Vibrations Are All Good for Martin

Ford race car drivers, fans and corporate executives who bemoaned the switch from the venerable Thunderbird to the Taurus for this year’s Winston Cup season can stop their fretting.

In one of the most dominating one-race performances by any manufacturer in NASCAR history, Mark Martin led a parade of Fords that swept the first seven positions--and 13 of the first 14--in the inaugural Las Vegas 400 on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

A capacity crowd of 107,000 watched under sunny skies as Martin and his four Jack Roush teammates, Jeff Burton (second), Johnny Benson (fourth), Ted Musgrave (sixth) and Chad Little (10th) made a strong statement for multi-car teams.

“It’s sort of neat that on a brand new race track we won with a brand new race team,” said Martin. “I want to thank all the guys at the shop for giving me a great race car. I feel like God answered my prayers today. Early in the race, 120 laps in, we had a terrible vibration and I thought sure we were going to fall out.

“Instead, we went to the front and stayed there. It was just incredible.”

Martin, 39, is not a newcomer to Las Vegas, although he admits he shuns the gambling capital as much as he can. When he was 18, he brought a car out from Batesville, Ark., and ran at Craig Road Speedway, a nearby one-mile oval demolished a decade ago.

“That track at Craig Road was as different from what we raced on today as anything in the world could be,” he said. “I’m a funny guy. All I thought about was racing back then, and racing’s all I think about [now]. I couldn’t care less about slot machines or casinos or floor shows.

“Las Vegas was good to me today at the race track. That’s enough for me.”

He collected $313,900 for winning.

Teammates Rusty Wallace finished third and Jeremy Mayfield fifth in Fords. Jimmy Spencer (seventh) and Bill Elliott (ninth) rounded out the Fords on the lead lap when the 267-lap race concluded.

The only Chevrolet on the leader board was driven by Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt, who was eighth. After that, the next Chevy was driven by Terry Labonte and finished 15th. The first Pontiac was 18th, with Ward Burton at the wheel.

It is apparent that NASCAR, which has a history of changing rules in midstream to try to maintain parity, must make some changes, possibly as soon as next Sunday’s Primestar 500 at Atlanta.

Richard Childress, owner of Earnhardt’s Monte Carlo, expressed the feelings of most General Motors teams when he said, “It’s just a bad deal when everybody is working their hearts out and the rules are just this unbalanced. It isn’t even close to being an even deal.”

Others, such as Pontiac driver Derrike Cope, were more outspoken.

“Maybe if they had stopped the race halfway and we could have gotten a rule change, we might have been competitive,” complained Cope, a former Daytona 500 winner. “NASCAR needs to do something before Atlanta because we’re going to a place that’s too fast and too dangerous.

“Right now it’s an unlevel playing field. It’s ridiculous.”

Not surprisingly, the Ford people took a different view.

“Obviously, we’re delighted,” said Ford executive Dan Davis. “The teams really deserve all the credit for this. If you look back two or three months ago, it looked as though we didn’t have much of a car. But by the time Daytona occurred we had a very competitive car and now we’ve got one in the winner’s circle.”

Chevrolets won the season’s first two races, Earnhardt at Daytona and Jeff Gordon last week at Rockingham.

With only two caution periods for spinning cars, Martin’s average speed for the 400.5 miles was 146.530 mph.

The two-hour 44-minute 53-second race was competitive--among Fords, that is--from the moment pole-sitter Dale Jarrett led the 43-car field off the starting line. There were 24 lead changes among 12 drivers, with Martin leading six times for 82 laps, the most of any driver.

Jarrett, who might have made Ford’s dominance even more one-sided had his engine not failed 48 laps from the end, led for 40 laps, as did Wallace. Jarrett was running second when he abruptly rolled to a stop.

Impressive performances were turned in by Burton and Little. Burton was penalized for exceeding the 45-mph speed limit in the pits and had to go to the rear of the field after 90 laps, and Little had to start last because he crashed in Saturday’s practice and started in a backup car.

One thing that drew praise from all sides was the track, 1.5 miles of well-groomed asphalt wide enough to furnish a comfort zone for drivers running side-by-side through the corners.

“I don’t know who designed and built this race track, but whoever did it, they should be commended,” said Burton, who finished 1.605 seconds behind Martin.

“They did one heck of a job.”

Bill France, president of NASCAR, put his stamp of approval on the facility, which was hosting a Winston Cup race for the first time.

“We at NASCAR are overjoyed with the city’s and the fans’ enthusiasm for Winston Cup series racing,” he said. “The track did a great job in hosting our drivers and speeds. [Co-owners] Ralph Englestad and Bill Bennett are to be saluted for their efforts in seeing dreams of hosting NASCAR Winston Cup racing in Las Vegas become reality.”