Motor Racing Roundup : Wallace Overcomes Dizzy Spells, Holds On to Win

Rusty Wallace, who experienced spells of vertigo during practice runs last week, left the remainder of Sunday’s Valleydale Meats 500 field reeling as he took charge in the final 40 laps at Bristol, Tenn., to notch his third Winston Cup victory of the season.

Wallace had backup driver Dave Marcis ready to step into his Pontiac if the spells struck again.

Instead of getting behind the wheel, Marcis was one of a track-record 56,000 race fans who watched Wallace, a previous winner at Rockingham and Richmond this year, hold off Darrell Waltrip by three car lengths.

“Everything was great today and I feel fine right now,” said Wallace, who posted his first Winston Cup victory at the .533-mile Bristol track in the 1986 Valleydale.

“Friday morning, I woke up pretty sick. I got to the race track and the whole thing was spinning. You feel like you’re spinning around in a bowl here anyway and you don’t need vertigo.”

Wallace took the lead for the fourth and final time on lap No. 458 and went on to post his 13th Winston Cup victory, holding off both Waltrip and Geoff Bodine to win by .26 of a second.

Bodine, who never led, took the third position with Davey Allison, a provisional starter, fourth and Dick Trickle fifth.

Connie Kalitta defeated Gene Snow to end a three-year dry spell and win the Top Fuel finals in the inaugural $384,350 National Hot Rod Assn. Winston Invitational drag race at Rockingham, N.C.

Kalitta drove his dragster down the quarter-mile track in 5.194 seconds, while Snow came in at 5.351. The victory gave Kalitta a $25,000 bonus from Winston in the non-points event.

“It has been a long time,” said Kalitta, who last won a national event in 1986.

Don Prudhomme won the Funny Car division, earning $25,000 with a victory over four-time Winston Series champion Kenny Bernstein. Larry Morgan was the Pro Stock winner at 187.85 m.p.h. and 7.355 seconds. Second was 1988 Winston Series runner-up Warren Johnson.