MOTOR RACING / NASCAR AT BRISTOL, TENN. : New Pit Rules Help Rusty Wallace Win

In a race featuring a track-record 40 lead changes, Rusty Wallace had the most important one to win the $513,981 NASCAR Valleydale 500 from the pole Sunday at Bristol International Raceway.

Wallace benefited from new pit-road rules to win $51,300, including a $22,800 bonus for winning from the pole position.

The new rules designated odd- and even-numbered cars, based on qualifying position, for the inside and outside lanes on restarts. In the final 50 laps, cars were allowed to move ahead of others in the restart line if they were ahead of them in the race.

After 458 laps and a rain delay of 1 hour 12 minutes, Wallace moved his Pontiac from seventh place to second when Davey Allison, who was leading when rain stopped the race, pitted for tires. Allison was the only odd-numbered qualifier ahead of Wallace on the restart.

Wallace quickly moved past outside pole-sitter Ernie Irvan’s Chevrolet for the lead on lap 463 and held him off by just inches in a door-to-door finish.

“Ernie ran me clean and strong on that last lap,” Wallace said. “It was a heck of a gallant effort for second place. I wouldn’t have wanted to run another lap. The fans got their money’s worth, I’ll say that.”

Irvan dipped below Wallace on the third turn and the two cars came around the fourth turn and to the finish line side by side, but Wallace took the checkered flag by a half-car length.

It was Wallace’s third victory in the Valleydale 500.

Defending champion Allison finished third in a Ford.