Wallace At Home On Roads
Rusty Wallace is at the top of the class in NASCAR as the Winston Cup series arrives in Watkins Glen, N.Y., for its second and last road race of the season, today’s Bud at the Glen.
Wallace has six victories on the circuits that have both left and right turns. Two of those wins have come at Watkins Glen, two at Sears Point in Sonoma, Calif., and two at the now-defunct Riverside Raceway in southern California.
Mark Martin is next with four road racing wins, including three in a row at Watkins Glen from 1993-95.
Current drivers Ricky Rudd and Ernie Irvan, as well as the late Tim Richmond, each have three road course wins, while defending Watkins Glen champ Geoff Bodine has two.
Other current drivers with road-course victories are Dale Earnhardt and Kyle Petty, each with one.
One driver who surprisingly has not yet won a road race is defending Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte.
“I think we’ve done just about everything except win a Winston Cup race at the Glen,” said Labonte, who has won Busch Grand National races, set a track qualifying record and led a pile of laps at the Glen without winning.
He is coming off finishes of 35th at Pocono and 40th at Indianapolis that have sent Labonte reeling from the series lead to fourth.
“We ran well enough with this car to win earlier in the year at Sears Point and settled for third place,” Labonte said. “A win at the Glen would build momentum for a stretch run and keep us in the thick of the points chase.”
Bodine looks for turnaround
Geoff Bodine gets a little wistful when he thinks about his victory last year in the Bud at the Glen.
“It was a turning point in my life personally that I could finally get behind the steering wheel of a race car and not think about my divorce and my kids’ mother leaving,” Bodine said. “That felt good and it showed people around me and my team that I was on my way back.”
Now, it’s the eve of another Bud at the Glen and Bodine, who has not won since last August’s exhilarating race, is in the midst of another crisis.
“It is ironic because, last week at Indy I didn’t make the race and I’m again faced with the challenge of either giving up or turning it around,” said the 48-year-old Bodine, who has won 18 races in his Winston Cup career.
“The challenge is a little different this time. It’s more financial than personal, more business than personal. I’ve been challenged most of this season, but the problems go way back to last year.”
Formula One
Defending Formula One champion Damon Hill was thrilled to qualify third for the Hungarian Grand Prix after Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve filled the top two spots.
“To get third is truly fantastic,” said Hill, who will seek his first victory of the year today in Budapest, Hungary. “I’m delighted about the qualifying. I had a good, exciting lap and I came out of the car satisfied.”
Schumacher, this year’s leader and two-time champion before Hill, gained his first pole position in more than a month. He led qualifying in 1 minute, 14.672 seconds on the 2.466-mile Hungaroring circuit - averaging almost 119 mph.
Villeneuve, the defending champion of the race, was second-fastest, with a clocking of 1:14.859 in his Williams-Renault.
CART
Hometown favorite Bryan Herta’s top qualifying speed from one day earlier held up as the weekend’s fastest time, giving him the pole for today’s Miller 200 at at Lexington, Ohio. None of the top-five qualifiers from Friday improved their times.
Craftsman Trucks
Ron Hornaday became the winningest driver in the three-year history of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, eking out a half-second victory over Joe Ruttman and Rich Bickle in the Stevens Beil 200 at Flemington, N.J., Speedway.
Hornaday’s seventh victory of the season was his 17th overall.