Top Row Seat - Martinsville
Dateline: 09/30/97Jeff Burton Comes Of Age
The 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup season will be known as the year that Jeff Burton came of age. Regardless of who wins the Championship, Jeff Burton is one of the top stories of this racing season.
At the start of this year Jeff had never won a Winston Cup race and in fact had never finished higher than 3rd. However, as of this weekend's race the 1994 Rookie Of The Year now has three wins and stands solidly in fourth place in the season long struggle. Jack Rousch and Buddy Parrott have teamed up to give this obviously talented driver a chance to shine. It is amazing what quality equipment and experienced leadership can do for your driving career.
Demolition Derby
The final short-track race of the season was everything that short-tracks are supposed to be. We had: Jeff Green took out Chad Little, Steve Park squeezed out Jimmy Spencer, Robert Pressley blew a tire and took out Derrike Cope, Geoff Bodine bumped Dick Trickle, Mike Waltrip hit the curb and spun, Bobby Labonte shoved Dick Trickle and four more drivers got caught up in the mess, Jeremy Mayfield got too aggressive with Jeff Green, Jeff Green took his revenge and got a one lap penalty, Geoff Bodine spun (no replay), Mike Waltrip lost his brakes and hit Mike Skinner, and finally some fluid on the track caused Ernie Irvan and Terry Labonte to spin.
WHEW. Those were just the incidents that brought out the yellow flag. There were hundreds of other bumps, scrapes and sideswipes which never brought out the caution. Some people believe that short tracks are a dying breed on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. I hope that the day never comes where Martinsville goes the way of North Wilkesboro simply because H. Clay Earle's little bullring in southern Virginia is the last of it's type left on the schedule. NASCAR wouldn't be the same without it.
Rusty Wallace Pushed His Luck
The dominant car of the second half of the race belonged to Rusty Wallace. He had the field covered easily and only needed to keep it between the curb and the wall in order to cruise to the win. However, on the final restart Rusty couldn't resist trying to squeeze out a little extra insurance and got caught.
NASCAR had warned Rusty twice that he was restarting too soon and when he jumped the start again for the third time NASCAR decided to issue a stop-and-go penalty which relegated Rusty back to 15th place. Rusty obviously felt that he had been cheated. Dale Earnhardt apparently agreed with him. However, I believe that NASCAR was more than fair about it since they gave Rusty two warnings before assessing the penalty. What more can you expect?
Mr. Wallace, you tried to cheat a little. NASCAR let you slide, twice. You pushed your luck a third time and forced NASCAR to back up their warnings with some action. Don't whine. You played the game and lost.
Go Fast, Turn Left, Stay Safe!
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