Earnhardt Moves in Front With NASCAR Race Win

Dale Earnhardt took over the top of the NASCAR Winston Cup standings Sunday by winning the First Union 400.

“It’s been frustrating not to have won lately because we’ve been close,” said Earnhardt, who leads Geoff Bodine by three points and Alan Kulwicki by nine in the points standings.

Earnhardt won for the first time in 16 NASCAR Winston Cup races, pulling away from Kulwicki in the final four laps. It was Earnhardt’s first victory since Bristol last August.

Kulwicki, making a bid for his second career victory, was on Earnhardt’s bumper through much of the final 10 laps. He failed to pass on lap 394, and his hopes ended with four laps left when he slid to the high side of the second turn on his final attempt.

“Alan had caught me after I punished my tires a bit racing against my old friend Rusty (Wallace),” said Earnhardt, who led 296 of the race’s 400 laps and won $51,225. “Alan punished his too after he spun out and I was able to pull away.”

Kulwicki said brake problems hampered him.

“We had problems with the brakes all day and I was trying to pump them there at the end. . . . With about four laps to go, there was nothing I could save, so I gave it all I had and just came up short. It might have been a different finish if I’d had some brakes.”

Earnhardt, who started third in a Chevrolet, finished about 25 car lengths ahead of Kulwicki, who edged third-place Mark Martin at the finish. Dick Trickle finished fourth and Terry Labonte, was fifth.