MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Martin Keeps His Points Lead With Third Win

Mark Martin’s gamble by taking an extra pit stop for a chassis adjustment paid off as he won Sunday’s Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. It was Martin’s third victory this season, allowing him to hold onto a tenuous 16-point lead over Dale Earnhardt in the Winston Cup points championship.

“We spent the whole race preparing for that last dash,” said Martin, who passed Earnhardt with 38 laps remaining, then drove to a 3.7-second victory.

“The guys were right on the money with that stop,” he said. “Dale was gone. There was no way we were going to catch him the way things were. We took a big gamble and they got it right in the pits.”

Earnhardt, who led all but 70 of the first 362 laps on the .625-mile oval and appeared well on the way to his ninth victory of the season, said: “We just got a real tight set of tires that last time and the car just wouldn’t run that good. Give Mark and those guys credit for winning the race. We just couldn’t run with him at the end.”

Martin led only the first lap and those final 38 on the way to his fourth career victory. He won $52,875.

Earnhardt, a three-time Winston Cup champion, got a five-point bonus for leading the most laps, but Martin evened it off with a five-point bonus for finishing ahead of his closest pursuer.

The 16-point difference between first and second with four races remaining is the closest at this point in the 29-race season since the modern scoring system was inaugurated in 1975. The closest previous duel was in 1985 when Darrell Waltrip led Bill Elliott by 20 points at the same juncture.

Brett Bodine finished third, followed by Elliott, Ken Schrader, Ernie Irvan, Waltrip, Rusty Wallace and Alan Kulwicki, all on the lead lap at the end.

Alain Prost of France won the 44th Formula One race of his career at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, preserving a slim chance of retaining his world driving championship.

Prost, in a Ferrari, took over first on the 29th lap and swept away to a 22-second victory over teammate Nigel Mansell of Britain. Alessandro Nannini of Italy third in a Benetton-Ford.

Prost’s time for the 73 laps on the 2.621-mile circuit was 1 hour 48 minutes 1.461 seconds. He averaged 106.3 m.p.h. for the 191.328 miles.

Prost’s fifth victory of the season, combined with Ayrton Senna’s mechanical problems, moved Prost within nine points of Senna, 78-69. There are two races left, starting with the Japanese Grand Prix, Oct. 21.

Prost can win the title if he wins the final two races.

“If we do the same type of work for team and drivers, the only thing I could say is maybe--maybe. But it will be very difficult,” Prost said.

Senna, of Brazil, could have clinched the championship with a victory or a poor finish by Prost. But a radiator leak caught up with Senna on the 54th lap and he stopped.

Joe Amato extended his points lead by winning the top-fuel title in the $1,025,050 NHRA Heartland Nationals in Topeka, Kan.

Amato drove his Valvoline dragster to his fifth title of the year, beating Dick LaHaie in the final round with an elapsed time of 5.040 seconds at 272.14 m.p.h. LaHaie had a quarter-mile time of 5.018 and 275.65 m.p.h., but lost the final because Amato had a quicker reaction time off the starting line.