MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Slow, Sure Wallace Wins NASCAR Event

Rusty Wallace’s patience was rewarded Sunday with a victory in the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro, N.C.

It was Wallace’s third victory of the season and second in a row, both on short tracks. It pushed him into the NASCAR Winston Cup points lead over Dale Earnhardt, who finished 16th.

In an event in which tire wear was a key, Wallace bided his time, taking the lead on the 299th of the race’s 400 laps over the five-eighths of a mile track. He passed Sterling Marlin, who had led 190 laps.

“I kept telling myself to go up and get them, go up and get them, but I said, ‘No, the tires are biting good,’ ” Wallace said. “It’s so hard to be patient, but you have to remember it’s a long race--be patient, don’t be too aggressive, don’t burn the tires up.”

The short-track dominance of Wallace’s Pontiac had been shown in a second-place finish at Richmond, Va., in addition to his victories at Bristol, Tenn., and North Wilkesboro.

He beat Kyle Petty’s Pontiac by 1.5 seconds, earning $43,535. Wallace averaged 92.602 m.p.h. in a race in which the first 19 laps were run under caution after a first-lap crash involving Geoff Bodine, who had started on the front row alongside his brother, pole-sitter Brett Bodine.

Juan Manuel Fangio II beat teammate P.J. Jones by 7 1/2 seconds to win the IMSA Camel GT event in the Toyota Grand Prix at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Jones and Fangio traded the lead in their Toyota Eagle MKIII cars, Fangio taking the lead for good on Lap 63 of the 83-lap race. Jones averaged 118.08 m.p.h.