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Labonte Fined; Waltrip Wails: Late Race Developments Give Wilkes to Richmond Publication: National Speed Sport News Byline: Benny Phillips Dateline: North Wilkesboro, North Carolina 
Date: 11 April 1984 Subject: Stock Car Racing Topics: Northwestern Bank 400, Tim Richmond, Darrell Waltrip |
 MOVING UP — Tim Richmond, winless this year until Sunday, draws a bead on Geoff Bodine before the large North Wilkesboro Speedway crowd as he charges on to victory. (Dorsey Patrick photo).
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NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — For such to have happened on Easter Sunday would have been appropriate. A bunny won the Northwestern Bank 400.
Tim Richmond was the rabbit of the race. And, when you jump a rabbit and give it running room, it's always difficult to catch before getting to a briar patch.
The briar patch in this case was Victory Circle at North Wilkesboro Speedway — a cozy little place protected by a fence — which paid $24,780 to be the first there.
A spin off the fourth turn by Phil Parsons, bringing out the fifth and final caution flag, flushed Richmond out of hiding 28 laps from the finish. A quick pit stop moved his Pontiac from third to first. And on the restart, with 25 laps to go, he got a jump on the field. Harry Gant, Ricky Rudd and Terry Labonte put their metal hounds in pursuit, but the chase was too short and Richmond controlled the tempo.
Gant finished second, Rudd third, Labonte fourth and Kyle Petty fifth.
Up to the last caution, the race was a battle between Rudd and Labonte, which Rudd dominated. At the time of the yellow flag, Labonte was two seconds behind Rudd. Richmond was running third, riding Labonte's bumper.
On the caution, the frontrunners pitted and took on new tires and fuel. Richmond, pitting at the far end of pit road, had a clean shot to his pit stall. He was first out and took the lead. Gant followed, then Rudd, then Labonte. The only passing in the final laps was Labonte getting around Rudd and then Rudd getting back around Labonte.
After the race, NASCAR inspector Ed Cox found Labonte's car had a left-side tire on the right side, an illegal setup. The Labonte team was fined $2,000 Monday morning by NASCAR, but will not lose points or position in the race, according to a NASCAR spokesman. Dale Inman, crew chief of the Labonte team, met with NASCAR officials Dick Beaty and Bill Gazaway after the race. It was determined that Goodyear had mounted the left-side tire on a right-side wheel by mistake, and that the Labonte crew hadn't discovered the error.
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“Goodyear mounted the tire on the wrong wheel,” Inman said. “It was Goodyear's mistake, but our mistake for not catching it. Our wheels are numbered right side and left side and even colored differently. Our left-side wheels are white and our right-side wheels are blue. When Goodyear mounted the tires, they put a left-side compound tire on a right-side wheel. We should have caught it, but we didn't.
“It really messed us up bad,” Inman said. “To begin with, we didn't need that last caution. We were catching Rudd when the yellow came out. Then on the pit stop we changed tires and still had a real good shot at winning. But the left-side tire on the right messed up the handling of our car and we couldn't go anywhere. North Wilkesboro is certainly one track on the circuit where you would not want to use left tires on the right, even if they let you.”
As soon as the race was over, before Labonte knew about the tire situation, he was shaking his head. “This is a bit frustrating. I don't know what happened there at the end. All of a sudden the car was a lot loose and I almost wrecked a couple of times those last few laps. We were fine up until then. In fact, I thought we had a shot at winning the race, but something was wrong with the car or the tires — one or the other — after we pitted.”
Darrell Waltrip, who trails Labonte in the Winston Cup point standings, was reached by telephone Monday. Waltrip obviously felt that Labonte should have been disqualified or penalized. “I think it has become obvious that NASCAR doesn't want me to be the point leader,” Waltrip said. “They (NASCAR) like this business about Waltrip and Allison in the point battle, and Bobby got off to a bad start this year and they want him to catch up with me. They took 21 points away from me at Atlanta and knocked me out of the point lead, and then they knocked me out of it again Sunday at Wilkesboro. I just can't believe some of the stuff going on. NASCAR can't keep just slapping people on the hand. All I can do is revert to the Petty situation at Charlotte. When he got caught with left-side tires on the right, NASCAR announced a crackdown and said people would be penalized and disqualified. But right now the system is the worst it has been. They make up the rules as they go along.
“The NASCAR rule book,” Waltrip said, “should start with 'Once upon a time.' They just can't keep running the sport like this. Every week you wonder what's next, and the punishment is never the same. NASCAR needs credibility and things can't continue to go on like this. It all depends on who you are as to how the rules are enforced. You can't expect them to live up to what they say. I know what they want. They want a different winner every race and a different point champion every year, and right now they don't want me leading the points.”
It was Richmond's fourth NASCAR career win. He won both races at Riverside in 1982 and was winner at Pocono last season. The victory places the Raymond Beadle team on NASCAR's Winner's Circle Program, worth $150,000 for the remainder of the season. Also, Richmond is the sixth different winner in six races this season.
“My crew did a wonderful job,” said the poised and polite Richmond. “The guys got me out first and I was able to drive a control race from there on.
“I don't think being on the end of pit road helped all that much. Most of the afternoon I had problems getting down pit road because of the traffic, but on the last stop I had a pretty clear shot at where I was going. Getting down pit road was part of it, but the skill of the guys in our pit crew was a bigger part of it.”
Richmond said his car handled well during the final laps when he was leading. “We had problems all day when we tried to race with somebody. The car would get tipsy when I tried to run with somebody else. But the crew put me in the lead and I didn't have to race anybody. Before the caution, I could pull up on Labonte but when I tried to race with him I would get lose.”
The Ashland, Ohio native said he had been disappointed with team efforts this season. “At the end of the 1983 season we were doing real well. I was even optimistic about winning the point championship this year. I went to Daytona with high hopes, but we've had trouble all year just getting around the track. We were no ball of fire out there today. We didn't outclass the field, but we kept hanging in there and won the race. Ricky obviously had it won, I thought, but then I wasn't running close enough to the front to watch him most of the afternoon.”
The team, headed by crew chief Tim Brewer, made major changes on the car after last week's race at Bristol. “They worked on the chassis and changed the weight around during the week,” Richmond said. “We ran the same engine today that we ran last week at Bristol. It hasn't even been taken out of the car.”
Rudd said track position caught him. “It's disappointing to dominate the race like we did and lose,” he said. “We got behind when the last caution came out, and then on the restart several slow cars were in the way. Then Dale (Earnhardt) got in my way and slowed me down and I had to knock him out of the way. We won at Richmond this year when we probably shouldn't have, so I guess it all balances out.”
Second-place finisher Gant said he couldn't catch Richmond. “We were real fortunate to finish where we did. I do believe, however, if there had been 20 more laps in the race our chances would have improved.”
Richmond averaged 97.837 miles per hour. He led only the final 28 laps. Rudd, who started from pole position, led 292 of the 400 laps. Neil Bonnett was in front 77 laps. Labonte led two laps and Geoff Bodine one lap.
Labonte continues to lead the Winston Cup point standings. He has a ten-point lead over Waltrip, who finished sixth. Labonte has 963 points and Waltrip 953. Rudd is third with 939, followed by Earnhardt with 914 and Bill Elliott with 869.