged around 60,000.

One of the biggest cheers went up when Daniel Greenwood, president of the track, announced that the facility would remain in operation next season.

On the track, the tension over the championship ended quickly as Elliott, winner of 11 races and more than $2 million this season in his Ford Thunderbird, pitted on lap 7 with broken gear linkage in his transmission. By the time the Melling crew finished replacing the faulty part, Elliott had sat 32 minutes in the pits and lost 22 laps.

This enabled Waltrip, who entered the race with a 20-point lead despite having won only three races, to drive his Chevy Monte Carlo cautiously to a seventh-place finish to win approximately $440,000 in bonus money for his third Grand National title.

“Winning the first (championship) was great, the second was better and the third is definitely the best,” Waltrip said after accepting congratulations from car owner and builder Junior Johnson. It was Johnson’s sixth title in nine years, having three with Cale Yarborough in 1976, 1977 and 1978. Waltrip won in 1981 and 1982.

The part that broke in Elliott’s car was a 1 1/2-inch long pin which goes in the shifter inside the transmission. It costs $8.

The pin was manufactured by Douglas Nash in Franklin, Tenn., which is Waltrip’s home town.

“I was shifting from third to fourth when it broke,” Elliott said. “It was the only part on the car (a Ford) that was GM.

“All that time I was sitting in the pits I kept thinking about how we’d done everything we set out to do this year but sometimes things just didn’t go our way. I guess I did say something to myself like, ‘This just ain’t my day.’

“The type of year we had, it was a great one, despite what happened today. The whole year has been memorable, day-by-day, no special day. All have been special.”

Elliott had a 206-point lead over Waltrip after winning the Southern 500 Sept. 1 at Darlington, the day he won a $1 million bonus from Winston for winning three of four major 500-mile races. Only eight races remained on the 28-race schedule, but Elliott’s luck suddenly turned sour and he failed to finish the next four races. This enabled Waltrip to catch up and make Sunday’s race the championship decider.

The Ford-vs.-Chevrolet confrontation didn’t materialize between Elliott and Waltrip but at the end another one developed between Rudd, in a Thunderbird, and Labonte, in a Monte Carlo.

Rudd and Ford won by holding off a daring Labonte challenge on the final lap, but the edge was determined in the pits by wily Bud Moore, Rudd’s crew chief.

Riverside’s 2.62-mile road is hard on tires and Moore made a move early in the race that paid off for Rudd. On the next-to-last scheduled pit stop, Moore had all four tires changed on the T-Bird, while Labonte’s crew changed only two.

Late in the race, on the final pit stop, Labonte had a lengthy stop when all four tires were changed. Rudd, needing only two, came in and out of the pits in record style, just ahead of Labonte.

There were 14 laps remaining and although Labonte pressured Rudd every time around the track, the lead never changed.

“When I came out of the pits I heard Bud say, ‘That’s Labonte on your rear bumper.’ ” Rudd said. “I definitely felt him breathing down my neck. I had to watch my mirrors to see what he was doing and try to keep him back there. Once, going through the second turn we got caught in a little traffic and when I slowed, Terry was right on my bumper. He gave me a little shove. He was sitting there waiting for me to make a mistake, but luckily I didn’t.

“I think Bud’s changing all four tires when he did made a lot of difference. It was the reason I got out ahead of Labonte and if I hadn’t, I might not have been able to get by him.”

Labonte, who set a track record of 116.938 m.p.h. during qualifying, led 81 of the 119 laps. Rudd led 25, including the last 24, averaging 105.065 for the race.

The only other lap Rudd led except the final 24 almost proved to be unfortunate. He cut a tire and had to limp around the track at reduced speed to get back to the pits for an unscheduled stop.

“I was kind of discouraged getting a break like that just after I’d taken the lead,, but Bud (Moore) told me to be patient and things would work out--just like they did.”

Labonte, a transplanted Texan who now lives in Thomasville, N.C., said he tried every maneuver he could think of but couldn’t get past Rudd during those final laps.

“I couldn’t have caught him if I’d had a couple of more laps--no way,” Labonte said. “I almost lost it coming off (turn) nine on that last lap I was trying so hard.

“Ricky was awful strong on the straights. The rest of the way around we were pretty close. He beat us on that last pit stop when he got in and out ahead of me.”

The win was almost as lucrative for Rudd as it was for Waltrip. He earned $37,875 for the win but more importantly got on NASCAR’s Winners Circle plan which is worth approximately $200,000 next season.

“I never thought about the money during the race because if I had I might have gotten excited and made mistakes. I tried to look at it as a practice race in order to keep patient, but now that it’s over I know it will be a big boost for the crew back in Spartanburg, S.C., during the winter.”

Rudd, 29, who learned his road racing tactics as a go-kart driver in his teens, won his first Winston Cup race here in June, 1983. Recently, however, he has been a slump and had not won since the second race in February 1984.

On a cool, cloudy day that helped save engine wear, eight cars finished on the same lap with Rudd and Labonte and a remarkable 31 cars were running at the end of the 2 hour 58 minute race.

Neil Bonnett finished third, with Harry Gant right on his tailpipe at the finish. Then followed Dale Earnhardt, Geoff Bodine, Waltrip and Richard Petty, who first won this race back in 1969.

After blowing three engines during practice, Petty had to borrow one from Buddy Baker for the race. The eighth place finish was Petty’s second best in 27 races of a dismal season driving for Mike Curb. It is only the third year since he began racing in 1960 that he failed to win a race.

Robinson, 39, a North Hollywood garage owner, won his third straight Winston West championship by finishing 12th, 14 positions ahead of Hershel McGriff, his nearest competitor. McGriff, 57, won a 300-kilometer Grand American race here on Saturday.

The first finishing West Coast driver was Glen Steurer of Simi Valley, who was 11th in a Chevrolet. Steurer, this year’s rookie of the year, also was the first West Coast finisher in the Budweiser 400 here last June, also in 11th position.

The only wreck of any significance knocked Tim Richmond out of the race when he was running with the leaders on lap 46. Phil Parsons spun in the dirt at Turn 6 and when his car slid back onto the track in a cloud of dust, Richmond plowed into him, destroying the car’s front end. Neither driver was hurt.