The MRN broadcast of the 1989 Atlanta Journal 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway.
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MRN Classic Races
MRN Classic Races - 1989 Atlanta Journal 500
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early in the October race at Charlotte then battling with Rusty Wallace and rocking him Earnhardt again had problems Wallace down in the inside Earnhardt is on the outside they come to the end of the back straight away with some clean racetrack in front of them and her turn number three now they touch Wallace goes sideways a little he comes back up into Earnhardt Earnhardt spins locks all four wheels down up into the middle of the racetrack Wallace comes to the bottom it's Earnhardt again Earnhardt gets hit in the truck by Stirling Marlin and the field comes by on Dale Earnhardt in turn four continuing his run of consistency this season Mark Martin was in a position to close on the leaders just two races ago Mark Martin drives up high out of turn number four comes out of the corner and every person in this grandstand is cheering him on he comes down and he will win the AC Delco 500 then in Phoenix Arizona two weeks ago Rusty Wallace was in a position to clinch the championship but it was not to be trouble to turn one Rusty Wallace's car breaks loose he spins it completely around tags into the outside retaining wall a lot of damage to the left side of Rusty Wallace entering action today Wallace's lead is 78 points over Mark Martin and 79 over Dale Earnhardt before a sellout crowd at the Atlanta International Raceway it's the battle for NASCAR's one million dollar Winston Cup championship the Atlanta Journal 500 coming to you live next on MRN radio MRN Radio presents NASCAR today good afternoon everyone from the Atlanta International Raceway there is an awful lot on the line here today not only for the three drivers who go for the Winston Cup championship but for Alan Kawiki who could have the biggest pay day of his life story of this race will be the Winston Cup championship three drivers come down with a shot at it here going into the final race of the 1989 season Rusty Wallace has an advantage of 79 points over Dale Earnhardt and 78 points over Mark Martin let's go down trackside right now to Dick Brooks who should be standing by with Rusty Wallace well I don't know if anybody's gonna be able to be standing by with Rusty Wallace he's moving through an awful good crowd here he's just gotten to his car and I getting ready to get himself in and I guess I don't have many more questions I just gonna have to have some answers here in a couple three hours Rusty what's gonna happen who knows you know my car is absolutely running perfect I feel really good about it ran real strong yesterday so just a little luck right now just have to play it smooth and see what happens really you know everybody's got to ask and I don't know how you would ever answer it but what happened last night what happened during the middle of the night this morning what do you think now I just went home last night and just took a I went to sleep early just had my wife and I had a nice dinner and went to sleep early got up river early so I beat all the crowd out here signed a million autographs and just checked a thousand hands and and I feel real calm no pressure you know my my thought is on the championship trying to win it but all the thoughts also on trying to win this race because the cars that's strong well I tell you a million autographs a dollar apiece I suspect because it's a million bucks today well I remember when I didn't ever have anybody asking for this it feels great before they never cheered or booed now that you're a lot of doing a lot of cheering it feels great that's right well good luck to you guys and I tell you that's it got a crowd around him it's a few years ago the first race I remember him running here he ran extremely well he came down here one of Pinsky's cars and ran off a good and disappeared for five or six years and now he's back he's certainly in the limelight this time well he told us yesterday that if he could pick the racetrack that he would like to decide the Winston Cup championship on in a situation like he's in the day Atlanta would be the place he would do it pre-race activity going on trackside as Alan Bestwick told you when first came on the air it is a sellout crowd here this afternoon there is not a seat to be had in the house the story the race will be the Winston Cup championship but for Alan Kawicki we said it could be the biggest payday of his life and well it could the unicale challenge worth two hundred and five thousand two hundred dollars Atlanta Raceway has matched that amount so it now swells to four hundred ten thousand plus let's go down and get his thoughts the wish pole winner again Alan Kawicki and Alan was joking with Harold Ellen she said it it's only about a half million dollars to go for today yeah that's that's more than second place in the Winston Cup point standings that just about equals our earnings for the whole year and that'd be a fine way to end the season off for us here and again you've been one of the top men in the bush pole series this year six bush poles for you already this year and it's been a great season as far as that's concerned well it has but it's really pretty typical of the rest of the season that's you know almost close but not quite you know to tie mark for the most polls and still not get the words a little bit frustrating and really that's the way the whole year's been is a little bit frustrating but maybe we can turn that around here today with a win with the Xerox Ford Thunderbird how about your last practice yesterday it was pretty good but not quite perfect you know we're still still we're searching a little bit so we changed some more things this morning and we'll see what happens Alan Kawicki is ready to go forth this afternoon four hundred ten thousand four hundred dollars a unicale money today he sounds like he's more composed than anybody we've heard from so far well of all the people with pressure on them and there's a lot of pressure in the garage area this week people leaving race teams for the last time people looking for sponsors Alan's got to win one race to get that four hundred thousand dollars if he doesn't win the race it's not the end of the world because the money rolls over to Daytona well the man the pressure is on no doubt is rusty Wallace he has the lead he needs to keep it by odds and by rights he should win the Winston Cup championship if he has any kind of a decent day here on the other hand Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin have nothing to lose they can really hang it out here this afternoon mark Martin did not qualify well here for the Atlanta Journal 500 he ended up back in 20th position Winston Kelly is standing by with him mark you're quite a bit further back than what you're accustomed to starting how's the car working man it's working good I'd like to see this thing on TV it's gonna be fun I think tell you folks out there listening to all to see this grin on mark Martin's face mark walking down to your car we were talking about all the attention you've been getting in this championship battles been getting the past couple of weeks how would you analyze your odds of pulling this thing off 78 points down one and eight to one and ten you know chance is the way I probably look at it the really the championship is not ours to lose you know Rusty's earned 78 more points than we have this year we're in a position where we've had a great year regardless of what the turnout of today's race is that puts no pressure on us and leaves us in a position where we don't have anything to lose to go after the race win and let the points fall where they may just like we have all year well mark you're absolutely right regardless of what happens today it's been an outstanding year for the strobe light team and from everybody at MRN radio we'd like to congratulate you on that well thanks you know I'm real thankful to have Jack Roush and Steve Mill and Robin and the strobe light and Ford Motor Company and everybody behind us and it's been a good year and I think that 90 will even be better for us so I can't wait mark Martin starts 20th this afternoon and he's 78 points out of that first place one million dollar championship for the Winston Cup championship brie race activities winding up here at the Atlanta International Raceway getting ready for 500 miles to decide the million dollar Winston Cup championship we've already talked to two of the three contenders for the title rusty Wallace and mark Martin but of the three the man who's been perhaps the loosest and most relaxed in the garage area since we've been here at the racetrack on Friday is Dale Earnhardt he's been in this situation before with three Winston Cup championships to his credit let's get his thoughts now with Jim Phillips and he's getting all geared up and he's ready and he still looks confident just like he did when he walked in the place this week Dale 79 points behind you've got a lot of work to do today well we have we're gonna go and just try to win this race you know it'll take some bad luck on Rusty's part to lose it so we go out and win the race and look around where Rusty's at the end of racing and that you know I don't know what happens well since you've been testing down here and when you came down and ran for the bush pole you've been flying all the time you've been here I've been running good the cars work good and hammer well so we just you know do that all day today I think that'll become a nation win that's Dale Earnhardt he's starting in a good position third position he's ready to go craftsman is back on track and racing for a miracle help support your local children's Miracle Network Hospital and save 20% off select craftsman V 20 products shot this deal of the race at Ace Hardware do it fast do it proud do it with craftsman 20% savings offer available at participating Ace Hardware stores and on Ace Hardware.com restrictions apply see craftsman.com backslash deal of the race for details the guy's been giggling all week and kind of taking all this and really having a ball with it is Bill Elliott and last year he got crucified by some of the members of the press and of course Rusty Wallace as they say in this business bad mouth him real bad because Wallace said he should have run harder tried to win the race rather than do what he needed to do to win the championship and now Elliott says the shoe is on the other foot and he's really been taking it all in this week let's get his thoughts and go back down to Dick Brooks. Well Bill and I talked a little bit earlier and I said well I'm you know I'm about run out of questions to ask in situations like this but I think in your particular case that this has got to be a little bit different than it was last year you get to set and watch it all happen I know you guys need to win races and you need to do well and all that stuff but the pressure is a lot different what are you thinking about this year's versus last year. Well I was thinking about this in the truck on Friday you know I'd love to be in the possession Rusty and Dale and mark her in but you know we're not and I don't miss it I don't miss the pressure I'd like to be there but I definitely don't miss the pressure because you know you're always wondering what's going to happen you know I can't get close to this guy you know this guy's squirting around on a race track or there's smoke from the car in front of you and there's so many things they're going through your mind all day long you know you're just trying to get to the end of the race. You know Rusty gave me such a hard time at the end of last year about how I run a race but we'll see how he runs it today and I told him if he did something wrong I was gonna be right on him. I'll be the first to graduate him if he wins a race or wins a championship but there again you know the shoes on the other foot. Bill I know that there's been some some controversy they've been a little bit of talk leak out back and forth about there's a little bit of problems with you guys team not that it's falling apart or anything but and you've had a good year compared to what a lot of people's had you've had a good year but not like you've had in the past. What's happening next year? Well you know next year I feel like we're gonna test as much so we can't get ready for Daytona and you're just like a circumstance that happened earlier this year I broke my arm and it really got the team off to a bad start plus a 89th underwear changed a lot over the 88 and that took a while to work out you just about had to throw you set up book away and we pretty much got a handle on all that we're in a good positive mode you know after winning the other week at Phoenix and you know putting this out a good run here today get all our stuff ready be ready for Daytona 1990. I know your mother's not feeling well what's what's the circumstance? Well she's still in intensive care they're talking like she may be there for another two to three weeks I'm hoping it'll be sooner that she can get out of there she's still kind of in a coma state you know she'll respond to some things but she's in pretty bad shape but you know all her prayers are with us and we're trying to think positive as we can about it and just hope that she can come out with this thing very well because we need her back at home. I'll tell you there's a whole new bill Elliott sitting here in the car I'll tell you that he's nice and relaxed and ready to go racing I think everybody getting buckled up in the cars and as we pointed out we came on the air today will be the last time that many of these drivers they'll be changing teams at the end of the year and some of them been together a couple of years and some of them have been together even longer. It's very emotional thing for a driver who's been with a race team for two three years these develop friendships with these people with their wives their children and spent what about 35 to 40 weeks of the year with these people traveling all over the country and to see that relationship come with an end it's always a very emotional thing one of those drivers who will go through that experience this afternoon is Terri Labati parting company with the junior Johnson team after today to go to drive for and as yet to be announced ride for next year let's get Terri's thoughts now. Terri we were just talking about the emotions going into the last race of the year for those of you that are changing teams this is your last race with junior Johnson what are your thoughts going into today's race? Well you know I just would like to win the race today would love to have a good run here it's been a good three years for us and you know that's that's a bit like I can say I guess Atlanta is often considered a Ford track do you think it's appropriately labeled that way? Well our car runs off we're good here I know the Fords have run good here in the past I don't know it's a racetrack where I think everything's about even on I don't know if it's a Ford track or not really. Terri Labati after three years and four victories will step out of the Budweiser Ford Thunderbird after today's race. On a gentleman who starts in eighth position he had an engine problem and had to switch engines the last minute before the first qualifying session came up he won the spring race here the Motorcraft 500 when we were here in March of last of this year Darryl Walter and this has been a good racetrack for him over the years let's get his thoughts on what he's looking for today Jim Phillips. Well we talked about in settings for today's race the Winston Cup championship a lot of things on the line but Darryl Walter passed something going for him today and a lot of drivers would like to have going he's won six races if you win today make seven you won one to anybody all year. Yeah it's been a real good year for the Tide team and I'm just so proud of my guys they worked really hard this year and they made made themselves look good they made me look good and I just couldn't ask for anything any better and I want to tell you guys on MRN I know it's the last race this year but you guys do a great job it tells me something when people tell me they watch the TV and listen to the radio that tells me something so y'all do a great job and I'm proud of y'all too. I appreciate that and I wanted to talk about this racetrack to you in the spring you came in here your guys did it to you again they put you out front and then you went on one it's been a good racetrack for you. It really has and the thing is kind of interesting it's all year long we've had great pit stops at times I get the guys messed up making them work on the race car and it slows us down a little bit but we won Martin'sville because we were in and out quick we won here in and out quick and they won the pit crew championship because they're in and out quick this the best crew in racing and they sure make my job a lot easier at times and it's just a great marriage all of us guys working together they were like a big family with Jeff and everybody that's been with me so long and I'm just I can't wait for 1990 dad gone and I let the championship get away from me this year but we'll be so much better in 1990 and it just seems like I just keep getting a little bit better myself so I think I'm really looking forward to next year that's Darryl Walter he's pumped up for this race today let's take a look at the 42 car lineup in today's Atlanta Journal 500 40 second position is a provisional starting spot for Dave Marcus of was our Wisconsin life boy Chevrolet Phil Parsons of Detroit Michigan is in the field in 41st also on a provisional starting spot in the crown Skoll Oles Mobile 40th is Richie Bickle of Edgerton Wisconsin and the Alka Selser sponsored racing Buick 39th Jack Pennington of Augusta Georgia he'll be in the Springsteen's properties Oles Mobile 38th Grand Adcocks of Chattanooga Tennessee the Herb Adcocks Chevrolet Racing Oles Mobile the Hardest Pontiac of Dale Jarrett starts 37th Dale's from Hickory North Carolina 36th Jim Sauter to see the Wisconsin in the group 44 incorporated racing Pontiac and 35th Richard Petty of random North Carolina the STP Pontiac there's been a lot of stories going around about Richard this week let's get his thoughts Richard I guess if anybody knows anything about winning championships you've got to be the one that knows it you've done more than anybody else or considerably more than anybody's probably going to today's a little bit different day but is the hype any different it used to be well really it's a whole lot different and you got to figure we've got three people running for it today and you know them boys are going to have to look at it that you know Rusty's got it won and he can lose it and so you know the other two boys is gonna go all out you know they got to try to win the race hope something happens to Rusty so it'll be real interesting I'd like to be in there with them you know be involved in that situation you all set for the next hundred years well I hope so everything's looking pretty good right now and you know we go home stir it up again get ready for next year all right well good luck to you I think he's a he's a happy race driver from fueling NASCAR champions on the track for over 20 years to innovating 94 octane the highest octane on the market performance is what Sonoco does all Sonoco fuel at the pump meets the same top tier standards as the fuel used in NASCAR from the track to your tank you can trust Sonoco to help your vehicle perform at its peak got a lot of plans for next year we'll talk about them as the afternoon goes on 34 spot Larry Pearson Spartanburg South Carolina the Chattanooga chew racing Buick 33rd Ricky Rudd of Chesapeake Virginia the Quaker State Racing Buick 32nd is Rodney Combs of Lost Creek West Virginia the Evan Rood Outboard Motors Racing Pontiac and in 31st spot a former winner here in Atlanta AJ Foyt Jr. of Houston Texas and the Copenhagen Oldsmobile starting 30th this afternoon Michael Waltrip of Owensboro Kentucky in the Countrytime Potty Act 29th Bobby Hill and Jr. from Midland Texas in the Miller High Life Buick 28th starter another driver making his last ride in the Kodak film Oldsmobile Rick Wilson of Bartow Florida let's get his thoughts with Winston Kelly Rick been with the Morgan McClure Racing team quite some time your feelings going into this last race with them hey I've been with them four years you know it's kind of a you know almost a feeling like you're leaving home for the first time forever I tell you these guys have been good to me I've been with them four years like I said and I've had a real good learning experience and that we've come up a long ways and I just wish them all the best strapped into the Kodak Oldsmobile for the last time Rick Wilson goes off 28th this afternoon continuing our look at the starting lineup 27th Ken Reagan of Unidilla Georgia the Jasper engines for it Neil Bonnet starts 26th in the sit goal for it 25th will be Mickey Gibbs of Glenco Alabama the Gibbs West tractor Ford the 24th starter Morgan Shepherd from Connerburn North Carolina the Valvoline Pontiac 23rd Ernie Irvin of Modesto California the Kroger Pontiac Lake Speed is 22nd in the Bullseye Oldsmobile and Harry Gatt goes 21st in the Foodline Skoll Oldsmobile 20th on the field is Mark Martin of Batesville, Arkansas he's in the Strollite Racing Ford Jimmy Spencer of Berwick Pennsylvania has a Crisco Pontiac in 19th position 18th starter is Davey Allison of Huey Town Alabama and the Texaco Havill and Racing Ford 17th Rick Mast of Charlottesville Virginia the Wind Dixie Chevrolet 16th starter Kyle Petty high point North Carolina the Peak Racing Pontiac 15th is Rob Moroso a Madison Connecticut in the Swisher Suites Preston Oldsmobile and 14th starting spot Brett Monard of Shamong New York in the Motorcraft Ford 13th is Bill Elliott of Dawsonville Georgia and the Coors Melling Ford Thunderbird 12th starter Greg Sacks of Matatuck New York in the Dinner Bell Foods Pontiac and starting 11th is Hutt Strickland of Kalira Alabama in the Hines Racing Pontiac the top 10 Derek cope of Spanaway Washington in the Puralator Pontiac goes 10th 9th Dick Trickle of Wisconsin Rapids Wisconsin the Miller High Life Buick Darryl Waltship starts 8th from Franklin, Tennessee in the Tide Chevrolet Jeff Bodine goes from the 7th spot in the Lehigh Garrett Chevrolet 6th will be Sterling Marlin of Columbia, Tennessee in the Sonoco Oldsmobile Terri Labadi goes 5th from Corpus Christi, Texas in the Budweiser Ford 4th is Rusty Wallace with a million dollar championship on the line in the Kodiak Pontiac Rusty from St. Louis, Missouri Dale Earnhardt goes 3rd in the GM Good Ranch Chevrolet from Morrisville, North Carolina and the front row Ken Schrader from Fenton, Missouri in the Folger Chevrolet on the outside and the pole sitter Alan Coolicki in the 0x forward from Greenfield, Wisconsin 179.112 miles per hour his qualifying speed as they come out of turn number four this crowd capacity crowd if you just joined a broadcast every seat in the house has been sold since yesterday in the Atlanta area in the infield has the biggest crowd in it I have ever seen and I guess I've seen every race I've ever had here in Atlanta the pit boards come up to the cars as they come by the start finish line to give the guys an indication of what to look for when they make that first pit stop a little bit later this afternoon 328 laps in the event here in the Atlanta Journal 500 it's a difficult racetrack very difficult it is one of the best on the circuit third fastest racetrack that we run let's take a swing around it right now to cover the action down in the east end of the speedway that's where turns one and two lie here at Atlanta from WPEX radio up in Hampton, Virginia Joe Moore thank you Barney and good afternoon everyone from turn two at Atlanta as you call it Barney it's a little bit of a chilly side here today with a nice little breeze flowing but I know it's going to be getting hot out here if yesterday's race was getting indication it was a 500k race for the Arca series yesterday and out of 15 cautions in that race at least 12 of them occurred right here in turn two the reason for that is that turns one and two are not exactly like turns three and four here in Atlanta the driver has to actually turn the car twice once going into the corner setting the car for the turn and coming off all of a sudden he realizes he's got to set the car again if he's out of the main groove here the groove he's used to running here in Atlanta at the end of the speedway and he can be in trouble in a hurry we saw a lot of that yesterday and we'll be following all that action here in turns one and two and on this back stretch today as the cars come off of turn number two they make a fairly quick sprint down the back straightaway where they meet the banking of turns three and four is joining our MRN broadcast crew today covering that part of the speedway from more West Virginia's David Hyatt thank you Alton good afternoon everyone turns three and four are unlike one and two as they are long very sweeping and smooth turns with about twice the length of either straightaway the 24 degree banking stacks five racing lanes between the track apron and the outside retaining wall but the groove or the quickest way around these two turns is about midway up the banking late in the race these two this turn becomes a very critical spot on the track as the drivers are heading straight into the setting sun making it all but impossible to see the traffic ahead I'll pick up the action midway down the back straightaway and cover it through turn three and midway through the fourth turn I don't think it'll be any shortage of action in either end of this racetrack here this afternoon because there is so much on the line not just for the Wistekup championship there are tight battles back for seventh eighth and ninth in the Wistekup point standings an awful lot of money up for grabs there as we'll get into detail one car has come on to pit road and the hood has gone up here as they're making that final lap to get ready to go green here heading down the back straightaway that is Ken Reagan of Unadila Georgia the hood is up and they're taking a look at it little puff of smoke coming out from under but he should be able if they can find the problem to join the tail end of the field and we also have another car that has moved to the tail end of the field Island Besterick yesterday in practice Sterling Marlin had an accident going into one of the corners the team was forced to go to the backup car he had a fine six place qualifying run he's had to drop back to the tail end of the field to start because they had to go to the backup car that happened to him in the spring race here in Atlanta in March so twice this year Sterling has looked to have a good run and been burned by a practice accident he'll start from the back of the pack today field now moving through turns three and four past the jam-packed infield full of campers and trucks and cars people all waving their hats and caps to the field now as they come by under caution the caution will remain out they had been scheduled to go green this time by but that problem with the Ken Reagan car was reported to be in oil leak so they want to take one last quick look at the racetrack before they let them go so we've got one more lap before we go green Ken Reagan's car went back onto the racetrack made about three quarters of a lap slowed dramatically going into turn number three came down on the apron of the track and has now come to rest down on the grass short of pit road so they will not go green they'll make at least one more lap around to get the safety equipment out there and move him back to pit road been an interesting race weekend here at land of the track opened on Thursday the arca cars came in to qualify they had their season deciding race yesterday we'll cover that in the armor scoreboard a little bit later on today several cars attempted to qualify for today's Atlanta journal 500 then did not make the field among those the Tracy Leslie the defending arca champion taking a shot at Winston Cup racing he failed to qualify this weekend Eddie Beerswell Jimmy means Bill Meacham Norm Benning J.D. McDuppy Gerry O'Neill and Patty Moise all came here to Atlanta hoping to make this race all did not qualify and had to load up and go home yesterday afternoon well most of the drivers are a little bit uptight and they will be until they cut them loose here under green and after they get a lap or two under the belt they'll get down to business as usual the mood on pit road may be a little bit different let's Jim Phillips will be patrolling down toward turns one and two and that's where most of the top three for the Winston Cup championship on this afternoon Jim what's the mood down there well we've got Carl and Raymond Beedle here Raymond what's the boot of your guys right now as we start this race well everybody's a good mood I mean everybody's a little tense you'd be lying if you said they weren't but you know we're gonna run this just like another race and we're gonna try to run up front you know today we're still trying to stay in the top five and then at the very end if we got a shot go for the win that's Raymond Beedle Carl and for Rusty Wallace lights are out atop the fourth Thunderbird safety car up in turns three and four field lined up now 41 cars behind the safety car again moving through the corner with the lights out and they'll duck the safety car with Elmo Langley behind the wheel down onto pit road as the field moves off of turn number four and a crowd of some 80,000 people rises to their feet it's million dollar day here at the Atlanta International Raceway we're ready for the start of the Atlanta Journal 500 and now the lights come back on atop the safety car again they were not able to get hooked up to Ken Reagan's car and get him out of the bottom of that racetrack up there which is a very critical part of the Atlanta Raceway so they will make at least one more lap they're apparently having some problem getting his car hitched up and moving it onto pit road. This is Winston Kelly down in the pit area I've been talking with the crew of Kenny Reagan's car and they said the brakes have locked up on that car and that's why they're having trouble getting it hooked up and pulled out of turn three. MRN radio coming to you from the Atlanta International Raceway this afternoon where we're getting ready for the Atlanta Journal 500 the final race of the 1989 Winston Cup season in fact the final race of what's been quite a decade in Winston Cup racing the 1980s we'll talk about that a little bit later on today take a look back at some of the events of the 80s that have shaped Winston Cup racing over the last 10 years but for this afternoon the story is the Winston Cup championship again if you're just joining us Rusty Wallace Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt all with a mathematical possibility of winning the championship today Wallace remaining 78 points ahead of Martin 79 points ahead of Earnhardt if Wallace finishes in 18th position or better in this afternoon's race no matter what the other two drivers do he will win the Winston Cup championship his first but finishing 18th or better is far from a given Barney Wallace's record at the last two Winston Cup races here in Atlanta he has won one that being a year ago earlier this season in the motorcraft 500 he had a mechanical problem and dropped out about halfway through the race finished in the 31st position so it's anybody's guess is that what's going to happen here today he likes this racetrack he's done well on it and as we said when he first came on the air he told a lot of the reporters and anybody that wanted to listen that if he could have settled the championship on any racetrack anywhere in the country he would just as soon do it right here in Atlanta Harold Elliott is the chief engine builder on the car and one of the most talented in the business and a lot of folks wonder what will they do special here in Atlanta and I asked Harold yesterday can you bullet proof that engine so to speak to make sure detune it down a little bit or whatever to make sure it runs all day what will you do well not not anything really barn we just we trying not to overlook anything but we're trying not to double check or triple check or check stuff too much you get to the habit of of seeing one particular thing you tend to check and double check and sometimes you you know you might tend to leave something loose where you don't want to wouldn't uh the answer we're gonna run today in a day's race is the same engine we ran that we won all our races last year with and it's kind of what we I guess might say adopted has been our special good luck motor and we hadn't had any problems with it all year in fact we won four races with it this year so we decided to bring here today is you know it this particular one thick engine as it sounds we got 12 on the truck but this one thick engine got us here so we're going to stick with today and and hope nothing happens to it thoughts of Harold Elliott the engine builder on the car now the lights will go out atop the safety car here at Atlanta and it looks like we're all set to go racing when they come off turn number four this time feel just going out of turn number two heading up the middle of the back shoot and you know those nerves when you have to sit and ride like this and kind of hoping that green flag would come out on schedule kind of tighten them up just a little bit more tough enough waiting for the green flag to fall after there's been this big buildup in the two weeks since Phoenix then to have to run an extra seven or eight laps under caution while you're ready for the start I mean they were ready for the start and then the caution came back on as they were coming down for it so that adrenaline rush must be something very difficult to handle on the nerves of all three of those drivers they have taken Ken Reagan's car to the garage area the hood is up and they're continuing to work on it and whether he'll be able to get back in this race as the afternoon goes by I'm not sure but at any rate they have moved the car out of turn number four there's more to imagine when you listen select your imagination soar with audible audible has audio titles from every genre that will inspire you to imagine new worlds possibilities and ways of thinking as an audible member you get to choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog enjoy an exciting reawakening of a beloved classic with the audible original David Copperfield by Charles Dickens produced by academy award-winning director Sam Mendez starring Shudi Gatwa hell in a bottom Carter and Theo James this adaptation breathes new life into a familiar tale new members can try audible free for 30 days visit audible.com/imagine or text imagine to 500 500 that's audible.com/imagine or text imagine to 500 500. Here's the pace car coming off turn number four and going in behind the pit wall and this throng of 80 000 plus are on their feet ready to see the wisticcup drivers do their thing green flag is out in the Atlanta journal 500 is under way they take it to turn one good battle for the lead nobody's lifting as they hit the corner. Alan kiwicki looked to be jumping out in front coming into the corner but now here comes Earnhardt he shoots right down to the bottom of the racetrack passes kiwicki now battles with penny shredder on the back straightaway still side by side Earnhardt comes down beside Schrader they're going into the third turn side by side a little paint swapped and Earnhardt takes the advantage as they head to turn three forcing Schrader up to the high side of the racetrack. Schrader's going to try it back on the outside though as they come off turn four to complete lap number one 328 make up the distance at the line Schrader back in the lead Earnhardt fights back on the inside they touch as they head to one. Boy Earnhardt's got the power coming into the corner he jumps down to the inside of the racetrack bypasses Kenny Schrader Dale Earnhardt the leader Schrader is second Terry the Bonnie third Alan kiwicki fourth and fifth now is Darrell Wolter trying to hold on to that lead. Dale Earnhardt takes to the high side of the racetrack. Kenny Schrader takes a look down inside nothing doing he falls back in single file. Rusty Wallace has dropped back to seventh position he got caught up in a little tight traffic there cut himself a little slack and now has fallen back to seventh. Earnhardt is a leader by three carlink single file among the front four the battle be for fifth position in turn one. Jeff Bodine's there on the inside of the racetrack he'll lose that one battle with Darrell Wolter if he gets by now he battles with Rusty Wallace. Wallace too will bypass Jeff Bodine now Derek Koch comes up on the outside of Bodine. Derek Koch and Bodine side by side. Koch will have the advantage going into the third turn one more car trying to get around that will be the Greg Saxon will be able to side off Jeff Bodine as they head for the fourth turn. A little further up in the pack the battle now shapes up for the fourth position. Alan kiwicki jumps to the outside if Terry Labadi is they come off of turn number four at the line kiwicki will pick up the fourth spot the body drops back into fifth. Single file now Earnhardt up front by four carlink's ahead of Kenny Schrader he by four carlinks over the third place car of Alan kiwicki then the fourth of Terry Labadi single file the back stretch. Behind Terry Labadi comes Darrell Wolter if his followed by Rusty Wallace then it's a side-by-side battle between Derek Koch and Mark Martin has picked up at least five positions since they started this race he started 20th he is now up into 15th place. Earnhardt continues to pull away from Kenny Schrader by half a straightaway almost now well let's not make it that much but let's make it at least 15 carlinks he is really turning it off they're over in turn two. It's not working when you get down on the inside of the racetrack it hasn't worked for many people anyway. Jeff Bodine lost about seven positions Greg Sacks tried the same move here in turn two he went down low and lost two positions. Sacks again will pull down to the inside of Derek Koch they'll side by side through the third turn and Sacks gets the advantage coming out of three and into turn four. That's the battle for eight. Koch falls back to ninth he may lose that spot to Jeff Bodine. Bodine goes underneath of Koch in the fourth turn down the front straightaway though. Koch gets the potty act wound up. He'll hold the spot for a moment as they fall back in line single file to turn one. Earnhardt leads the way again. He's got about an eight car length lead over the second place car of Kenny Schrader now about five car links back to the Allen Kawiki car all in single file the man on the move. Darryl Waltrip he peeked down on the inside but quickly falls back in line. Darryl Waltrip holding on to the fifth spot right now he's looking at the rear deck lead of Terry Lavani as they keep it midway on the banking through turn three and four. Some of the best racing is going on from 16th position on back. Bill Elliott's locked up in a tight door to door battle or was that'll change a little bit as they come out of the corner. He's just moved around Jimmy Spencer's automobile. Also in that group of cars is Rick Wilson and Rob Moroso. The pack is back in turn two. In that same pack of cars Michael Waltrip he just got shuffled out of position and lost about five spots. Now he'll go to work once again. Michael Waltrip dives down on the inside of Lake Speed goes to race side by side off turn number two while the leader goes to turn three. Michael Waltrip has to fall back in single file behind Lake Speed and now trying to get around Michael Waltrip is on the urban as he looks to the inside in turn four. Mark Martin has picked up six positions in the seven laps we've been racing here in Atlanta started 20th now running in the 14th spot. He's racing in the group of cars and moved back off towards turn number one. They'll go single file back into the corner. One battle for the tenth position though is between Bobby Hill and Jr. and Brent Modine. They'll go side by side off the corner. Darryl coat right ahead of them. Now they go back into single file. Meanwhile back up front Earnhardt continues to pull away from Ken's raider. He brings it off the fourth turn. Tell you what I got a feeling that you may see the best performance out of Dale Earnhardt's team and Earnhardt as a driver here today that we have seen all sees along. He feels like he has a lot to prove he's been a little bit frustrated in the last four or five races having watched the Winston Cup championship literally slip through his fingers. What it looked like he might be a shoe in for it but starting at Charlotte they had the problems and we see a little smoke coming out of one car. It appears to be Phil Parsons automobile as he came across the start finish line is heading over to turn two and he is slowing down. He's off the pace Barney dropped down to the inside of the racetrack. The smoke is boiling out not a whole lot. Just a little puff coming out from the bottom of the race car. Everyone is going by and Parsons has dropped down to the run-all favorite of the speedway. That's Phil's backup car. He crashed in practice here on Friday pulled out the backup car qualified it yesterday and second round qualifying actually no did not make the field. He took a provisional starting spot. Excuse me on that. Phil started the 41st position this afternoon obviously everything not right with that automobile. He brings the car down towards pit road moving slowly through turns three and four. We're nine laps into the Atlanta Journal 500 this afternoon. Dale Earnhardt has opened up a 1.2 second lead now over second place Ken Schrader. Alan Coolicki running in third on the racetrack at the moment. Terry the body is fourth points leader Rusty Wallace is fifth. We're under caution here at Atlanta it comes out on lap number 11 a problem over in turn number three. Rodney Coats came in to the third turn kicked the rear end of the car up just a little bit started sliding sideways took it right up against the outside retaining wall and went around a couple of times then came back down across the track over in turn four and left the string of liquid right on down to the track apron along the lower two grooves of the racetrack a lot of smoke still boiling from the side of that car. He hit the wall with the car didn't hit all that hard doesn't appear he's brought it on the pit road and now we'll go behind the pit wall but there's quite a bit of damage to the rear end of that machine. We are under yellow for the first time here this afternoon. Let's go to Winston Kelly. We're in the garage area Phil Parsons has pulled the crowns call osmobile into the garage area the crew's still working on it. Phil what seems to be the problem. I'm not sure Winston something happened to the engine. I just you know forgetting about today I just like to thank all these guys and all my sponsors it's been a tremendous relationship and it's coming to an end of the day I didn't want it to end this way and they didn't either but you know they've been working hard all year and and have ever since I've been driving the car and we just didn't have as good a year this year as we'd hoped to have but I just want to thank Richard and Claude and Gary and all the guys have been so good to me they're like family in u.s. tobacco and crown and Detroit gasket nosemobile they're all like family and I guess today's the last day but I'm sure we'll still remain friends because we're very close and like I said just like family. Well at this time it's uncertain if Phil Parsons is out of the race this afternoon and as he said he'll be moving on to another team in 1990. So three cars have now gone behind the wall Ken Reagan was the first to drop out Phil Parsons out and Rodney Combs has taken his car to the garage area we're under yellow we're seeing some pit stops now early in the race here let's go down to Dick Brooks. Well Neil Bonnet's sitting on pit road right now they were back in the field just a little bit they put some weight in the left side tire which means that they screwed the the weight jacks down on it that's putting more pressure on the left side they took some off the right side about two turns a piece so that's a lot of change in the weight on the car so the car in Atlanta starts off loose it generally stays loose all day it's hard to tighten one up and that's good indication that it's loose. Ricky Rudd come in and they change tires on his car and send him back out on the racetrack as AJ Floyd come in they gassed him up and sent him off and they've got the kicking hips and the fits right now and they change tires on his car and dropped him down as you heard him go by. And Dave Marcus also made a short stop and has gone back onto the racetrack. The Atlanta Journal 500 deciding the 1989 Winston Cup championship MRN radio bringing you live coverage this afternoon from the Atlanta international raceway sellout crowd on hand three drivers with a chance to win the million dollar purse when we get to New York in a couple of weeks down the road we're under the first caution of the day came out just a couple of laps ago when Rodney Colmes spun up in turn number three Winston Kelly is with him. We are Rodney as crawled out of his Pontiac Rodney what happened? Well it looks like we'd broken all line up on the dry sump pump there and you know it dumped all everywhere you know in front everybody but unfortunately you know didn't take nobody else out and we was running off a well with the Evan rude car and all the crew did a good job and I'll tell you what we could run with the front guys right there in the pack Ricky Rudd none of them could pass it's Neil Bonnet we went by so he was going forward and looking for our best run so we just want to say hi to everybody and we're okay. Rodney Colmes the second car to go out this afternoon and they're still working on Ken Reagan's car in regards area. We're back under green Earnhardt is a leader right behind him Kenny Schrader they take it back to turn number one single file restart it won't stay that way very long. Alec Coolicki has the third spot fourth to rusty Wallace fifth is the ongoing battle between Daryl Waltrip and Jeff Bodine they'll race still door handle the door handle off turn two those two cars still side by side down the back straightaway wall trip stays to the inside Bodine keeps it high. Davey Allison now hooks up with Jeff Bodine and he gets around Daryl Waltrip rubbing in back two positions and now the 48 car off turn number four now Bodine slips up high in turn four Davey Allison and Daryl Waltrip will both come back underneath Jeff so the running order Dale Earnhardt leading the field back off to turn one. Still watching Jeff Bodine having a hard time negotiating his way around the outside of the racetrack he lost a spot there and now is in danger of doing it again this time Bodine puts it right down to the bottom of the racetrack hangs on a little better here he's got a ninth position as they get the back stretch. Bodine holds the line but right behind him the battle is going on between Daryl Waltrip and the Greg Sachs automobile Waltrip to the inside Sachs keeps it high and gets the advantage off the fourth turn. Bobby Hillin came on to pit road and apparently overshot his pits and will go back around the racetrack to lose a little more time on an unscheduled pit stop. Earnhardt is a leader and again as soon as they drop the green flag within three laps he has opened up at least a second or better on Kenny Schrader. Behind him in third position now rides Alan Kawiki it's a couple of seconds back to Terry Labani the battle will be for fifth position heading for turn three. Side by side Davey Allison and Rusty Wallace head in to turn three. Allison is down on the bottom of the racetrack Wallace keeps it just a little higher than Allison does pulls it out single-file into the fourth turn. Allison is trying to get the fifth spot from Rusty Wallace as they move off of turn number four drops back in behind Wallace for the moment. Jeff Bodine running behind Allison then Greg Sachs and Daryl Waltrip single-file back to one. Behind Walter the Derrick Coke car next comes Brett Bodine all these cars in single-file and it's a Kyle Petty machine. Here's Brett Bodine dropping to the inside of Derrick Coke trying to make a bit of drama and that spot but he quickly falls back into single-file. Meanwhile back up in the front Earnhardt continues to stretch his advantage out over Kent Schrader but gaining on Schrader is the Alan Kawiki's direct Lunderburg. Rusty Wallace said all week long and for the last three or four weeks if it came down to a situation for him running for the national title here that he would hang it out go for the lead and smoke the tires and all that sort of jazz. Well every driver in here said if you do that you're kind of crazy you'll be a million-dollar fool as the way they put it if you lose the championship doing that. Wallace is giving himself plenty of room this afternoon he's made no effort to get to the front of the pack and I'm sure that car is very capable. Right now he rides along in fifth position right behind him is Davey Allison directly ahead of him will be Terry Labani. The front three have opened up quite a bit of daylight on that pack of traffic. Mark Barton now has moved up from his 20th starting spot to the 13th position so Barton after a very poor qualifying run by his standards. He was one of the favorites to win the poll shipping him off one by one. He's working on Kyle Petty for the 12th spot back in turn one. They'll go back into single-file a battle we're watching in between Rusty Wallace and Davey Allison. They raced side by side for a couple of laps finally rusted let him go. Now Rusty looks like they'll let another car go. Jeff Bodine goes to the inside of him. They're battling in turn three. Wallace pulls it out of the hat and keeps the lead over Jeff Bodine as they hit for turn four and now Greg Sax is pulled up to the outside of Jeff Bodine. The best racing is going on for about fifth position on back. The front three or four have an awful lot of daylight between those positions but from fifth place on back it has been a hornet's nest since they put them under green here this afternoon. Bobby Hillin made that stop and go a moment ago. It cost him a lap. He has gone one lap down. They're out of turn number two and heading for three. Dale Earnhardt brings it in to turn three slightly higher than every other car is running on this racetrack but he drops it down almost to the bottom in turn three and continues to stretch that lead over kid's trainer. Front six running single-file now the battle is back in the seventh position. Jeff Bodine swings to the inside of Greg Sax. He'll pick up the seventh spot off of turn number four. Sax falls back to eighth. Dara Waltrip will challenge Sax for eighth now. Waltrip pulls the Chevrolet to the inside of Sax's. They head back for the turn. Sax has got the horsepower in that machine though he pulls out in front of Dara Waltrip going into turn number one. Now he's a bit higher on the racetrack not able to hang on quite as good as Waltrip. So Waltrip gets the advantage coming off turn two. Gets a good bite tries to go underneath but on the back stretch Waltrip has to fall back in behind. He can't seem to do it. He tucks back in nose to tail and Greg Sax will lead Waltrip to turn three and four. Dale Earnhardt leads the Atlanta Journal 500 MRN Radio bringing you live coverage of this final event of the 1989 Winston Cup season. Earnhardt right now with almost a three-second lead over Ken Schrader, Alan Kawicki's running third. Davey Allison has come from an 18th starting spot up to the fourth spot. Terry the body at the moment is running fifth. We've completed 27 about to complete 28 of the 328 laps that make up this afternoon's race. Tell you how fast Dale Earnhardt's getting around his racetrack. We told you a moment ago his lead was two and one tenth second. Four laps later his lead is three and seven tenths of a second. That's just how quick he is getting around here and Joe Moore as he passes underneath you he's got it in the wind. You know from the very beginning of the race party on the very initial start of the event here today he dove down to the inside of the racetrack and passed three cars and he's been like that ever since coming into the corner he drives in deeper than anybody else. He just takes a nice smooth move coming through turns one and two hits his back straight away he's gone and he's picking up a couple of tenths and looks like about every lap. Another car that's probably one of the quickest on the speedway right now will be Davey Allison. He is flying he is slicing his way up through traffic. He's the only car that appears to be making up any ground at all on Dale Earnhardt as he heads back over to turn two. Allison is running in the third position now. Allen Galicki is looking up on his draft here and is trying to track down with Davey Allison. Head back for the front of the pack. One car off the pace. Terry Labadi here in turn number two he just dove to the inside of the racetrack. Well off the pace there's some smoke coming out of the Budweiser four does he heads with three. Tough break Terry Labadi started in the fifth position was looking to wind up his stint with the junior Johnson team on a high note the car now running down at the bottom of the racetrack through turns three and four. Let's check with his pit see if they have any word on what's happened to the Budweiser four. Now we're headed down that way but as of right now he hasn't came in here yet we're standing out on a wall but we'll have something in a minute. Well they're all in a huddle so to speak and there's some of them are looking at the racetrack and some are talking among themselves as Terry Labadi comes off the banking in turn number four down on the apron of the racetrack. Let's see if he makes the turn into the garage or goes to his pits it looks like he's going to turn it into the garage. He will he'll make that hard left turn and Terry Labadi is out of the Atlanta Journal 500 early this afternoon. He goes out on lap number 31. Barney they said the thing broke so they're going to take it to the garage. Well the engine failure for Terry Labadi will not end the season like he would like to see it in his last ride in the junior Johnson Budweiser four. 31 laps are complete here at Atlanta this afternoon if you joined us late on the broadcast the championship battle obviously will be decided here this afternoon for the wisdom cup championship price tag for that winning that one million dollars. Rusty Wallace has only to finish 18th or better regardless of what Martin or Dale Earnhardt do and he will collect the money. Right now he is riding along back there in about fifth position let's make that fourth as they wind around this racetrack and Wallace has not put himself in any kind of jeopardy all afternoon. He had hyped it up a little bit for the last few weeks that he planned to kind of run at the front of the pack and win this race and he may well yet do it but right now he's doing exactly what he needs to do he's staying up in that top five or six cutting himself all the slack he needs to not putting the car in any compromising position to get it slammed into the wall and ruin his chances to win the championship right now working on him as he comes out of turn number four Greg Sacks has been running very strong he's dropped back a little bit now he's got it wound up pretty good again he rides right behind Rusty Wallace and Kyle Petty's having a good run here this afternoon they're all heading for turn two. Rusty Wallace has that seventh position Greg Sacks has the eighth spot he looks to the outside of Rusty Wallace coming into turn number two sees there's nothing there and quickly gets back in line Kyle Petty also right up on the back bumper Greg Sacks at three some heads for turn three. Another battle we're looking at is Allen Felicki as he keeps it right in front on Jeff Bodine Bodine takes a look to the inside but nothing doing there he has to fall back single-file. We told you just a moment ago Terry Lebani brought the boat wiser forward into the garage area let's check with Winston Kelly down that way. We have caught up with Terry Lebani Terry not the way you wanted to end this association with Junior Johnson what happened. I don't know you might ask Junior I don't know if something broken the motor. So you do think it's out for the day? I know it's out for the day it just started locking up and then it just just quit and something broke inside. I think it broke her camps after something I'm not sure. Allen you know we've given a lot of attention to the Winston Cup championship this could be a very costly situation for Junior Johnson's team they were running in seventh position with a 28-point advantage over Harry Gantt they also had a six another 16 points over Ricky Rudd he was back 44 points the difference in the payoff from seventh to eight is $20,000 and another difference of $12,000 back tonight so that could be a $32,000 part that broke on the Budweiser forward. Could be an expensive day for them and that's the problem that a lot of teams have here this afternoon as we pointed out there are several very tight point battles not just for the Winston Cup championship but for seventh eighth and ninth and even all the way back through the top 20. Good racing going on on the Speedway right now between Jeff Bodine, Darryl Walter and Allen Kalicki they got door-to-door going on there just a moment ago that would have been for fourth position as they get locked real tight together working back over to Joe Moore. Nice dicing going on by Jeff Bodine on that last lap he dove down to the inside of Darryl Walter because they were passing one of the lap cars this time it'll be pretty much single-file Bodine has that fourth position Darryl Walter is right behind him in fifth and Allen Kalicki has six they're in single-file. The battle is back up with Jeff Bodine and Darryl Walter knows to tell us they had to turn three. Walter takes a look inside Jeff Bodine as they come to four. That's the battle again for the fourth position on back. Jeff Bodine running in fourth Darryl Walter is fifth then comes pole-sitter Allen Kalicki in sixth. Rusty Wallace in seventh. Kyle Petty is eighth. Greg Sacks his ninth. Dick Trickel with a good run going right now in the tenth spot. Brett Bodine is 11th. Bill Elliott is 12th and then Mark Martin running in the 13th spot now all this with 37 laps complete of the 328 in today's Atlanta Journal 500. Derek Kope on pit road just a moment ago. Derek had qualified in the top 10 was running in the top 10 until he made an unscheduled pit stop. Let's get a report there from Dick Brooks. Well I haven't seen exactly what happened yet I'll be there just a minute. Another car we're slowing down a little smoke out of Mickey Gibbs's machine as he came off turn number two up there just a moment ago. The smoke started now he takes it down on the apron of the racetrack down in turns one and two again and likely he'll be heading for the garage here in just a moment. Only four cars are now being posted out. Kenny Reagan went out first never did even take the green flag brakes locked up on that car. Phil Parsons went out of the race early this afternoon so did Rodney Combs and the latest retiree would be Terry LaVani. 39 laps are complete here in the Atlanta this afternoon. Again Rusty Wallace riding along back there just kind of biting his time seems to be in no hurry to get up to the front of the pack and Jim Phillips who's been down there in his pits in that vicinity most of the afternoon. Jim I'm sure there's no concern at all right now. We're just watching the race telling Russ to his times I'm sure Barry Dotsett is telling him to be careful. They also are very conscious of the cars on the racetrack when they don't move over for the leaders to go by. They step over to the NASCAR official and tell them one point earlier before the race started I asked Todd Paradis and how many sets of tires do you have laid out for this particular race? He said 12. They're conscious of everything today even being unlucky or the unlucky number 13 but they aren't conscious of everything going on. They have this race the way they want it right now as he's running back in a good pack of cars. Despite what Rusty has told most of the media and anybody that wanted to talk to him about how he'd run for the championship in his final race of the year he said yesterday just plain and simple the bottom line is the race itself the flow of the race what everybody else is doing will kind of dictate what he does. Well I mean what the race is going to dictate itself the race is going to dictate what I have to do and I'm going to try to win this race and I'm going to try to run up front but I'm going to be very cautious around all the circumstances I'm getting into when it comes to shifting on restarts I'll be careful with that getting stopped in the pits blending into traffic leaving the pit area all the type of stuff and when it comes to passing lap cars I give them a lot of room and I'll just be careful when it comes to things like that. That's the thoughts of Rusty Wallace. You know we talked about Dale Earnhardt he has opened up now a half a straightaway lead on second place Ken Schrader in third place Davey Allison. Dale said a little bit earlier in the week that he could come out here and try and force the issue on Sunday. Well we're going out and try to you know force the issue but there's not much you can do to just win the race you know that's all we're here for is coming in and we've tested real well down here we've got a shot at the pole I feel like and we feel like we can go out and win the race we've done it here before our car runs good here and you know the only chance we've got is Rusty has trouble and I don't wish bad luck on anyone so you know it'll probably come down to Rusty and Mark and I racing the win and hopefully one of us will win but hopefully we win but you know I don't wish and I can't we'll hope you know for any bad luck on Rusty's part because he's done so well in the last several races in the last couple years and been so consistent in running so we're gonna have to race him hard and just try to win this race and if I can laugh to feel that's what we're gonna do you know. He sure seems to be on his way to doing that right now he really is on his way to lapping the field he's getting around here he's caught the tail end of the field and just passing more he catches him on this racetrack. We've completed 50 of 328 laps at the Atlanta International Raceway. Today's Atlanta Journal 500 being led at the moment by Dale Earnhardt. Davey Allison has moved himself into the second spot. Darryl Waltrip now running third. Ken Schrader is fourth and at the moment Jeff O'Brien running in fifth position on the on the on the racetrack. Dale Earnhardt Barney continues to be awfully impressive he's beginning to lap cars left and right. He really is a moment ago his advantage was a little better than four seconds. Here is Rusty Wallace on pit road and this may be a scheduled stop Jim Phillips. Well they were talking about going in between 50 and 55 laps on gasoline. We're going to be conservative on the first stop and then figure that mine is a little bit closer but the first stop they wanted to go about 50 to 55 laps. Rusty's getting right side tires and now they go around to the left side knowing it's just a right side tire team and the right side tire looking like it was down on Rusty Wallace's car. Wallace is down and away goes back out of the speedway and has gone down a lap here early this afternoon. Of course everybody else if they make these stops under green he'll get it back. 51 laps are complete here at Atlanta this afternoon. Dale Earnhardt's advantage a moment ago was a little better than 12 and a half seconds. That's just how fast he was running and now here is Earnhardt bringing his car on the pit road. They're making the stops a little bit early. Let's go back to Jim Phillips. And Earnhardt brings in the Goodbridge Chevrolet and Kurt Schoberty and will then go to the white side to put him into the unit cow gasoline. This is a regular stop for Earnhardt but this team is going to change all four tires on this first stop and put in the unit cow gasoline. So they're not going to gamble any with that big lead they have. They can afford to put on four tires and take the luxury of doing that. Wallace however took on two tires his first time. Earnhardt's car is down. He's away at a great stop for the Goodbridge team. Jimmy Spencer is on pit road. Now these will be routine stops. They're coming under green flag. Let's go to Dick Brooks. Jimmy Spencer made a good stop. He's saving right side tires. They're filling up the unit cow. Urban Urban's crew chief's got to sign out for him so he'll be coming in a lap or two. Has 25 car to five car goes five. Kenny Schrader and Jeff Bodine are on pit road. Earny Urban is coming off the banking up in turn number four. Here comes Michael Walter into the pit. Now these are routine stops as we said just a moment ago. They're coming anywhere from lap 51. We're at lap 53 now as most of the cars are in the pits. Let's go back to Dick Brooks. It was Earny Urban stops and they're going to change right side on his car. Also known a little chassis adjustment on above Johnson's got a crunch in the left side and putting a little weight in it. Michael Wallace cars drop down. They change right side as you hear him go by. Jim Phillips has got some stuff down there. Jeff Bodine came in for tires and gasoline and a couple of rounds of wedge in his car and the Levi Garrett Chevrolet and my way to go on Mark, Mark. Roll light forward. The pit board is out. The Troy Martin has the pit board out and Robert Pimmison goes to the right side. Here comes his roll light forward in. They go to the right side. That's it. They're going to change left side. No, they're not going to change left side for this first stop. They looked at the tires off Rusty Wallace's car. They were up. They were good shake at three and a half on the casing. They start out with five. Some good tire wear early in the racier at Lanning. Dave Allison had inherited the lead. Now he is on pit road. It's a routine stop for him. Also Alan Kalwiki is in. Kyle Petty is in. The Kodak film. Oldsmobile now. Rick Wilson spending the tires and heading back onto the racetrack. Richard Petty is pitting his car. Here comes Hutt Strickland into the pits. Darryl Walter is peeling off the banking up in turn before to make his schedule stop. So this is going to jumble up the running order for the moment until all these pit stops are made under this round of green flag. Back to Dick Brooks. Kyle Petty just went by. Sucking his tires as Richard Petty comes by. They changed right side tires on those two cars. Bill Elliott's going down towards Jim Phillips as making his regular stop. I think these guys are probably not going to test this first time. You know we mentioned something about there being so much difference and a difference between first and second to points. There's an awful lot of difference between fifth and sixth and eighth and tenth for a lot of these guys too and they don't want nobody want to mess up run out of gas so I think they're all trying it all the same time. There's a lot of difference in the payoff going down through the final Winston Cup point standings. We'll try and keep an eye on as many of those battles as we can bring you this afternoon. Bill Elliott also visiting Pit Row just a minute ago. Right side tires for that automobile as well as fuel. So most of the front runners now have made a pit stop. Darryl Waltrup being the last of the lead pack of cars early in the race to make his green flag pit stop. So shortly around Dale Earnhardt should cycle back to the front. Well in turn two one car spins coming off the banking. It's Greg Sacks. The car spins completely around. He keeps them off the outside retaining wall. Now another car involved. Richard Petty spins his car and he is hit by the Jimmy Spencer car. Spencer tried to avoid that machine. He slams into Petty and the two cars left her Richard Petty and Greg Sacks down on the inside of the track. There will be damage to all three of those automobiles. It all started over in turn number two. Again that has been the critical point here for the last couple of days of the trouble spotted Atlanta out of turn number two. Greg Sacks car looped around went into the outside wall and all of a sudden right behind it trying to get the cars whoa Richard Petty's car went around. Let's go back to Joe Moore. When a car turns sideways at the speeds they're running here coming off this corner trying to set sail for the back straightaway. They've got a lot of speed buildup and when it goes sideways the tires just throw up a cloud of smoke. That was the biggest problem here. Now Sacks had his car down to the bottom of the racetrack and most everyone was able to get by but the cloud got so thick when Richard Petty came by he couldn't see where to go. He tried to go to the outside. He made contact with the outside retaining wall and then along came the Jimmy Spencer car. He too tried to miss all the action and he slammed into Richard Petty. Now all the drivers have been able to fire the cars up and take them away. Looks like the most damage possibly to Richard Petty. A couple of pieces of the sheet metal from his car still laying on the track here in turn two. The most severely damaged car will be Jimmy Spencer. The whole front end of that car is really caved in. In fact he is taking it through the pit wall and into the garage area and to see if they can repair it buddy baker the car owner on that machine try out will try to get him back into the race. Richard Petty is being attended to on pit road and now we'll see everyone coming back into the pits after that round of green flag stops. They'll have a chance to come in and make a little more leisurely adjustments here in just a moment. Let's go down to Jim Phillips again. Rusty Wallace came in the first time he only took on right side tires. Well this pit stop will give you a chance to get four brand new tires on. Also the same from Martin Martin. They only took on right side tires. They're coming in now getting left side tires. Of course they'll earn heart. He took on all four tires as did Darryl Wolk. Now Bill Elliott only took on right side tires and so did Jeff O'Dine. So these teams that took the right side tires on are coming back in to get the left side. The ones that took on all four are still on the racetrack and getting that track position on the rest of the field. The timing of that caution and interesting thing most of the front runners made a pit stop under green had that come out when only half the field had made a pit stop and the rest got this chance to stop under caution. That can put you behind in quite a hurry but since most everybody had made a pit stop be it for two or four tires under green everyone should be the way they were before the pit stops. Dick Trickle had been posted as a leader just before that caution came out and just about everyone had been on pit road. A lot of them came back in for a second round of pit stops just a moment ago. Let's check in with Winston Kelly. We're standing here in the STP Pontiac pit. The damage is concentrated on the rear of the car. As you can hear Richard Petty start that car up and pull back out on the track. The damage is concentrated on the right rear of the car and across the back of the car. The bumper, the lower portion of the bumper has been ripped from the STP Pontiac Dale Inman Bob Barton and the rest of the crew doing a lot of work to the right rear end of the car. Now Richard is back on the track. So Richard Petty will go back out of the Speedway again the only car that went to the garage area after that accident over there in turn number two will be Jimmy Spencer. We'll update you there in a moment. Here at the Atlanta International Raceway we're still working that caution flag. It looks like it'll be at least another lap or so before they'll put them back under green. It'll give us a moment to talk with Corey B Smith the associate product manager for the consumer products division of the Heinz ketchup company and Heinz company. You folks have really had good results in your program haven't you? Yes Barney we have in fact recently we just announced that we're signing for two more years of the of the sport with Austin Motor Ventures. We'll be running the Heinz Pontiac for several years to come it looks like. I don't think you were a bit surprised at the response you got from the consumers out of the market because obviously you folks did your homework before you ever got in the NASCAR racing and I don't think there is a sport in America today that the fans support the people who support stock car racing like they do in any other sport in this country do they? We've really noticed that that the the fans are very very loyal here. We've got a premium product we'd like to stick it out in front of the people and we found the NASCAR is a very good way to do that. Have you had a chance to go down the garage and take a look at everything? I sure have yeah full of excitement today. Yeah really you get caught up and it's so easy don't you? I don't know if you've been a race fan for a lot of years but even if you haven't and you come here for the first time and you go into the garage and you meet the drivers and you see the cars close up and then you watch them drop the green down there and you kind of get to be a part of it real quick. You sure do we're real proud of our team this year going through the rookie year we made a lot of progress and I think we'll be a real competitive team to deal with next couple of years. Well we've been looking forward to having high as involved in Winston Cup racing for a long time. Thank you Corey. Thank you Barney. Fields just been given the one to go sign. We'll be going back to green flag racing next time around Dale Earnhardt. We'll be the leader when we go back to green. Today's broadcast of the Atlanta Journal 500 is brought to you under exclusive radio rights granted by the Atlanta International Raceway to MRN Radio. So for the private non-commercial use of our listening audience any publication, reproduction or other use to the description and accounts of this race without the expressed written consent of NASCAR and MRN radio is prohibited. Let's give you the running order here quickly before they put them back under green. Dale Earnhardt is being shown as the leader Mark Martin is second. Dick Trickle is third. Riding along in fourth position now is Sterling Marlin. Fifth will be Davey Allison. Six is Kenny Schrader. Lake Speed is being posted seventh. Jeff Bodine, eighth, ninth looks like Neil Bonnet. In tenth is AJ Fought. Dave Marcus would be eleventh and Darryl Walter, twelfth. Now everyone else is a lap down. So there are a dozen cars on the lead lap. Let's check in with Winston Kelly. Barney Jimmy Spencer's car is out for the day. A lot of damage to the front of that Pontiac. He stepped into the trailer to change clothes. So we'll get a word with him in just a moment. Also Mickey Gibbs is out of the race. Problems in the valve train of that fourth Thunderbird. So that's five cars that are officially out of the race. We'd like to point out that Kenny Reagan, who was in with brake problems earlier, has returned to the race course after losing some 42 laps here in the garage area. So we've got five cars that are officially out of the race at this point. The others out of the race along with the two just mentioned by Winston Terry. The body had a problem with his automobile, has taken it to the garage for the day. Also Rodney Combs was involved in an accident. And Phil Parsons was the first car out of the race here this afternoon. We're getting set to go back to Green 63 laps in the books. Let me correct myself. They're now showing Darryl Walter as being a lap down. So that will give us only 11 cars on the lead lap. We're back at a green double-file restart. Rusty Wallace is one of those cars that is a lap down. He may try to get that lap back as they hit turn two. He's definitely working on Mark Martin, working to the inside of Martin, coming into turn number two. He's got the advantage over that car, but still has to bypass Dale Earnhardt to get himself back on the lead lap. Meanwhile right up in the front, Dale Earnhardt is trying to keep Darryl Walter down a lap. They in her turn three with Walter down to the low side. And Wallace is right on his bumper now going underneath. Darryl Walter and Dale Earnhardt pulls it away all four. Second place car is Mark Martin at the moment. The cars of Wallace and Walter running between himself and Dale Earnhardt. Earnhardt meanwhile continues to check out on the field. Earnhardt's got about a four car like lead now in the lap car of Rusty Wallace. Then the lap car of Darryl Walter. Next to line comes the Mark Martin machine. He's followed by Dick Trickles, Sterling Marlin and Danny Allison. Dick Trickles looks to the high side now of Mark Martin. He has to tuck back in single file down the back straightaway. They go nose to tail into turn three and Earnhardt continues to pull away. We're going to call the Sterling Marlin. He started dead last this afternoon and he had currently had been running up there in fourth position. So he's give that car a pretty good ride. Look for an awesome performance from Dale Earnhardt here this afternoon. If that car stays underneath him all day, I guarantee you if he can he will lap the field and the way he is putting it through these corners. I mean he is driving it as hard as you will watch him run any time during the whole season and his whole career for that matter because he has to be a little bit frustrated for what's happened to him in the last five or six races already. He has pulled away from the rest of the field. The second place car at least right now by good two seconds and they've only completed four laps here back under green. Here he comes out of turn number four back down to the line. Martin will be in the number two position. Rusty Wallace is off the lead lap. He rides directly behind Dale Earnhardt but the good scramble door-to-door bad links going on back in the pack over in front of Joe Moore. Back in the fifth position Davey Allison is trying to hold off Kenny Schrader. That's a good side-by-side battle. They're being followed by Kyle Petty and the Allen Colewicking car. Good shuffle here off turn number two on the back stretch. Allison stays to the inside and Schrader and now Kyle Petty pulls up to get into it right behind Schrader. They have to fall in single file. It will be Schrader followed by Davey Allison and then Kyle Petty. Earnhardt continues to lead the Atlanta Journal 500. Trying to overcome a 79 point deficit and win the Winston Cup championship. Rusty Wallace the points leader coming into today's event is still on the racetrack. He's running a lap down at the moment but he's certainly higher up than the 18th or better position that he needs to finish in order to clinch his first Winston Cup championship. Dale Earnhardt leading now at lap 73. Dale has led just about from the start of the event. He moves off of turn number two down the back straightaway. Has almost a quarter mile lead on second place Mark Martin. Then Rusty Wallace and Darryl Walcher both running a lap down. Third position at the moment is Dick Trickle. Fourth is Ken Schrader and fifth at the moment on the racetrack is the Kyle Petty car. Kyle should be one lap down to the leaders right now. Kyle trying to make up some ground after a good run early in the race. Leaders now crossing the start finish line. Dale Earnhardt heads back off to turn one. Earnhardt stretches out by about 10 car lengths over the second place machine of Mark Martin behind him again the lap car of Rusty Wallace. Good shuffle going on back for the fourth and fifth position. Sterling Marlon racing side by side with Davey Allison right behind them. Stacked up double wide. Jeff Bodine and Alan Kawicki on the back stretch. Down the back straightaway. Davey Allison down to the inside of Sterling Marlon. Marlon will get the nose as they head into the third turn. Marlon takes its single file over Davey Allison. Now Kawicki looks to the high side of Allison but Allison cuts him off and Jeff Bodine sneaks underneath to fall in behind Sterling Marlon. Those three cars get together, swap a little sheet metal. Davey Allison, Alan Kawicki and Rick Wilson all bumped a little bit coming through that third and fourth corner up there. Now they get it back in a straight line and take it off into turn number one. We've just been informed from NASCAR scoring that Mark Martin is a lap down. So they will drop him out of the top 10 here this afternoon. Mark Martin is now being shown as a lap down. The running order as we have it would be Dale Earnhardt. Dick Trickle, Kenny Schrader right now. Then Sterling Marlon and then Davey Allison as being shown as the top five and they definitely are all on the lead lap. Rusty Wallace continues to just ride along out there. He has so far has not really been that close to that many cars in the early going here this afternoon. Wallace knows what he needs to do. Finish 18th or better and the Winston Cup championship is his. And that's exactly what he's doing right now as the leader Earnhardt heads to turn free. Earnhardt keeps a low line around turn three and four. It's about a quarter of a mile as he said on back to Mark Martin who's running a lap down now and then it's Rusty Wallace. Certainly have to give a call to Dale Earnhardt and the good ranch racing team. Dale had but one strategy today and that's to come out. Lead the most laps and win the race. Remember five bonus points going to the driver who does lead the most laps as well as five points to any driver who's led the race. Right now Dale is one of few people to collect those bonus points and he's certainly trying to lead the most laps and win the race. It's the only shot he has in picking up the championship. Now Rusty Wallace would pick up five bonus points if he could lead just a single lap. But so far he has not and being a lap down may be hard to do before the day is over. Here's a stop for Brett Bodai and it would be an unscheduled stop right now. Let's see if we can find out what the problem is there. There's two right side tires Barney Hall. Two tires for Brett Bodai. Apparently a problem on the right side tires. We stepped into the garage area and caught up with Jimmy Spencer who was involved in that earlier accident. Jimmy what happened out there? Well there was just an accident in front of me. I don't even know what really happened and I thought I had it missed in the car split back up in front of me and I couldn't help but hitting him and busted a radiator. That's racing and we've got to build on 1990 and get ready to go to Daytona 500. Crisco Mobile on Pontiac was running real good today but unfortunately we didn't finish the race and hope to try better for next year and see you all in Daytona. Although Jimmy Spencer is out of the race this afternoon we'd like to report back to everyone. He is okay. Jimmy Spencer's went to cup season is over until as he said Daytona kicks off in February in 1990. 79 laps go on the scoreboard here in the journal 500 this afternoon with Dale Earnhardt just literally blistering this field and Earnhardt put it all into perspective. He's not conceding anything to Rusty Wallace or anybody else until it's over here. Well we do you know we're in this thing to win it and win the race. You win the race and things work and maybe we'll get the points back but I don't see anybody with a lock key on it yet. When they leave Atlanta with it then it'll be won you know it's not won yet. And that is the only way his team can look at it here this afternoon. 80 laps go up on the board. Earnhardt continues to wind around here. Rusty Wallace right now in the middle of the back straightaway riding along in the slipstream of Mark Martin who is a lap down along with Rusty Wallace here. They're neither one right now in any danger of catching Dale Earnhardt the way he's getting around the speedway. Talk just a moment ago to Jimmy Spencer who had fallen out of the race. We've had five cars fall out of the event so far this afternoon. And as long as Rusty Wallace stays on the racetrack each time somebody else goes to the garage area that chips away a little more and a little more at him becoming the Winston Cup champion. What Rusty again has to finish in the 18th or better position to clinch the title this afternoon no matter what anyone else does on the racetrack and each time someone drops out if we've had five cars out of the race and 42 started Rusty now can finish no worse than 38th and as each car continues to drop out of the race as the attrition list grows Rusty moves farther and farther towards that 18th position goal. Take you back through the running order 82 laps are on the board. We got this run down in turn three Dave Marcus way off the pace looks like he cut down a tire coming down the back straightaway kept it down on the track apron then came right up the banking and kept out of everyone's way but it was a scary moment for Dave Marcus Marcus again almost loses the car this time trying to get on the pit road up there with that tire down he almost turned it around finally gets it on pit road and Dave Marcus will make an unscheduled pit stop take you through the running order a little bit as they make that stop on Marcus and change the tire Earnhardt as the leader Dick Trickel is second third right now is Kenny Schrader and caution is on the speedway caution is on the speedway comes out on lap number 83 it will be the third caution of the afternoon as the leaders come across the start finish line and take the caution flag Dale Earnhardt now slowing down behind the safety cars it pulls up onto the speedway in turn number one we go under caution for the third time this afternoon take you back through the running order before we take a commercial break here in fourth position is Sterling Marlin fifth right now will be Jeff Bodine sixth place belongs to Davey Allison lake speed continues to run strong he is seventh eighth position belongs to Ricky Rudd in ninth as AJ Foyd and AJ is having a great run here this afternoon he stayed in the top 10 most of the day and 10th is Dave Marcus that may change now that Marcus has had to make that unscheduled stop with the tire down and they're posting eleventh Neil Bonnet there's the only cars are showing on the lead lap here right now all the front runners are on pit road let's go down to Jim Phillips Dale Earnhardt brought the good red Chevrolet and they took on four tires and gasoline routine for them also Mark Martin and for four tires and gasoline Rusty Wallace the same for him four tires and gasoline also Jeff Bodine and Darrell Walker was in talking with the Mark Martin's Robin Pemberton who's a crew chief on that car he said what happened they got a lap down as Dick Trickel that last pit stop of change stayed out of the racetrack he became the leader and put them and a lot of other cars down a lap in the pits take Brooks well Harry Gantz in the setting in the pit road right now he I talked to Leo Jackson a few minutes ago and he said at the car just won't run he said Harry said it that it car feels good and everything but just won't run he come in a few laps later and had a flat right front so it's just one of them bad days I guess Leo said he thought maybe that Harry said it might have fouled a plug or something before the race was started and but the thing's just not going to go for him so some people have bad days anyways Sterling Marlin was in he got tires and gas and Hudders Strickland's Greg Sacks, Derek Cope, Ricky Rutt come in that got the gas and tire Alan Kawicki Dick, Dick Trickel, Davey Allison everybody just took on the right side tire I put the gun on four tires and filled up with fuel once the kill he four tires and gasoline also the name of the game on this end of pit road among those stopping Rick Wilson Rick Mass Brett Bodine did have a tire problem and came in and changed four tires now he's bringing the motorcraft four Thunderbird back in a little bit of damage to the right front of Brett Bodine's car they're checking the toe in on the left side of the car so apparently he's been involved in a little bit of an accident also a very good pit stop for late speed running up in the top 10 he also took on four tires and gasoline 85 laps are complete and Ricky Rutt had been posted as the leader Rutt has now made his pit stop and looks like that may move AJ Foyt up into the lead field is forming up for a double file restart if you wonder where Rusty Wallace is they're posting him 14th in the running order and he is a lap down there two cars directly ahead of him that are also a lap down so he won't be able to just shove off in there and try and get his lap back on AJ Foyt when they drop the green Foyt is the leader is a workout of turn number four and get ready to come back down the line here's the pace car diving in behind the pit wall Kenny Schrader his second day learn hearts third Dick trickle his fourth and we are back under green Ernie Ervin is the first car down in the inside lane he is a lap down as he races Foyt off into turn one AJ Foyt has the lead and he's got the outside lane right behind him the Kenny Schrader car give a call to Ernie Ervin he's staying right there with Foyt they're still side by side as they make it off turn number two Morgan Shepherd right in line behind Kenny Schrader then rusting Wallace and Dale Earnhardt meanwhile right back up at the front Ernie Ervin tries to keep it down to the bottom of the track Foyt keeps the high side and keeps the lead out in front of Ervin and he's got Ken Schrader sewed right in behind him AJ making his first Winston Cup start since his accident at Charlotte back in October looking good thus far brings the ultimate deal down across the line now Ken Schrader ducs to the inside that'll be a bit for the lead as they head back to one Schrader gets the lead going into the corner gets that inside lane underneath AJ Foyt Schrader goes a little bit high and he'd better hang on to it because here comes Dale Earnhardt Earnhardt's got him hooked up at the bottom of the racetrack pulls in with Schrader on the back stretch Earnhardt right down to the inside of Ken Schrader he pulls the fender alongside as they head into turn three Ernie Ervin is right in front of those two but Earnhardt keeps it low he's going to try to take Ervin as well he gets around Schrader and looks to the inside of Ervin Earnhardt just pins that car right to the bottom of the racetrack and he is driving the race of his career here this afternoon moves alongside of Ernie Ervin and puts him a lap down again as they work back to turn number one Earnhardt's at the head of the pack now Kenny Schrader now pulls alongside Ernie Ervin he'll bypass that car next in line the machine of Rusty Wallace then comes Morgan Shepard AJ Foyt in that pack along with Mark Martin Dick Trickle and Darrell Wolter those three cars almost make it three wide but then Foyt tucks back in and it'll be Martin down to the inside of Morgan Shepard he'll try to get around that automobile but Foyt takes the high side now around Mark Martin and there's trouble as Morgan Shepard slips way up into the high groove but keeps it under control Morgan Shepard's car went all the way to the outside retaining wall wiggling back and forth did a good job to get out of the throttle keep the car straight in line and he continues back underway as Bill Elliott ducks down pit road Elliott bringing the car on to pit road brings it down to the attention of Ernie and Dan Elliott let's go to his pit it's going to be right side tires for Bill Elliott Dan Elliott works on that right front and Mike Rich on the right rear checking they're going to change all four tires so evidently Bill Elliott has an equalized tire our tire problem Wallace is also going to come in as that pit board is out Harold Elliott has a pit board out for Rusty Wallace he also evidently has a tire problem because they've got the tires across the wall not here to hold it too tired we're going to go to the right side of Rusty Wallace's Kodiak Pontiac this is going to cost him a lot of positions on the racetrack he slides to a stop they take a look at the left side tires check and see that they're all right they are all right they put in some gasoline the right side tires are on the car sounds like he's got hit he goes all eight cylinders either it sounds like it has a miss in it Rusty Wallace is in trouble he is already a lap down he is making an unscheduled pit stop here comes the lead pack out of turn before heading back to turn number one and he is going to go another lap down in front of Joe Moore Wallace down on the inside of the racetrack trying to bring the Kodiak Pontiac back up to speed here's Earnhardt bypassing him putting him yet another lap down as they go down the back straight away Rusty Wallace still trying to get up to speed Ken Schrader has also gotten around Rusty Wallace and Earnhardt starts to pull away now from those two Wallace now gets the car back up to speed that will put him two laps down there are six cars out of the race and remember that Rusty needs to finish better than 18th to win the Winston Cup championship it's not over yet as Dale Earnhardt leads him back to one Jenny Schrader still has that second spot further back in line in the third position the Sterling Marlin car he is mired back in traffic make that dick trickle back in the third position he's trying to hold off the advances of the Sterling Marlin car he's in line along with Davey Allison and Alan Kawicki they're all in single file meantime back up the front Earnhardt takes a high line into the third turn drop through right down toward the bottom of the racetrack to hold his lead over Ken Schrader let's go to Jim Phillips we're down in the Rusty Wallace pit they're checking go with the tires and they can't find anything wrong with the tires talk to Harold Elliott about the engine possibly missing he said no he just loaded it up a little bit when he stopped loaded the carburetor up and gasoline made it sound like it is missing it's running going all like senators the tires that came off the car are both up Rusty Wallace is up to speed now he's running right behind the leader Dale Earnhardt and Kenny Schrader the the two cars that are running one and two he is certainly up to speed and now it may be that Rusty Wallace can forget being conservative or not taking that many chances being a couple of laps behind he has got to perform and perform very strong AJ Foyt off the pace over in turn number three hits the apron of the track and Foyt will come on to pit road as the leaders work back to turns one and two Earnhardt leads the way Kenny Schrader still has the second spot Dick Trickel next in line he's got about three cars separating him from the front to some trickles working down the early urban car to get around that machine the leaders hit it turn three right back up in the front Wallace turning the wick up on that Kodiak Pontiac he gets around Ken Schrader and he's in hot pursuit of Dale Earnhardt to gain one of those laps back AJ Foyt meanwhile has taken the Copenhagen Oldsmobile straight to the garage area so we'll get word on why AJ has dropped out of the event in just a moment at the Atlanta international raceway Dale Earnhardt leads the Atlanta Journal 500 Rusty Wallace is running right behind him on the racetrack he has two laps down as we decide the one million dollar Winston Cup championship in this final event of 1989 just a moment ago we told you AJ Foyt took his automobile to the garage area Winston Kelly is standing by with AJ AJ's talking to his crew chief he's just crawled out of this oldsmobile AJ what's the problem well actually the motor never was running good all day and it just finally soured all the way out we stayed out on the yellow there and got the green it just got sicker and sicker and sicker AJ you had an accident a few weeks back how are you feeling basically well I feel real good I was hoping to run all day as long as I could but uh other night I feel good uh the car just kept getting sicker I don't know what happened to it but then you just were sick after leading a little bit here at the Atlanta Journal 500 AJ Foyt out of the race AJ really has mechanical problems seemed like every time he shows up and gets to running real good something breaks on the car or something let's go and puts him out Bill Elliott still on pit road and the hood is up let's get the story there I don't know what's wrong with it yet they have the hood up the engine is shut off and Ernie Elliott is taking the spark plug job to see if the piston might have come up and hit a spark plug and close the gap or it might have been a broken piston they're checking it out but the engine is shut off of Bill Elliott's car as he said so in pit road now Bill is only 71 points ahead of Ken Schrader for fifth spot in the final Winston Cup point standings if Elliot is not able to continue and Schrader regains more than that 71 points that'll cost that team several thousand dollars there's a lot of stake as we pointed out not just for the championship but all the way back through the top 20 in the point standing here at the Atlanta International Raceway Dale Earnhardt continues to set a blistering pace and it is very obvious to everyone here watching this race this afternoon right now that Rusty Wallace being two laps down has it to the floorboard as they say trying to catch Dale Earnhardt the leader in at least get one of those laps back one lap down maybe he could live with and pull off an 18th place finish being two laps down and doing it the odds get really slim he's got his foot in it out of turn number two but Earnhardt continues to set sail over in turn three Earnhardt just seems to have to all hooked up today like it should be he drops it down to the racetrack and starts to pull away from Rusty Wallace first couple of laps after Wallace came out of the pits after they made that unscheduled stop he did gain on Dale you can attribute that to the new tires that he had but now Dale seems to have locked the interval down stands at about two seconds even now one point seven seconds make the distance between Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace Rusty pretty much does need to get around Dale and get at least one of those laps back unless he or he's going to find himself in some real trouble before the end of this day Earnhardt takes him back to the corner now Rusty said yesterday that you don't count your chickens before they hatch everybody said well you got the championship locked up all you got to do is go down to Atlanta and run 18th but he's not looking at it that way yeah right just better said that's the best I've ever heard it said you know two races ago and a lot can happen I remember Dale lost 110 points to Charlotte real freak deal well let me tell you freak deals are out there and that can happen to me yeah maybe a freak deal this afternoon might have cost him the championship here but he's got plenty of time to get himself back in a winning position right now with only 104 laps complete 328 will make up this race here this afternoon they are showing Sterling Marlin still having a good run here this afternoon or he was just a moment ago with 104 laps complete let's run you back through the order as we have it right now 10 cars left on the lead lap with 104 of the 328 laps complete in today's event Dale Earnhardt is the leader Ken Schrader currently running second about 2.2 seconds behind Earnhardt third and having a good run this afternoon is Dick Trickel his final ride in the Stavolors Buick this afternoon yesterday the announcement made that Dick Trickel will drive for Kail Yarbrough motor sports in 1990 running fourth on the racetrack right now is Davey Allison fifth up until a moment ago was AJ Foyd this rundown coming about 10 laps ago running in the sixth position at lap 94 was Jeff Bodine seventh was Lake Speed Sterling Marlin eighth Neil Bonnetnite and Ricky Rudd was running 10th those were the only 10 cars on the lead lap as of lap 94 about 10 laps ago the interval now between Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt Earnhardt is the leader Wallace's two laps down he is pulling away he is a little better than two seconds ahead of Wallace right now so there's not much chance of Rusty chasing him down the way he's running and scoring is now indicating that Rusty Wallace is 33rd on the racetrack so he has got a long ways to go to get 18th from there being two laps behind also keeping an eye on Mark Martin's progress Mark you remember had a fairly poor qualifying effort coming into the event was one of the favorites to win the poll only qualified 20th fastest at the beginning of the race he was picking him off left and right it moved himself up as far as the seventh position but since this round of pit stops under the last caution Mark has not been able to make any progress up he has lost the lap he's not running on the lead lap so Mark Martin not having the kind of afternoon here in Atlanta that he had hoped to have coming into the event this afternoon Brett Bodine slows going into turn number three brings that car down on the April of the track they had hoped for a good finish here they come very close to having at least a win here and maybe at least a top three finish in the spring race but now he is off the pace let's go to the pits looks like today he's going to be over for Bill Elliot to talk today and Elliot he said that the problem looks like it's in the valve train and if we look back on this season Bill Elliot has had a lot of those problems and Bristol he had a problem overheating at Richmond they had problems and now again today here at Atlanta he has valve train problems they've shut it off they're pushing it back to the garage area or behind the wall but they don't look like they're going to get it fixed as of right now so Bill Elliot will go out of the race they are still working on the Brett Bodine car up there let's get a report from that one the hood has gone up on the motorcraft fourth underwear they look all up underneath the hood but they never really worked on anything Barney now the hood has gone down and they're pointing to the rear end of the car they're checking on the right rear of the car they still do not know what the problem is on Brett Bodine's forward Brett Bodine is making his last ride in Budmoor's motorcraft forward here this afternoon he will be moving to Kenny Bernstein's team the Quaker State car next year as the season begins in Daytona in 1990 so there's at least a half a dozen drivers maybe more this afternoon or taking that final ride in their present cars we talked about that a little bit at the top of the show and we asked Phil Parsons a little bit earlier in the week that as a driver when you've made your announcement that you're moving to another race team for the next season does that change your attitude and your approach towards each race at all I don't think so you like if anything you know for me personally I mean I'd sure like to go out and do Richard in school a good job in Crown but and I'm sure from the other side of it they want to do as well as they can to show people that hey we do have a good car and in a competitive car and look on towards next year so I don't think so at all if anything which it's hard to say that you can try any harder than we've been trying we haven't had much success this year but we've been trying awfully hard and I haven't noticed any any kind of a load up whatsoever Phil of course has dropped out of today's event already had an engine problem earlier the race and was the first car out of the event and as we speak of cars out of the event we're now up to nine cars that have gone behind the wall and as we said earlier each one of these cars that drops out does help rusty Wallace inch ever so close to that 18th position finish he needs to clinch the championship at the Atlanta International Raceway Dale Earnhardt continues to dominate the Atlanta Journal 500 117 of 328 laps are on the board just a moment ago Bill Elliott took his car to the garage area let's check with Winston Kelly. Bill's overseeing the work that Ernie Elliott's doing on the fourth underburd. Bill what's the problem? Something to bow train or something. I didn't start advancing. You know I look back on the year and it started by and I guess it's going in bad but I guess we got one broad spot you know we did have a good year we won three races you know we've had a lot of good stuff out into us this year we've had a lot of bad and you know now we just got to worry about 1980. Now do you try to get it back in we were just talking with Alexis Lieris one of your PR people she mentioned you might try to get it back in for the point situation being 71 points ahead of Kenny Schrader in fifth position. Well that's what we're going to try to do but we're just going to see how bad it is. Are you aware of what's going on out on the track with Rusty being a couple of laps down? Yeah I see what's going on he's in a bad shape but you know the day will tell I mean he could be in here just like my area you know any of the rest of the guys. That's Bill Elliott and Mark continues on the course for Thunderbird. There's $20,000 worth of difference between finishing sixth and finishing fifth in the Winston Cup standings so obviously the Elliott crew will continue to try and complete as many laps as they can in the race today. $20,000 is sure worth the effort. It certainly is and there's quite a bit of money at stake all the way back through there. Here's Richard Petty coming off turn number four he is back on pit road now Petty was involved in a crash earlier here this afternoon when Greg Sacks hit the wall over in turn number two and Jimmy Spencer ran into the rear end of Richard Petty caved in the sheet metal over there. He is on pit road let's see if we can get what's going on there. Well they're changing right side tires on it Barney they're down just the way it's from them they're looking at it they're putting unicorn gasoline in it. They're going to go around and change the left side not for sure what the problem was and evidently he thought he had a tire either equalized or flat, didn't tell what it was. If he had not scheduled stop for Richard Petty so they're taking no chances while he's in here he might well change all four tires that would save him a stop later if the tire has equalized and they're not sure which one it is. The interval now for Dale Earnhardt is four and six tenth seconds over Kenny Schrader the second place car not too many laps ago when they put him back under green they're running nose to tail just to give you an idea how strong Earnhardt is getting around this racetrack. I think in the back of his mind Dale Earnhardt is planning on totally demolishing the field here this afternoon and winning this race if there's any way to do it. Let's go down to Jim Phillips he's still around Rusty Wallace's pits what's going on there. This talk to Jimmy Maycar he said that as the car goes into the turns it wants to push up and then when Rusty turns the wheel it's loose off the turn so he's got two problems there and that's the reason he's not able to keep up with Earnhardt. On Mark Martin's situation he also is not run well this segment of green flag racing his car is loose but Dale Earnhardt is sent sail right in the middle of the racetrack he's fine the other two are having problems. Now here's a little food for thought concerning the three-point runners Barney if they finished in the position they're running on the speedway right now assuming as up to this point in the race he has Dale Earnhardt will lead the most laps and Wallace and Martin will not lead a lap in this event if they finish as they're running right now Dale Earnhardt would finish with 4164 points Rusty Wallace would finish with 4122 points and Mark Martin would finish with 4101 that's if they finished as they're running now Dale Earnhardt would win the title so Rusty getting two laps down he has got to work to get himself farther to the front of this racetrack and the field that's on the raceway. Both Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin are both in trouble in the early going here this afternoon their 123 laps on the board Rusty Wallace is at least two laps down being shown now in 29th position and Mark Martin is at least a lap off the pace and he's being posted in the 15th position the driver in the catbird seat for the moment is Dale Earnhardt and his car obviously is hooked up here at Atlanta the last three or four times we've been to Atlanta Dale and Richard Childress and the Good Wrench team have really had that car hooked up to the racing surface here and he has walked away with a couple of races in the past two or three years at this racetrack and when that car is right he is tough and today he is tough he has even more to prove here this afternoon and as we said I think you're going to see an awesome performance out of the car if it stays underneath him all day long wherever he's catching cars on this racetrack as they say he is taking no prisoners if you catch somebody in the middle of the corner zip he goes underneath them or outside whatever he needs to do same thing in the front straightaway and in the back straightaway he's about to catch some traffic over in turn two down to the inside of the racetracker and heart zeros in on one of the cars right ahead that'll be the Dale Jared car looks for a chance to pick up a spot and continue working his way through the field we're keeping a close eye on Rusty Wallace. Jim Phillips was talking to some of the guys in this pit and we got an idea that there was a bit of a problem here in the corners we've been noticing that last couple of laps going into the corner Rusty tries to put it down on the inside of the racetrack he wants to push up a little bit and then when he comes off of turn number two here you can look at the right front wheel of the car it wants to go back out towards the outside retaining wall therefore the back end kind of wants to come around and the car kind of picks a little bit of a hop coming off turn number two before it finally settles in here for the back straightaway he's definitely losing time in the corners Rusty Wallace not getting around this racetrack as well as he'd like neither is Mark Barton we heard from his pit ago him reporting that the car is loose in the corner and this racetrack you spend so much time in the corners here if you're not familiar with the Atlanta international raceway it's a mile and a half around it is a perfect oval the corners here are one half mile each around the straight arrays straightaways are only one quarter mile so you spend twice as much time in the corners of this racetrack as you do on the straightaways and if your car is not getting through the corners here in Atlanta you are going to have yourself one long afternoon it's very tough racetrack to get around talk to Daryl Walter about that he's had good success here and he pretty well knows what makes a race car work and I ask him why is Atlanta so tough it really changes uh tire wear on the car itself makes the car change a little bit the track conditions change a little bit so many things change during the day weather's probably not going to be much of a factor looks like it's going to be pretty cool and that'll keep conditions a little bit more normal a little bit more controllable but tires make a big difference one set to the next uh you know here in the spring when we won we've been good all day but the last set of tires I got was extraordinary and I was able to pull away from Dale and just win the race that's what you hope for the boys go all day long looking at tires trying to come up with a set for the end of the race that'll help you win so uh my guys are pumped we want to win this one that give us the most wins that give us the most regular season earnings and give us a lot of things that we need to make us feel like we really had a good year well he's not having all that strong or run right now don't count him out he's back there in 13th position talking about Daryl Walter and he is a lap down we're at the Atlanta international raceway bringing you live coverage of the Atlanta Journal 500 this afternoon the season ending race Winston Cup series a million-dollar championship on the line this afternoon Rusty Wallace came into the event leading the championship by 78 points over Mark Martin 79 over Dale Earnhardt at the moment though Dale Earnhardt is dominating this event out front now by a good half a lap over second place running Ken Schrader on pit road at the moment Ricky Rudd getting some service on the Quaker State Buick Dick Brooks is there well they changed right side tires had a lot of trouble getting fueled and the thing they had the tires on in about 12 and a half seconds took them another four seconds to go ahead and fill up with fuel so they took about 16 and a half 17 seconds to get him out there's a thing that you can you know you can talk a little bit about why you should do under the green flag or what you should do under the green flag when you make a stop like that I think some of the major teams or most of the teams don't take time to fill the fuel they just put in however much fuel they can they put tires on the car when the tires on they let it go in case there's a caution or anything else comes up and that's a perfect example of how long it is these cars are covering about 250 feet a second so every second that the car sets there is uh is almost the link of a football field so that's a long long way and that particular case was almost four seconds after the tire men was done but they kept putting fuel in it. Bill Elliott's car went out very slowly made a lap around the racetrack came back on pit road went to the garage they made a couple of adjustments took a look at it now here he comes back out of the garage again ready to go back onto the speedway jack pinnington was off the pace here just a moment ago in his car also he is just easing out of turn number four and coming into the pits rick wilson made a pit stop there just a moment ago let's see if we can check that out there was a routine pit stop for rick wilson right side rubber also jack pinnington coming into the pits in his hosemobile tony purring the crew going to the right side of the car it'll be a two-star change for the jack pinnington car on the bill Elliott car as you said Barney Hall he just came into the garage area right to the entrance of the garage area they really didn't do any work on the car and then he looped it around just curved it around went back out onto the racetrack and that board is not running on all eight cylinders should see some more cars coming on a pit road there'd be some routine pit stops coming up before too long jim phillips i know there is some concern certainly now in rusty wallis's pit area there is some concern because they were running so good there and now they've hit a bad spot harrow what's he says wrong with the car well it's not quite right yet there's still got to make some adjustments just a little bit loose going in and a little bit pushy coming off so we make another stop so they think they could get that tire situation straightened out on this next pit stop they brought in four tires they took those off and put uh four new tires up well actually four scuff tires they're running on scuff tires these are tires they've tested in practice they know that the car will go around the racetrack good with these tires on and that's the reason they're going to put them on this next time and he's still got a lot of work cut out for him today Dale Earnhardt continues to just blister the field a moment ago there were nine cars on the lead lap he has lapped a couple more he has put Neil Bonner to lap down along with Ricky Rudd but Rudd has since made a pit stop so he is still at least a lap behind there's seven still on that lead lap with Dale showing the way Kenny Schrader is second dick trickles third sterling marlin rides fourth jeff bow nine is fifth six would be davey allison and in seventh position like speed and here is Earnhardt on pit road a routine stop as he heads down toward Jim Phillips and he brings a good red Chevrolet in they're going to go to the right side again they're going to go with the two tires this time they're not going to change four tires yes they do break on the left side they waited just a moment before they did that and then they jumped across and started on the left front they've got it loose the left rear is loose now Kurt Choberny and will then come around to the left side to start working on the left side Kurt Choberny got that front tire on there already David Schwender the Jack Taylor and Hart is down and away a good stop 20.7 seconds for the good range team that stop of four tires for Dale Earnhardt is going to force the hand of the other competitors trying to keep up with Dale this afternoon do they go for two tires and try and save a little track time and not making the long pit stop do they go for four and hope the new tires will help them keep up with Dale as they get back onto the speedway and the third place car has gone to the garage area dick trickle came off the racetrack just a moment ago and has now taken his car to the garage and the attrition rate is beginning to build here in the land of this afternoon and we're yet to reach the halfway point here's Davey Allison bringing his car in for pit service dick Brooks now they're going to the right side of it it doesn't show any evidence she had him going to the left cleaning off the grill on it looking over the left side tire gonna be an interesting thing to see what happens to these guys as they uh decide they want to take all four tires or just want to take two they're going to take two on Davey Allison let's go Rusty Wallace's car they're gonna have to make a decision on whether they want to try to go ahead and try to get the car handling by changing tires as Jim Phillips said earlier they have gotten two three different sets of tires out on the wall so they can make that decision but they want chiller's in them come in put on four tires went back out and really didn't lose any more than one lap to them they're gonna have to really really think on what they're going to do and try to gamble and let the car be ill handling as it is and make that time up with caution or go ahead and take four tires and take your best shot I think you drove race cars here and we're talking to a lot of drivers in the last few times we've been to the land I don't think there's a racetrack on the circuit that new tires make as much difference as they do here in Atlanta there's no question about that uh there is no place there's not a racetrack these guys run on that makes that balance that earlier the racetrack has a mile a corner's and only a half a mile straight away and believe me just two or three degrees of temperature and you basically oh that's that's that's nitt second two or three degrees of tire temperature makes a difference in a way to car handle uh Jim said earlier that they said that the rusty's car was not one to turn going into the corner and it's one to turn too much coming off of the corner now the second corner over there has a really really a funny place in it as you go around the corner your car feels good and secure and then as all of a sudden the rear end wants to wants to kind of pitch out on you and you don't have a cushion like you do it all you don't have a cushion up there to hold you and that's the reason that uh like you guys said earlier that's where all the action was yesterday and where the spin was today so it's it's really a handful when a guy's got a drive by the way and rusty's got to live by the way and try to win a million dollars at the same time i'll tell you he's got a long and long day now the front runner in fact it was a leader now who had given it up a moment ago and kenny strader took the lead he just made his stop jim phillips kenny strader made his stop this routine stop for his to even mark martin brought his car in and evidently without a gasoline because the car was shut off when he came in the squirting evener in it now he's got him fired back up right side tires on the snow light for it it's down the building gas in it took him 15.8 seconds to do that but he his car was rock running he stretched the fuel mileage too much rusty wettles his team can't afford to do that they've got to come in because if they lose any more left if the car runs out of gas it's going to be it for the day for that team but right now rusty is going to come in and take off the tires in gasoline let's see if they change four or two tires on this stop they can't gamble they've got the best tires on they've got the scuff tires on the wall right now jimmy make art and john dotson wheel to go to the right side and let's see if they do indeed change four tires no they're just the herald of it goes down and looks at the left side tires so this time they're going to change right side tires only i guess to get track positioned it's so important right now we've got to stay as close to earn $100 a year down and away rusty wettles a good stop for that team well we'll see if that is going to cost him or if it is indeed some good strategy they just took their best odds right there and apparently herald felt like a two tire change was what they needed to do approaching the halfway point in the atlanta journal 500 from the atlanta international raceway mr on radio glad you're with us this afternoon as we decide the $1 million winston cup championship at the conclusion of what's been a great racing season started some 10 months ago if you can believe it back in day tona just short of halfway dick trickle has pulled his automobile into the garage area was running as high as third in the atlanta journal 500 his final ride for the stavola brothers team let's get a word with him yes we are with dick trickle allen coe week i mean allen uh best week dick what happened i think the top end of the motor would most likely broke a bell we've been having some exhaust valve trouble this year you know we had a real good run gone and we had the car on a tight side we're gonna loosen it up a little bit all day we had more left really and jimmy had the car just comfortable and to be a little bit faster we need to be a little bit looser and as the day went along i was on tension to loosen the car up and we just didn't get that part but now we ran top five and i've been second place there and i just got to think you know some old brothers and a crew and no island building everybody for give me the stepping stone in the next year to the new ride i'll have with cali arbo and uh you know filled 66 top arctic oil i mean we got the big thing going next year the dick trickle is out of it today and allen what the reason i had allen coe wiki on my map dick trickle is running in 14th in the winston cup points he's only 28 points ahead of allen coe wiki who's running back in 15th and that's the difference of two thousand dollars between 14th and 15th so dick trickle is out of the race we reported earlier that jack pinnington made a routine pit stop that however was not routine he had some water coming out of the radiator the crew has brought that osmobile into the garage area they've worked on it now he's going back out onto the track 159 laps are on the scoreboard let's update you with a situation here right now dale earnhardt is the leader and he has never lifted the throttle all day long he has an advantage over kenny strater the second place car of just a little over eight seconds now rusty wallace who needs to finish 18th or better got a couple of laps down earlier this afternoon he is still two laps down they are now posting rusty wallace in 19th position so he is one spot away from getting back up there where he could pinch the championship he finishes 18th or better no matter what day learnhardt does whether he wins a race or not let's take you back through the running order it is earnhardt the leader kenny strater is second jep o nine is third fourth is sterling marlin and the last car being posted on the lead lap is devi allison and he isn't too far away from going and lap down the way earnhardt is getting around this racetrack in sixth place is ricky rud a lap down also a lap down seventh will be like speed in eighth that's kneel bonnet ninth is kyle petey riding tenth right now is allen kowiki he has a lot of money on the line should he be able to pull out a victory here this afternoon he too has a lot of work to do being a lap down and all the way back to tenth michael waltrip is 11th and 12th position now is bobby hillin 13th is mark martin he too has a shot at the championship but he's going to have to come up with a lot better performance than he's had so far this afternoon the car has been a little off they've continued to adjust on it but he has continues to work his way up there but so far has not been able to get back on the lead lap 14th position belongs to rick mast and rounding out the top 15 is morgan shepherd darrell waltrip is 16th and he also is a lap down two laps down in 17th right now will be darrick coke and in 18th position they're showing ernie urvin and then rusty wallis is being posted in 19th so the situation can get a little bit ticklish before the day is over rusted he's getting closer and closer again we have just eight cars out of the event this afternoon only three cautions if you're just joining us we went under caution on lap number 11 when ronnie comb spun and cracked the wall up in turn number three he was just fine on lap number 58 brag sax but in turn number two richard pettie and jimmy spencer tangled in afterwards although richard has and brag sax have continued on spencer was forced to retire the third caution came out on lap number 83 when a piece of debris fell off a race car onto the back straightaway no injuries reported all of those drivers involved in the accidents are just fine and we've been green ever since lap number 83 here in the atlanta journal 500 next time by as dale ernhardt comes down to cross the start finish line he gets the cross plaques from harold kinder and we're halfway through the atlanta journal 500 164 laps are in the books 328 make up the distance well a lot of a lot of things can happen in that last half just like they can in this first half but right now everybody's pretty well settled in this is a segment of the race in a 500 mile race about the midway point that they just this segment between pit stops so to speak they will kind of just ride it out out there and call what they have and then in that last 150 miles or so they really get down to some serious racing bill ellie it is back in the race but he is being posted 41 laps down after having spent extensive time on pit road with something awry in the engine here this afternoon the attrition rate well it's not been as bad as we have seen in atlanta let's check in with Winston kelly on that morning allen mentioned that eight cars are out of the race fell parsons the first car to retire he was falling to the garage area by riding the comms both of those cars losing to engine as did terry lebani also micky gibs lost an engine in his car jimmy spencer involved in that accident kenny ragan had some brake problems early on in the race did not start the race then did get those brakes fixed got out on the racetrack he's also retired the six car out aj fort out with an engine problem and the eighth part of retire we just heard from dick trickle he too had engine problems after that car had finished third in the last two races here at atlanta so eight cars in the garage area at this point in the atlanta journal 500 so we told you just a moment ago there were five cars on the lead lap and that davialison was the fifth car well that's changed because the way ernhardt's getting around this racetrack he has just moved around davialison and put him a lap down so now there are only four cars on the lead lap caution is on the speedway in the atlanta journal 500 it happened just seconds ago in front of joe more the west grand national series champion robi morosa lost control of his car coming into turn number two he came in looking just as smooth as he usually does coming off the corner but as he exited turn number two the back end came around the car looped about three times before backing into the outside retaining wall just at the exit of turn number two here he did a little bit of damage to the right side of the car a little bit of damage to the back end popped a couple of tires but he was able to fire the car up and move back around to the pit area again robi morosa with his swisher swedles mobile spinning and hitting the wall here in turn two so the caution is out for the fourth time this afternoon it comes out on lap number 170 morosa has limped his car around to the pit stick brooks is there well he's got an awful lot of damage i don't know if you call it a wreck car or seriously damaged race car but it's uh he's got all four tires are flat car skin on both sides the right side of which i can't see but they can't get it up to get the jack hundred and i can see part of the sponsor's name swisher swedles sticking up over the trunk so i know it's madly been there they're going to have a lot of problems getting this thing back together and make it work right leaders are all on pit road let's go to jim phillips they'll earn hearts has the good running and i'll need the adjustments of the chassis just keep that tire stagger the way it's been all day long and he should be able to run just as well with four new tires also jeff v09 is in he's going to get regular service they're also going to make a chassis adjustment on his car on the left remark mark is in with a stroll like board they go to the right side first but they're going to change all four tires also rusty wallace is down and away with four tires and unit cal gasoline so it's been routine on this end of pit road with a three liter dick brooks well that little uh problem bobby hillin jr and uh michael wallop coming out of the pits right in front of me the uh cal petty pull out kind of squeeze them two up against the wall but both of them all three of them uh made it out all right and the cal had changed tires and uh and filled up the gas and was gone working separate at the same time and i think uh most everybody else is just uh gonna make a regular routine stop but you know get on the best tires it can get the thing full of gas uh the car of rob morocio still here they're cutting off the rear quarter pound trying to roll the car enough to get the tires cleared from the fenders so uh they're gonna be here a little while he crunched your pretty bad on the right side but it looks like they might be able to continue we're under caution just about everyone has been on pit road now got their service and gone back under the racetrack and clean-up efforts will take at least another lap or so over in turn number two and it'll give us a minute to talk with t wane roberson the vice president of sports marketing for the rj rentals tobacco company that check for one million dollars could go to anybody right now and and wane you like myself you kind of came up the hard way by as they say and when you're running for a million dollars i tell you what you you and i play golf and along with a lot of people in this business so you can probably relate it to that if you've ever had a golf match where you're playing for what you consider big money whether it's twenty dollars or fifty or whatever you got a two-foot putt which you should knock in and go on about your business with no problem i know how much pressure sometimes i say on you and i in a situation like that so you can imagine what it's like for the three guys running for a million dollars well there's no question this race this weekend is taking on a whole different flare when you're talking about a million dollars or you're talking about a hundred dollars uh it changes the winston cup championship means so much barney and has meant so much over the years that it's not only the million dollars i was talking to all three of the guys this morning and you know they said we you know i really like the money and we appreciate the money but i want to win the championship the prestige of winning the winston cup championship is the number one title in motor racing right now they may say that formula one and the indy car circuit which certainly have their place in the world and they're they're very prestigious deals but i don't think there's a race driver in the world that if you win the winston cup championship no matter what kind of racing he's in does not look up to you and respect you as being one of the best drivers in this business no matter what form of motor sports you're in well i think you know when they when they roll into the date on a 500 they realize at that point right then it's not going to be only here in atlanta when they've got to win the championship they've got to start at the date on a 500 and compete all year long and that's you know that's what the formula is set up for for competition all year long and award the best and if you're going to get a million dollars barney you're supposed to work for it and you're supposed to have the pressure well he's got the pressure right now he's two laps down and coming in here and everybody said you know we talked about it we first came on the air that finishing 18 sounds like a piece of cake for a driver like Rusty Wallace but as you know and i know and the people who follow this business and the fans know it ain't that easy well as you're related while we go to a golfer you stand over and make four foot four foot putts all day Rusty's ran all year had six wins so the teams ran well they come into this race and probably are running a little different races today than they normally run i'm sure Dale and marker running different races and they normally run we saw mark and qualifying get a little off of the mark you know that's that's uh but that's what it's all about they can come back from that and this proves that it's right down to the end barney and this Winston kept competition before you can can take crown to winter well we we talked about a little bit about the top 10 and how close it was in seventh eighth and ninth and those positions can change and there's several a lot of thousand tens of thousands of dollars difference in there and the pressure back there is just as much as like you said it's not the amount of money it's the prestige of being in the top 10 or winning the championship or whatever we talk about that a little bit let's put you on the spot what about the Winston where we're going to run it next year can you say well i tell you uh be looking at the papers and listening to the radio friday morning uh at the new york banquet cuz Thursday we are going to make an announcement about the Winston i think it'll be one of the Winston cup fans and all the competitors will be will be very appreciative of Wayne i know i'd like to speak for all the members of the media the writers the broadcasters and anybody that covers the sport and the fans and everybody else for what rj rentals and sports marketing enterprises and the Winston division has done for Winston cup racing in 1989 you folks have really worked well with us and everybody else you do a great job you're gonna be commended for it well Barney i tell you the success goes to goes right back to to you all the folks here at mrn you know all the competitors and especially these race fans it's hard to believe you look you look around this place Barney and there's not there's not a place to move i tried coming up to the radio booth walking up the back while a race was going on the fans are the stands are completely packed and behind the stands they're totally packed so it's it's just amazing the fans that have turned out supported us they've supported us and supported our products and that's what it's all about it's been a very good marriage for us and i want to thank you the whole whole staff here at mrn for all your support appreciate it Wayne we'll see you in New York in a couple of weeks just about to get back to green in the atlanta journal 500 mrn radio bringing you live coverage of the season ending Winston cup event Harold Kinder waves the green flag Dale Earnhardt leads the field off underneath the green rusty Wallace running right behind him on the racetrack remember that Wallace is still two laps down Ken Schrader the second place car tucks in behind Wallace in one back in the third position as Jeff Bodine in the fourth spot now the stirland marlin car only goes for on the lead lap Earnhardt well in command he takes him down the back straightaway single file all except for Davey allison he started on the inside of the front row to try to get his lap back but Earnhardt Wallace and Schrader just pulled completely away from allison and now he's back going battle with Darryl Wolter now this is going to get interesting Dale Earnhardt's a leader right behind him is rusty Wallace he's two laps down is he going to put some heat on Earnhardt because he certainly knows Dale is not going to cut him in his slack and if anything Earnhardt might make him use up more real estate than he has on any racetrack we've been to all here let's see what he does they're back in two Wallace closes right upon him coming off turn number three he's about four car links behind him puts it right at the bottom of the racetrack and gets a good bite off the corner he's about three car links down behind him as they head for turn three Wallace takes a look down to the inside but Earnhardt starts to stretch out by about another car link Wallace holding on but can't do anything in four just doesn't look like rusty has the steam to catch up to Dale Earnhardt that gm good rent Chevrolet is hooked up the car is dominant he's already moved away from rusty by about 10 car links back to turn one rusty holds the spot for the time being tries to make up some ground the car handling quite a bit better in the turns than it was before this last pit stock still he's got a lot of ground to make up may exit turn number two Kenny Schrader sits right behind the rusty Wallace car then it's Davy Allison and Darryl Waltzhan behind Darryl Waltzhan is curling parland and behind them a battle shaping up that's between Darryl and Coca-Lapp automobile and Jeff Bodine they're side-by-side in four tell you the car that is really frustrated wants to get back up there and get on the lead lap because he's been running pretty much the same speed Earnhardt has at a given time today and that's Davy Allison that car has been hooked up pretty good but he just can't get close enough to take a shot even on restarts and everything else the brakes have not fallen his way to get back on the lead lap although right now he's within about four seconds behind Dale Earnhardt he is a lap down he is in fifth position Earnhardt's the leader as he works his way back to turn number three rusty Wallace doesn't seem all that inclined to get up there and mix it up with Dale Earnhardt even though he is two laps down it's really hard it would be interesting you know to look inside Wallace's head right now and really know if that car is capable of catching Dale and maybe putting a move on to get a lap back or if he's thinking you know I got more sense than this it really be interesting you know but for the moment he's going to stay about 15 car lengths behind him Schrader rides to the number two spot and the interval there between first and seconds beginning to build a bit as they work back to turn three Earnhardt keeps it high as he comes into the third turn that drops down to the bottom of the racetrack stretching out another couple of car lengths each time he comes into this turn but still rusty Wallace between he and the second place car can trade it running it back through the field now Earnhardt is the leader then the lap car of rusty Wallace can Schrader run second next on the racetrack is Davey Allison he's one lap down wall trip runs next in line he's also a lap down the third place car is Sterling Marlin Jeff Bodine is running fourth those the only four cars on the lead lap one lap down we told you Davey Allison dara wall trip running sixth the lap down Ricky run his seventh Kyle Petty eighth Michael wall trip ninth Bobby Hill in tenth still one lap down his lake speed then Allen Coolicki Mark Martin running 13th at the moment 14th will be Neil Bond at 15th will be Morgan Shepherd and two laps down in 16th position is rusty Wallace remember the magic number is 18 right now rusty Wallace is far enough through the field to win the title but this is far from over leaders are now back in two one car gets loosened the corner close call there for Allen Coolicki he got it to the side of Derek Copes those two cars went sliding up to the banking they did a great job hanging on both cars able to get back at the speed. Coolicki is still off the pace just a little as he drops back and bump sides with Dave Marcus Marcus goes high on the racetrack but Coolicki gets around him and straightens it back out. Listen pretty good battles going on back in the pack the one Coolicki has locked up in there now there are four cars right together in that in the form of Bobby Hillin Dave Marcus and Mark Martin a little further behind some pretty good scrambling going on between Morgan Shepherd also Ricky Rudd is in that pack along with Rick Wilson as they work over to turn two. And to that group the Rick Wilson car earning Irvine behind him the Rick mass car and Neil Bond at a lot of scrambling coming off the corner here's Ricky Rudd diving way down low to get around four cars making it quite a battle going back to turn number three that battle still shaking up really well one car is off the pace and that's Dave Marcus he's the one that everybody tried to get around coming down the back shoot and stayed out of trouble Marcus is down on the apron and hit it for the pits. Marcus came out of the throttle on the back stretch right in the middle of the pack a traffic good move by Rick Wilson to avoid piling into the back of Marcus everybody else continued okay as Marcus heads for pit road just moments ago Rob Moroso retired his old reveal he brought out the last caution about 10 laps ago for that spin in turn number two the damage unrepairable he's gone to the garage area and now Dave Marcus brings his automobile through the hard left turn through the fence into the garage area he will be the 10th retiree of the afternoon as we're now 185 laps into the Atlantic Journal 500 Dale Earnhardt remains the leader got an educated guess some dick Brooks if there is such a thing dick you've been in one of these things you know how pressure builds whether it's a situation for the championship or whatever what do you think would rest you Wallace is he just playing it cool is does he is he having second thoughts about tackling Earnhardt at this stage of the race well bony I don't know it uh it'd be difficult to say what they thought when they were in 33rd spot I think right now that I think they'd be very happy just uh staying where they are keeping a thing in sight and I'm sure that if he gets the opportunity talked earlier with Harold Elliott as far as what's wrong with the car and I think if he gets a shot they get the car handling right he sure would like to have one of those laps back he could still slip away back in in the in the spot if he uh stays two laps down so I think probably they're gonna play as cautious as they can and if the car will do anything at all for him uh try to get one of the laps back he may do that right now here he comes out of turn number four he goes underneath right here in front of the tower and he has Dale Earnhardt they go door to door often to turn one if the edge in turn number one and rusty Wallace he's on the inside of the racetrack put halfway through the corner way up the backing comes Dale Earnhardt pouring on the steel again he's got the edge off turn two Wallace keeps to the inside of the racetrack to try to look inside Earnhardt again as they head for turn number three he falls back in single file and now he pulls a fender up alongside Earnhardt but can't seem to do anything but he'll stay down to the bottom of the racetrack Wallace is down two laps he's trying to get one of those back they come off of turn number four Earnhardt is the leader Wallace tucked in right on the tail of the Chevrolet stays single file this time as they go back to turn one Wallace will not be able to pull down alongside Earnhardt this time Earnhardt sees him there closes the door down on the inside off turn two though Wallace makes another bid peaks down low tries to pull even off the corner he's got a fender alongside the good red Chevrolet they'll be side by side as they head into turn number three and Wallace has the edge as they come through three and now has about a car length as Earnhardt falls back in single file Earnhardt looks him over as they come out of turn number four and for the moment Rusty Wallace is now one lap down well actually a lap in about three quarters or better but he at least he has gotten around Dale Earnhardt so any speculation we were doing about how strong that car was was he biting his time or whatever that car was as strong as a everyone kind of halfway suspected it was so Wallace has one of his laps back there's something wrong with Dale Earnhardt's car he is off the pace a little bit Kenny Schrader has now run him down and he's about to move around him and take the lead as they work over into turn number three let's see if we can get a report from Jim Phillips we talked to Richard Childress the car owner for Dale Earnhardt he said this set of tires is not as good as the previous sense they put on today it was a set of brand new sticker tires but evidently as these tires grow they get hotter they get bigger around they did not outgrow the way they should and so the stacker is off a little bit on Dale Earnhardt's car and the reason he's having so much trouble as you notice he's going up at the top of the racetrack were a while ago he was down on the bottom it's a good mark of a good race driver is somebody like Dale Earnhardt when the car develops a problem they find a line they can live with and still keep it in competition Schrader's been alongside him a couple of times he even had the lead a couple of times by a foot or two but that's about all he's been able to do and as Jim Phillips pointed out Earnhardt is taking a high line through the corners and still giving that car a good ride so they will lead a pit stop to correct that but for the moment all he can do is try to hold what he has Dale Earnhardt continues to lead the Atlanta Journal 500 almost lost it a couple of laps to go to catch Schrader but now Schrader's fallen back by a good 10 car lengths back behind Earnhardt and Earnhardt seems to have found himself a quick running groove because he's beginning to close back in on Rusty Wallace in an attempt to put Wallace two laps back down for the moment though Wallace leading Earnhardt again Wallace now one lap down Wallace is in front of Earnhardt by about five car lengths another six or seven car lengths the second place catch Schrader Sterling Marlin runs third Jeff Bodine is fourth the only other car on the lead lap Kyle Petty being shown in fifth right now one lap down where 196 of 328 laps complete Davey Allison should be back about six position and seventh looks like Darryl Walter eighth Ricky Rudd and in the ninth position a good run today also for that country time limited car Michael Walter and Bobby Hillen will round out the top 10 196 laps are complete 328 we'll make up the distance here this afternoon and as this race stabilizes for the moment why don't we take a look inside NASCAR have a Tampa and Philly cigars present inside NASCAR today's Atlanta Journal 500 is the final Winston Cup race of the 1980s and what a decade it's been the 80s will be remembered as a period of great growth and dramatic evolution in all aspects of NASCAR racing we'll take a look back at some of the events that have shaped Winston Cup racing through the 80s next on inside NASCAR the events that have caused the transformation of Winston Cup racing into the multi-million dollar industry it is now actually began in February 1979 when CBS television broadcast the first network live flag the flag coverage of a Winston Cup race the Daytona 500 by the late 80s all Winston Cup races were televised live introducing the excitement of NASCAR racing to millions of people outside the southeast who previously had little or no exposure to the sport now Winston Cup racing had a national audience bringing a boom in race attendance and the introduction of corporate sponsorships another major change came in 1981 when NASCAR followed Detroit in downsizing Winston Cup race cars the introduction of the smaller cars was not without its problems though coming out of turn two just moments ago getting up in the air and going end over end actually side over side about three times was John Anderson who was running in third the Anderson cars resting on its roof about 500 yards down the back straight John Anderson's reverse flip at Daytona was one symptom of new more sophisticated aerodynamics that teams and drivers had to learn and understand in order to win races in the 80s the early 80s also saw drivers from outside the southern u.s breaking into Winston Cup racing perhaps the most dramatic arrival came in July 1981 carry the body sweeps around on the outside and he is there then down on the inside comes bouchered three abreast they'll come across the straight side it'll be bouchered by just about a foot Ron bouchered will win the 13th round bouchered and jeff borine were from the northeast rusty wallis and mark martin from the midwest all help break down the barrier for non-southern drivers to enter into Winston Cup racing racing led the evening news on all three networks July 4th 1984 with president Ronald Reagan looking on Richard Petty set a milestone that likely will never be broken Richard dressed out of the bottom of the racetrack they are door to door in the dog leg they touch coming to the trial go down to the line it is i can't call that one it is so close it's Richard Petty by a foot Petty wins his 200th corrillion ass car victory as he and Kale Yarra will come together coming down with more fans and media coverage sponsorships continued to come into the sport in september 1985 one driver set an amazing record for single race winnings here's bill Elliot out of turn number four Harold kinder has the checkered flag in hand and Elliot takes it and wins the Winston million and the southern 500 bill can you believe it is it hit home yet i'll tell you what i can jump up down and jump off his car and run feister i believe i can run feister the lifestyle what a car run the 80s saw Winston cup racing return to one of the world's most famous road courses and bid farewell to another nascar returned to watkins glenn in august 1986 and in june of 88 ran its last race at the riverside international raceway in southern california less richter now nascar's vice president of competition was the director of racing at riverside for many years it'll be a sad day you know anybody that likes racing hates to see a race course closed down and especially a course that's got the history and the tradition the color and the background at riverside international raceway has had up till today in 1988 tire wars returned to winston cup racing when who's your tire company challenged perennial supplier goodyear who's your president bob newton saw a long-term future in winston cup racing for his company this is a lifetime effort of ours we're not just here for the day or the week we have a a lifetime commitment to racing and our ultimate goal one of our ultimate goals was coming to uh winston cup racing if we're not good we'll be better next week you can guarantee it we're a small company and we have the capability of uh of moving very fast hoosier withdrew from winston cup competition in may of this year the eighties have also seen a changing of the guard in the driver's seat buddy baker kale yarbrough david person and bobby allison all have hung up the goggles with a new generation of driving great stepping to the front of the pack the 1980s surely to be remembered is one of the greatest periods in the history of winston cup racing here's hoping the 90s are just as much fun for inside nascar i'm alan best wick inside nascar is sponsored by have a tampa and filly cigar listen for the close but no cigar award later in this broadcast for other caution here in inlanta a hard crash in turns one and two over to joe more grand hand cocks was coming into turn number one his car just suddenly broke loose and slammed into the outside retaining wall the right side of the car completely caved in some fire ignited underneath the car that it rolled down to the apron of the racetrack that did get the fire extinguished now the rescue personnel are there servicing the car at the time trying to get grand ad cocks out of the machine so far they have not succeeded in that some of the rescue personnel are climbing in the opposite side of the car trying to undo the straps to pull him out again the personnel are there the safety personnel the fire personnel everyone attending to the car a lot of damage on the side of grand ad cocks' machine as of yet they have not taken him out of the car now rusty wallace had gotten around dale earnhardt at one point but as they race back here to the caution just a moment ago earnhardt beat him back to the line so wallace is still two laps down the pits were a busy place a moment ago jim phillips the race leader dale earnhardt came in he took on four tires and gasoline again this team put on sticker tires the brand new tires also the same for martin martin this time he put on sticker tires we're talking earlier he had some smoke coming from his car in the turns he did indeed have a tire rubbing i talked to steve meal he said they have that situation corrected now also rusty wallace came in he put on sticker tires this time that team had been putting on the scuff tires tires that they had broken in and practiced but this time they're going with four brand new sticker tires also in and on this end of pit road was jeff bodine the same situation for jeff four tires and gasoline so your three leaders in the points the same situation also gone brand e tires they filled them up with gasoline and earnhardt screw gets him back onto the racetrack first dick brooks well four tires was in order and uh tank a fuel uh for most everybody here sturley marlin hud trickling uh greg saks come in his car has been up a bit but he made it in derrick coke ricky red uh allen coicki uh davey allison came in uh they serviced his car he went back out they came back in they lifted the hood on it and a little bumped a little adjustment on uh it looked like back in the distributor and uh put it back down and let him go again harry gant set in the pits for a long time we've mentioned earlier he was having a lot of trouble with the car just not running so they got the left side of car jacked up they stayed under it for a while got out mundered to let him go and they're getting ready to bring him back in just a moment ago dave markis took his car to the garage area winston kelly is standing by with dave yes dave's parked a life boy chevra lay dave what's the problem on the car well uh i think we've dropped the valve you know uh it's a cool cloudy day to day the car was running real well and i really should have put a little bit taller gear in the car i left a 70 gear in it and we are running the high groove i think it's a little bit too many rpms and i probably broke the valve spring or dropped the valve dave we documented a couple of weeks ago on ass car live that life boy soap has decided to move on in 1990 have there been any new developments for your team for as far as sponsorship for next year well not yet you know we were trying to run real while here and give a life boy soap a good finish but uh that didn't happen but at this time we're still looking for a sponsor uh if anyone's interested you know we're in about the six hundred fifty seven hundred thousand dollar bracket so um maybe uh someone will hear it once it gets involved one of the true good guys here in racing he's out of the atlanta journal 500 dave markis and we looked the same next year at daytona i think we should charge dave for a couple seconds of advertising there i don't see why not he put my name on that list too i'm looking for a sponsor about six seven hundred thousand dollar i'll do something we're on the other fifth caution of the afternoon just a couple of laps ago grand adcocks with a hard crash in turn number one they are still working to get grand out of the race car let's go back to joe more for an update so far they have not removed grand adcocks from the race car again he hit the whole the wall quite hard going into turn number one and rolled down to the apron of the racetrack there was some fire coming out from underneath the race car for a while but the fire officials were quick at getting over to the car extinguishing the blaze then a cloud of smoke came out at present time they're beginning to bring out some of the heavy equipment possibly the jaws of life trying to rip the top from the race car now grand adcocks is a good-sized man so i'm sure it's rather difficult to get him out of the window of the car so it looks like they're going to take the roof off to try to pull him out that way but plenty of help down at this end of the speedway they've got the rollback waiting to put the car on the move it away the track cleanup crew is out on the speedway taking care of the debris left on the track so as soon as i get grant out of the car things should be clear here in turn two you don't realize how fast you run here in ladders the third quickest racetrack on the circuit behind detona and talladega as the two quickest racetracks they go off into those corners well over 175 miles an hour and that wall gets awfully hard when that car breaks loose this update on the running order after the pit stops dale earnhardt is the leader dale has already locked up the five winston cup bonus points for leading the most laps this afternoon it is impossible for any other driver to lead more laps than dale has run to this point in the event we are 207 laps of 328 complete second at the moment is can shredder sturling marlin with an outstanding run running in third at the moment jeff beau dine is fourth those the only four cars on the lead lap running in fifth one lap down after this series of pit stops is michael wall trip will run you back through the rest of the field in just a moment we're still under caution will be at least for another lap or so roger bear a step down to our booth and it used to be the general manager of motor racing network back in the real old days we won't go back into that but he's now associated with baby ruth what situation there for next year well we're very excited to be apart once again with jr johnson and of course jeff beau dine will be the driver on that car and the budweiser baby ruth uh fourth thunderbird and uh that's that's been a really an exciting uh association that baby ruth has had with jr johnson over the past couple of years and and of course they'll be back with jr again next year varnie and and uh looking forward to a great season i might add that uh we have been very very pleased to be associated with terry lebani one of the really fine gentlemen in this sport and all of us at baby ruth wish terry a great deal of success as he moves on and continues his racing career well there was a lot of emotion there uh that team and as well as with several teams that are taking their last ride here today put you on the spot does that car really eat baby ruth well i'll tell you have to ask jr about that i i um i kind of think the car does but i know i know darn well jr johnson needs baby ruth uh barney and that is for sure one one thing i want to point out to the race fans you know we've had the sweepstakes running uh throughout this fall season the baby root sweepstakes and that concludes next sunday so they've got one more week to enter at their favorite uh uh stop where they pick up their their baby ruths and be sure to enter that and maybe they'll win that uh fourth thunderbird that baby ruth is giving away or one of the many other prizes that they have as well thank you roger we'll be looking forward to baby ruth's association with that team again next year still under caution and it's still gonna be at least a lap or so before we go back to green the running order has not changed that much after this round of pit stops in the latest caution they learn hard it's still the leader kenny straighter is second riding third right now outstanding run here today for sterling marlin can't we haven't talked that much about him we'll try to do a little bit more before the afternoon goes by after a frustrating week here he still is up there in third place and in fourth position right now they're posting jeff bow dine those are the only four cars on the lead lap and fifth is michael walt if you just joined our broadcast grandad cocks hit the wall several laps ago down between turns one and two in a fiery crash car bounced off the wall came down to the apron of the track and let's go out to joe morford update if they have him out of the car yet they finally have removed him from the car bonnie in order to do that though they had to take the top off the car with the jaws of life they peeled it back and finally reached inside was the help of some of the emergency personnel and they've put grant on a stretcher and it's taking him to the ambulance at this time so that is a situation on the grandad cocks car down there hopefully we can get a report from the enfield care center here as quickly as we can 210 laps are in the record book here this afternoon of the journal 500 328 will comprise the distance dale earnhardt is still the leader grandad cocks with a hard crash in turn number one he's been taken from his car on his way to the enfield care center and we'll get an update on grand's condition as soon as we can for the moment dale earnhardt continuing to dominate this race rusty wallace in pursuit of his winston cup championship running two laps down in sixteenth position rusty needing to finish 18th or better to clinch the championship this afternoon another driver with a lot on the line today here in atlanta was allen cool wiki and remember the four hundred ten thousand four hundred dollar unical challenge money on the line this afternoon go wiki winning the pole and bush pole competition on friday and he stood to take that four hundred ten thousand dollars if he could win the race this afternoon things haven't quite gone as planned though let's check in his pits with dick brooks well uh the crew chief paul Andrews is talking to him they're trying to trying i guess to uh figure out what kind of strategy they're gonna do i walked up to see if i could talk to him and wave me off here so i don't know uh i guess they're just trying to get the car back to where it's supposed to be well you guys got uh you guys uh there's an awful lot on the line here today what are you planning to do well we're still trying to get the car in good shape uh we're uh trying to get the stagger right so we can get our lap back we get our lap back we'll be in real good shape got the car working pretty good and still working with stagger to make everything good earnhardt's running a heck of race huh he sure is he's running great well i'll tell you they uh there's an awful lot of stake here for those guys and i'm sure they're gonna do everything they can to do it they uh doing a lot of talking on a radio i know that but they're gonna have to put it together first. Allen's being shown right now running in the eighth position one lap down to the leaders while we're under caution we'll take a moment give a look at our armor and ask our scoreboard quite a race here yesterday in atlanta the arca permatex super car series decided their season championship coming into the event just 15 points separating the front two drivers in the chase ernie ervin won the race in fact dominated the race in his potty at clay young ran to a second place finish dave simcoe was third patty simcoe fourth and mike potter came home to a fifth place spot bob keselowski came from behind to win the arca permatex super car series championship points leader bob revak had a problem with the car did not finish the race keselowski is the 1990 arca champion they will begin their 1990 season in february at daytona one week ago the nascar two weeks ago make that the nascar winston west series ran their combination race at the phoenix international race way with the winston cup series bill schmitt was crowned the 1990 winston west champion that day and stanley smith has been named the armor nascar driver of the week for this past week stanley the nascar winston all american challenge series champion from chelsey alabama had himself an outstanding season on the all american challenge series tour won his first series race just over a year ago this year came back to score himself four victories ten top five finishes and thirteen top ten finishes out of 16 races that's quite a season stanley smith the nascar all american challenge series champion and this week's armor nascar driver of the week they are still under caution 211 laps are being posted on the board but clean up efforts have just about concluded over in turn number two shouldn't be too much longer before we get this race back under green while we're still under caution let's talk to rick bowin the vice president of marketing for first brands and stp in the press tone folks i know looking down the rundown rick a moment ago seeing richard petting back there in 27th position certainly you don't want to see that but he had problems here in the early going this afternoon got involved in that crash over there in turn number two early in the race but he's still out there giving it a pretty good shot well unfortunately he's having the same kind of luck today that he's had all year but we're behind richard a hundred percent and i hope he can finish the race i don't think you can say stp or richard petty without associating the two there's just no way is there stp racing and richard petty are synonymous and the the fan support for richard petty and your product i guess if you had tied up if you could have picked any driver over the last 20 years to tie up with you couldn't have picked a better one well he didn't win this year but he sure helped us move a lot stp son of a gun we tripled our market share on primarily because of his campaign on television for us so i noticed in the paper this morning the Atlanta journal had a pretty big story on richard petty and involvement with stp and their plans for next year and there was a richard was quoted as saying they intend to overhaul everything make complete changes in the organization well hopefully as long as richard wants to drive stp's not sponsored a lot of folks have asked us about the lifetime contract and i'm sure that will be in effect as as many of the folks from first brands and stp have told us over the years as long as richard petty wants to be involved in racing we'll be there and hopefully when he's done driving as well thanks a lot for stopping by rick i know you uh following the fortunes of richard maybe you can pull out a little better than a 27th place finish he's still running in there just five laps behind that's not that bad for all the problems he's had thank you bernie boud said to get back to green as the field comes off of turn number four pace car heads down to pit road will go back to green on lap 214 114 laps to go dale earnhardt takes the green flag can shredder moves around rusty wallis quickly tucks right on earnhardt's bumper wallis working there trying to get up with dale earnhardt he is able to get away from kenney Schrader now as they come into turn number two got a lot of carlings to make up down and catch up with earnhardt Schrader next to the line behind wallis it comes a lap car of michael wall trip as they head for turn three single-violence dale earnhardt taking it high as rusty wallis puts down to the inside but he cuts back in line following him is getting straighter then mike wall trip and call petty well it's time to get serious here we're 214 laps end of the 328 lap at land of journal 500 a lot of cars need to start making some moves in this final segment of the race here this afternoon they take it back to turn number one but if dale earnhardt's got it halfway hooked up it's going to be awfully hard to get around him he's in front of joe moor earnhardt's got this spot now with rusty wallis about two carlings behind rusty goes a little bit lower coming off turn number two that falls right in behind earnhardt as they head for three earnhardt has about a two-loop carlings advantage as they head through three that it's wallis kid Schrader mike wall trip again kyle petty and sturling marlin now looks to the inside of kyle off of turn number four dale earnhardt now with about three carlakes on rusty wallis ken Schrader has tucked in behind wallis michael wall trip next in line then side by side marlin and kyle petty as rick mass car begins to smoke now heading down into turn number one sturlin marlin making up some ground here he's alongside the kyle petty car finally does away with that car but watching a rick mass car just coming into turn number two he's well down the apron of the racetrack a lot of smoke coming out of the car and it doesn't sound as if it's running as it passes us here in turn two you might have lost an engine joe as he came just across the start finish line a little short of that we saw a big plume of smoke come out of the car he dropped all the way down to the inside pit wall to get out of traffic's way and it might be the end of the day for rick mass in the travis carter team 217 laps are complete dale earnhardt leads here's bill elliot back on pit road elliot is several several laps behind after having spent a great deal of time in the garage area here this afternoon but he is back in the pits let's go to jim phillips it's the same problem barney except this time the car is misfiring even more than it was they got it straight now pretty good it looked sounded like it was down to seven cylinders but as he went around he was making a big popping noise and so they brought him back in and he was not up to racing speed so they brought him back in the hood is up and it doesn't look good to go down and dara wall trip is way off the pace he fell off going off turn number two there a moment ago and he is losing spots just as fast as anybody will catch him they're going on around him he had been running in ninth in the running order here on this restart just a moment ago so dara wall trip also is having problems 220 laps are complete here in the land of this afternoon dale earnhardt is determined to win this race and dominate this race and he has at least this far into it this afternoon he is now ahead of the rest of the field by a good three seconds the second place car is still kenny straighter and old kenny's hanging in there good this afternoon but he hasn't been able to do anything with earnhardt i think a tip of the hat is certainly in order as we talked about a moment ago allen best week four sterling marlin still crashed the car here earlier in the week had all kinds of problems started dead last on the field he has overcome adversity a couple of times here today in addition to the problems he had in practice and qualifying and now he's right up there sterling has driven himself one heck of a race you know it's very difficult when you come here to a racetrack you bring the race car you think is going to work the best at this particular track when you go and crash that car and have to go to something else that other race car is just not the one you preferred to run so to get in it with only one practice session left to set it up for the race to start dead last in the field and to be one of only three four cars make it left on the lead lap the way dale earnhardt's dominated this race you've driven yourself one heck of an afternoon's worth of racing and he really has he still is hanging in there very strong he is on the lead lap only four cars are being shown up there with 222 laps completed as dale earnhardt kenny strater sterling marlin and jeff bow dine earnhardt now with a wide margin over second place kentrader he's opened up almost two full second trouble in turn one it's mark martin's car flames are coming out of his car as he came in turn number one all of a sudden flames began billowing out of the back end of the car the car now well off the pace dropping down to the inside of the racetrack the strow life machine has now driven on to the grass mark is trying to climb from the car still flames coming out of mark martin's car it happened going into turn one he made it all the way around the turn number two he's now climbed from the car and is running away and caution is on the speedway obviously at lap 226 it comes out when mark martin's car exploded in a ball of flame going through turns one and two back to joe moron he drove the car did a heck of a job i know that the cockpit must have been filled with smoke in the flames as well as he came around and was having the effect of a blowtorch as a car was still running the flames are shooting out from the back end of the car he held onto the car until he got it well out of the racing lane pulled it down onto the grassy apron here off turn number two climbed from the car and ran over to the inside retaining wall where he's trying to regain his composure a little bit i'm sure he's suffered a lot of smoke inhalation there trying to get himself back together now the safety crews have come around to take care of him and the fire people have come over to extinguish the flame so one of the top contenders to win the wistakup championship here this afternoon is certainly out of it right now and his chance to lock up second place in the wistakup point standings goes pretty much out the window also as we see a lot of smoke coming up from turn number two but as joe moron reported mark martin is out of the car and apparently all right puts us under caution for the sixth time this afternoon all the pit boards are out on pit road we expect to see all the leaders on pit road in just a moment here comes dale earnhardt down the pit lane can shredder rusty wallace sterling marlin everyone headed on to pit road let's go to jim phillips jim phillips will be with us in just a moment for a report on earnhardt's pit stop earnhardt's crew moving around the right side as well as wallace's as done's ken charators up the other end of pit road rob moroso took his car to the garage area in just a moment let's check with winston kelly rob stand here talking with his dad dick rob out of the race what happened out there on that in that accident you were involved in well we had a real good set of tires on the car and then with well that last pit stop we made we put it a little bit too much stagger in the car and it was just a little bit loose we made about 30 laps and i was sideways fighting in every lap you know we were running pretty good we were 17th i think when we fell out and you know just finally caught up to me and i just went in too hard i felt like i was driving a pretty consistent race i was just having fun taking my time on to finish the race but you know it got out from under me and i'm just glad i didn't take anybody else with me you know switches weights and press stones supported us all week and uh i'm just like i said i'm glad i didn't take anybody out with me and i'm just looking forward to going to Daytona with crown on the car rob you told us when we were talking a little bit of go about how the difference in the car handled this car the winston cup car being heavier and bush grand national quick comment on that well you know i crashed the bush car about 150 times before i won the championship so before i got used to driving that thing so i'm gonna have to this is just one of many trying to get used to the winston cup car rob morosa retires the swisher suites all of them will be able this afternoon let's go to chimp phillips they learned how it came in he got four tires they put it again sticker tires this time so did rusty want us uh the same type of situation for those two cars the four tires the gasoline also uh darryl waltrip is still trying to correct his carburetor problem that's the reason he dropped back so far there's something wrong with the carburetor they had a brand new carburetor laying here on the pit lane i think they're going to try to change it this time in he comes in the hood is going to go up and jeff hammons and a crew are going to go to work but they're not putting on a new carburetor they're just working on the one on the car right now we'll get back with you working caution after mark martin's car caught fire down in turns one and two he did climb out of the car and under his own power he has been taken to the in field care center grant ad cocks spent a lot of time in his car they have taken him to the in field care center dick brooks any word there well i'm not for sure exactly what his condition is except he is uh uh they're transporting him now they've just put him in a ambulance and they're going to take him to the hospital so not exactly for sure what uh you know what the condition is except he is uh uh though well they're going to take him to hospital anyway they're going to transfer him to a local hospital here if we get any word on grand ad cocks we will pass it along to you so go back to green here in just a moment we'll take a quick minute to talk with steve heifer the regional marketing manager for jalad and the right guard uh sport sticks you folks have had a great involvement this year haven't you we really have uh marnie fourteen races we participate in this year and ninety schedule calls for another fourteen we're going to have the same ten thousand dollars for the drivers out there so they would be running hard rusty wallace been a big winner for us this year of course and uh he may even be up in that the new york banquet we'd be celebrating his halfway challenge victory up there anybody a lot of fans happy all we sure did and we're in fact going to be giving larger prizes next year and a lot more of them and we're going to have some really exciting promotions next year so let's tune in mr in next year because we're going to have a great halfway challenge from right guard well i'm glad you folks are going to be back with us next year steve we're about to go back to racing so thanks for stopping by thank you barner going to go back to green flag racing on lap number 232 at the moment sterling marlin at the head of the field he heads up the outside role as they come down for a double-file restart taylor hard tucked right in behind sterling third at the moment is can trader at fourth is jeff bodi and those are the only four cars left on the lead lap down to the inside rusty wallace heads up the cars one or more laps down remember rusty is two laps down at the moment being shown in 16th position as they get the green flag from harold kinder they take him back into turn number one sterling marlin has the spot going into the corner here's rusty marlin wallace working on him he's got the edge going into turn number one rusty wallace is able to get around but look out here comes earnhardt again he turns up the wig down on the inside of marlin on the back straightaway earnhardt tries to thread the needle between sterling marlin and derrick coop he tucks in behind derrick coop gets around marlin to take the lead and now he's going to the high side of derrick coop to try to break down rusty wallace down in the pit area dick brooks is caught up with mark martin who's just come out of the infield care center dick i sure have mark uh that's an awful scary ride when you got to ride a fire like that i've done that myself what happened first of all are you okay uh we just broke the motor everything's fine just uh wasn't meant to be uh wasn't going our way anyway so uh we were running hard and doing all we could do and we were we were in line for you know a good solid top 10 finish but today wasn't our day well y'all had a pretty good year to start out uh it can't be too disciplined i'm not you know what that could have happened on the first lap we'd still leave here smiling okay thank you mark mark with a good attitude and they're really looking forward to next year and as he said despite no matter what happens to the team in this last race they have had a great season meanwhile it's getting warm up front rusty wallace has gotten one of his laps back dale earnhardt rides right behind him it's getting warm over in turn number three nose to tail wallace goes down to the inside of the racetrack now carlink separate t and earnhardt has earned heart drops down to take a look inside earnhardt is really looking strong coming up off the corner now looks down to the inside of wallace as they come up to complete lap 235 Harold kinder shows the passing flag to wallace as he is a lap and three quarters down earnhardt will take a look again in one earnhardt closes right in going into turn number one right up on the rear deck as they come off the corner he looks down to the inside but nothing's there he'll try to make it wide off turn number two but now wallace takes it wide so earnhardt falls right in behind him slamming the door in his face rusty wallace has the lead as they head into three he stretches it out by two parlance but still a lap and almost another lap off the face rusty wallace has got it all dialed in but dale earnhardt has been the dominant car all day long now is it dominant enough to put him two laps down again it doesn't really matter that much to rusty right now because he has got a position secured better than 18th even if he is two laps down assuming the race would finish like it is even if earnhardt does get around him and put him two laps down there's not really that much difference between one and two but if wallace's car is strong enough to keep him back there that's exactly what he's going to do they head back to turn number three rusty ahead by three car lengths earnhardt just doesn't seem to be able to get that car down to the bottom of the racetrack like he did a little bit earlier this afternoon but still even when he had the tires going away he was able to keep it up there earnhardt's got a challenge right now from kenny strater and that's for the lead back in turn one strater drives it right down to the inside of the racetrack right where earnhardt can't seem to hold his car they're dead even coming off turn number two trader has the edge here as they hit the back straightaway door to door right down the back straightaway strater keeps it down on the inside earnhardt keeps it high right up against the outside wall strater has the line as he heads into turn three but earnhardt pulls it out on the high side he's got the lead now look like strater had to lift just for a moment at the end of the back straightaway earnhardt shot back around picks up a couple of car lengths and back into the lead it's still dale earnhardt a car length over Kent Schrader two car lengths back to sterling marlin they're back in one about four car lengths back to the fourth place car of jeff bow die and all those cars getting a good bit of real estate between themselves and the rest of the field a heavy pack of traffic right behind them a couple of cars doing battle harry gannon dale bonnet they race side by side off turn two also lake speed and richard pettier side by side some good badly going on back in the field but they're watching at the head of the class as wallace continues to stay out front one lap behind right now strater continues to work on dale earnhardt and that's for the lead here they are door to door again that would have been a dead heat if the checkered flag had dropped on that one it had been a photo finish they're back in one strater drives it in deep going into turn number one earnhardt's got the outside line his car skitters up the banking just a bit he gathers it back in though it brings it back dead even with strater off turn two as those two cars race dead even that allows rusty wallace to pull ahead just by a little more to extend that margin between he and the race leaders chasing him down through turn four now as they come into the corner earnhardt shoots back in front of shredder goes up the back those shredder comes back to the bottom and everyone of the 80,000 fans in this house are on their feet watching these two duel around the racetrack again side by side to one trader again has an inside line earnhardt on the outside earnhardt gets the edge he drives it into way deeper than shredder does in turn number one now even again off the corner shredder brings it back getting a good bite off turn two now though is forced to fall in behind earnhardt shredder keeps it nose to tail as they head into turn number three he'll buck down one more time to take a look inside does nothing there and then looks to the high side as earnhardt gets just a little bit out of shape and kenny strater can't afford to run those door to door and really bind that car up a whole lot here was still a lot of racing left in the land of this afternoon 241 laps are on the board and for the moment kenny strater is going to cool those tires down put the car back in line and just ride right behind dale earnhardt and settle in in second position riding third as they work around here is jeff bodain fourth they're showing morgan shepherd fifth should be lake speed a moment ago but that has changed and now move michael walter up there and he is a lap down so they're still only posting four cars on the lead lap good run also this afternoon for alan co wiki as he hangs in there in about eighth position and ninth they're showing bobbie hillin then it would be kneel bonnet kyle petty ricky rudd and darryl walter browning out about the top 14 positions 300 and make that 242 laps you're completed for 300 the race would all be over they're back in turn two here's earnhardt going way up the backing it goes kind of trying to get around rusty wallace as he does Schrader finds a room down on the inside those three cars are nose to tail as they head in to turn number three earnhardt looks to the high side of wallace pulls the fender alongside and Schrader trying to make up who to follow going through the four they come off of turn number four wallace to the inside earnhardt is up high earnhardt will dust him as they come down to the line earnhardt puts wallace back two laps down now Schrader looks to the inside of wallace to try and keep up with earnhardt Schrader shoots right by rusty wallace before they get into turn number one Schrader way down on the inside and way up high again is earnhardt earnhardt's lead over kenny Schrader now about four car lengths Schrader tries to tighten it up as they come down the back straight away their single file earnhardt Schrader and wallace as they head into turn three Schrader drops to the inside to try to look down underneath earnhardt he has a lower line but he's not gaining any ground i tell you earnhardt is driving like a man possess this afternoon he is determined to be the dominant car all day long and pretty much so he has done it and a lot of it has just been sheer driving ability and willing to drive that car in the turn a lot deeper than anyone else and know that you can get it turned in the middle of the corner they go back to turn two Schrader's not cutting him a bit of slack he tried to get underneath him once again in turn number two but coming off the corner field is the best to fall back in line now halfway down the back straight away Schrader peeks down on the inside in turn three Schrader down to the inside pulls a fender up the long side earnhardt can't seem to do anything with it but he holds the low lines in the four off the turn now Schrader looks to the inside again off earnhardt the two shepherdays running now down the straightaway side by side earnhardt beats into the line Schrader though gets it to the inside moving into one Schrader with a nose of a head going into turn number one but again way up the banking is earnhardt he's got the advantage as they come off turn number two Schrader tries to pull alongside can't quite do it he drops his line again keeps the low line down the back straightaway he'll drop right down to the bottom of the racetrack still pulling another fender alongside earnhardt but dropping way down low and not being able to catch up more than a car length that's the best racing we've seen all day here long at atlanta between kenny Schrader and dale earnhardt and it is for the lead as they come across the line this time earnhardt will pull in by half a car length to the atlanta journal 500 winding down the 1989 nascar winston cup series racing season dale earnhardt has dominated this event all day he is trying to overcome a 79 point deficit and steal the winston cup championship from rusty wallace at the moment wallace is two laps down earnhardt is the leader and will run you back through the standings as we have them as of just a lap ago earnhardt is the leader he has led the most laps today he will collect those five bonus points as we start to tally him up at the end of the afternoon ken schrader running just a couple of car lengths off earnhardt's bumper in second third right now sturling marlin and fourth is jeff bo dine those are the only four cars on the lead lap one lap down is michael wall trip in fifth six bobby hillin seventh kyle petty eighth is morgan shepherd darrell wall trip ninth kneel bonnet is tenth eleventh is david allison allen kulwicky is 12 thirteenth is ricky rudd and fourteenth is lake speed two laps down in fifteenth is rusty wallace sixteenth derrick coke 17th ernie ervin and 18th is dale jared remember that wallace needs to finish 18th or better to clinch the championship no matter what earnhardt does right now he's only got three positions to spare and there are three other cars racing on the same lap as he and back in 19th position they're posting larry piersen the twentieth spot looks like cut strickland then would be harry gant rick wilson as they work around here so that would round us out about the top 22 or three still a lot of racing left it a lot of 250 laps there's 328 before it'll all be over here this afternoon but dale earnhardt continues to dominate this race much as he has all day long as he keeps winding it around here a lot of cars have kind of been overlooked in the shuffle talking about the wistek up points championship here this afternoon one of those certainly was the 94 car of sturling marlin who's still having that outstanding run but kyle petty's had a pretty good run here also today he's been able to hang right in there and i'm talking to kyle the other day a lot of people have suddenly started saying you know i think old kyle petty might make a race driver yet and i ask you about that does that affect you when people talk one way or the other about that yeah it really does because you know and and you think you know it does because it begins people begin to take notice you know i've been around here a long time a whole lot longer than i care to even think about and in a lot of different aspects you know it's just like bud more we were i was talking to him one day and he said you know he said even around a long time and i said yeah but i said i've only driven you know seven or eight years he said you know i would have thought i had been a whole lot longer than that and i said yeah but that's because you've known me since i was six years old you know so a lot of people like bud and junior and those guys i've just been around a racetrack so long that they just they forget about you know you're just a fixture around here and and you know but we've always been trying to get to a car that i felt like could run up front and could win races and i think finally got to a car with a with a team that that's going to win races we're building this year we're trying to get momentum up uh i tore up everything there is to tear up this year but we've run better at a lot of racetracks this year than i've ever run before uh you know we were running fourth or fifth at a lot of racetracks when we wrecked we were running in the top 10 a lot of times when i wrecked so uh you know it's just been one of those years but we felt like once we get that part over it will come back and and and do pretty good and it's nice to know that some people are beginning to notice it anyhow a lot of people are beginning to notice that kyle is finally going to make a race driver as he put it he is currently running six here in the journal 500 that team is run a limited schedule of only 19 races this year in their first season as a team they will run the full winston cup schedule next year just a moment ago about five laps ago rusty wallace was running in front of day learn heart on the racetrack trying to keep himself from going back two laps down in the space of about ten laps not only has ernhardt passed him and Schrader passed him but sturling marlin and jeff borrina's passed him and his margin of error from falling from 15th to 18th position now is only about a half a mile or so let's check in his pits and see what the problem is in the wallace car with the rusty wallace pit with harryl alliot harry fell back just a little bit did he just want to get back where he could run more comfortable and that was just about in car is still not quite right we know we can't catch a nail but we try our best to get a lap back and he's just too strong for us that's harryl alliot he builds the engines for rusty wallace and the chassis on his car just not the way they want it today but can't catch nail earn heart so he's just riding where he can run preferable and not get the car out of shape in the turns and that's exactly what he needs to do here might be an unscheduled pit stop for ricky ruddy currently is 13th in the running order he is on pit road let's go to dick brooks they're working on ricky rudd's car and perhaps dick can get us a word there in a moment and find out if it was an unscheduled stop it would be a little bit early they changed tires drop him down and away he goes back onto the racetrack he's had a pretty good run here today been able to stay up to the top 14 or 15 and when he made that stop he was showing as 13th in the running order just a couple laps ago daylor and harden ken Schrader ran around the speedway for about six laps side by side battling for the lead while Schrader has long since fallen back as a matter of fact he's lost about two and a half seconds which is almost two thirds of a straight away here in atlanta to daylor and heart earn heart has been by far the class of the field today and Schrader obviously used up a lot of what he had in the race car trying to get around dale we still have a good distance to go now we've completed 258 laps 328 laps will make up the distance this afternoon plenty of racing left and we'll still have to make one more pit stop so perhaps Schrader can get an adjustment on that car that'll allow him to take another shot at earn heart but for now dale has gone ahead and left ken and his wake by a good piece of racetrack the attrition rate has been fairly high here in atlanta this afternoon mark martin has retired from the race the engine apparently exploded on the car going off in turn number one there was a big massive flame in the car he got out of the car all right but they have taken it to the garage area and he is through for the day so he will not finish second or first in the wistika points battle having dropped out several laps ago rick mast is out of it this afternoon grandad cox crashed in turn number one has been taken to a nearby hospital dave marcus is out of the race dick trickle has gone to the garage area bill elliot's car spent an awful lot of time in the garage but has now come back onto the racetrack aj four who led a few laps of the race early this afternoon also is now out of the event jimmy spencer crashed over in turns one and two and one out of the race micky gibbs has retired his car so has terry lebani rodney combs and phil parsons are some of the cars that were showing out of the race here this afternoon again there doesn't seem to be all that much concern as jim phillips reported down in rusty wallis's pits apparently the car has been right on a couple of occasions today what they consider right where he could get up there and run at the front of the pack but more than not a lot of the laps here the car has been off to pace a little bit but still allen bestock was as we watch him he's been doing what he needs to do you don't really need to get up there and as we talked about him criticizing bill elliot saying he should run a little harder last year to win the championship when you're running for a million dollars you do what you need to do if it's the last race of the season now if you had several more chances to do it with five or six races left you look at it a little different i know rust his competitive nature and so do you if that car is capable going the front that's what he wants to do but you can't take any extra chances when this is the last shot you have and that's the last shot he has here today well i think the strategy certainly has changed and has become very evident that dale earnhardt was going to dominate this race that he was going to lead the most laps and that he was going to win the race obviously that's not a given conclusion yet but it certainly looks to be that way at this point and so rusty does have to guarantee himself that 18th or better finish in order to win the race now if the car is not running up to stuff and he can't compete for the win then he certainly does have to keep track of where he's running on the racetrack and do whatever it takes to win that million dollar championship right now he's got himself three positions to spare if they finish now as they're running he wins the title by 12 points so rusty's doing what needs to be done for the moment that is pretty good strategy the best battle on the racetrack will be for third position going on between sturley marlin and jeff boudai that's over in turn three marlin holds the line as they come midway through the turn here in turn three and boudai looks to the inside pulls the fender up alongside marlin right now but can't seem to do anything with it he'll cut back in single file just 60 laps remaining in the 1989 winston cup series racing season to decide the million dollar champion at the moment dale ernhardt leading the atlanta journal 500 we're at lap 268 328 will make up the distance right now ernhardt with a huge lead over can Schrader sturling marlin running in the third spot jeff boudai is in fourth the only four cars on the lead lap at the moment we're showing rusty wallace two laps down in the 15th position but that is good enough at the moment to clinch the winston cup title talk about several cars at running up in the front of the pack and having a real good run just a moment ago and Schrader certainly has hung in there all day long he started on the outside pole and has been able to stay up in the top three or four he's been one of the few cars he's been able to run with dale ernhardt let's check in his pits right now with jim phillips we're ready with richard room the crew chief for kenny schrader you've made a couple runs at ernhardt for the longer you go the farther you fall behind can you make a run out of here at the end i don't know jim i don't know if it's going to be tight in other words all green tires we can run with everything he's so much better all old tires nobody can do anything with him so it's according to when that last pit stop comes up come back on it i said it'll be according to when the last pit stop comes up for you exactly if we do it like if we get it around 315 we got a chance to win on green tires that's richard room the crew chief for kenny schrader as you notice the longer ernhardt runs with him the farther he goes behind now 270 laps on the board ernhardt is the leader kenny schrader rides second sterling marlin's third last car being posted on the lead lap will be jeff bodei and those are the only four cars on the lead lap darryl walter has done a good job here this afternoon having all kinds of problems in his car off and on and is still being posted up in fifth position give a call also to bobby hillin jr he currently is being shown in six kyle petty remains in the top 10 he is seventh morgan shepherds having a good run he currently is eighth kneel bonnet shows up in ninth and michael walter who had been a little higher than that earlier made a pit stop and now has dropped back to tenth position allen kalwiki who started on the pole and had a chance to win over four hundred thousand dollars if he could win this race now drops back to 11th spot lake speed will be 12th and in 13th is davie allison one car off the pace davie allison off of turn number two drops off the pace davie who had started the race in the 18th spot was challenging for the lead around the midpoint of the race that car off the pace in a puff of smoke on the back straightaway davie looks to become the 15th car out of the atlanta journal 500 just seconds ago greg sachs pulled his automobile back behind the wall sachs and also had a good qualifying run started this race up in the 12th position was running among the leaders had an incident earlier in the race and they've just never recovered from that so greg sachs has gone behind the wall as well 272 laps on the board dale earnhardt just continues to blister his way around the racetrack right now dale overtaking cars anyplace on the speedway he's encountering them no problems so far for dale earnhardt trying to do what needed to be done to come out lead the most slaps win the race and let the chips fall where they may talk to rusted yesterday as the press has just wore him out literally about what he's going to do and if he wins the championship what can you do to win it and he talked about he'd be glad it was all over win lose or draw and ask him yesterday afternoon do you really deep down just have a gut feeling that you will win this thing i'd have to have i really have to have i just one thing i'm trying to do is get prepared for the worst in case it doesn't happen and if it does happen how i'm ready for the best right now he is doing what he needs to do and still is hanging in there davey alison is on pit road let's check it out there well it's any smell smoke under the car they're under there looking at it it's under the left front looks to me like nobody's still well it is it's a left front wheel bearing you can see the smoke rolling out from around it so they're probably not going to fix this the next 20-30 laps are getting rolling they may drive but i doubt whatever so davey alison after having a good run being right up in the top five or six most of the afternoon certainly is going to fall many many laps behind right now as dick brooks reports the car is still sitting on pit road richard pettie with a problem moments ago in turn number four almost caught the wall managed to get the car down off the wall and he's brought the stp potty active pit road where they'll begin to change right side tires on the car now dale inman beginning to look around the front end of the car they begin to take the pins out from under the hood so a problem on richard petties car it has not been a good season for the stp the race they're just getting ready they're not yet ready to pit that car was extending on the wall they've got the tires ready four new tires are ready as the gasoline is ready to go in but i don't expect them in right yet michael walter is in the pits makes his stop and is down in a way getting ready to go back on the racetrack and is reported out this should be the final pit stop of the day 275 laps are on the board 328 we'll make it up to complete it in the elana journal 500 here this afternoon and if the situation stays exactly like it is it looks like rusty wallace will be the one sync up champion let's go down to pit road we checked with richard broom on kenny strainer's car and he said they're going to try to go to about 315 laps before they bring him in for his tires and gasoline but rusty wallace as they have the pit going out for him harold elton is out on pit road we expect him in on pit road anytime here's rusty wallace he will make the final pit stop unless we have a caution or something happens on the car let's cover the stop rusty wallace brings the kodiak kaniak in they go to the right side john dotson and jimmy may car on the tires of course berry dotson the crew chief on the jack and they had several sets of tires they looked at to try to get the best set for this last run because they were getting kind of worried about the last run of some cars catching rusty wallace 12.5 seconds on the stop for right side tires and gasoline rusty wallace is down and away and now rusty wallace and that whole team are hoping and praying that a caution doesn't come out to allow everybody else to make that stop under caution it would cost him dearly if that happened dale earnhardt has made his stop let's go to jim phillips dale earnhardt brought the good red checker lay in they put on two tires this time instead of four build it up with gasoline in 13.6 seconds another good stop for the good rich team but it was just a routine stop they did not gamble on the four tires this time only two for dale earnhardt now daby allison is still sitting on pit road and he will spend several laps in there if it indeed at all they can get that car repaired and back into the race kyle petey is making his final stop right now in the peak car michael walterp is on pit road and it may be a lengthy stop for him he's been running good the hood is up on that car and that's never a good sign as they're uh taking a check under there and he's losing valuable time all these stops are being made under green and assuming this race remains green this should be the final stop of the day can trader continues or assumes i should say the lead now that dale earnhardt is pitted sturling marlin is running second jeff boedine is third dale earnhardt has come back out without losing a lap he's running at the moment in fourth spot again those four cars the only is remaining on the lead lap shrader continuing to lead earnhardt is about three quarters of a lap behind can trader so once shrader makes his pit stop dale earnhardt should cycle back around to the lead all of those cars will need to make a pit stop in order to finish the race larry pierce and moving his car down on the pit road now coming to the attention of the chattinuga crew chu crew also on pit road still michael wall trip he made three or four pit stops the hood is up on the car they continue to work on that now the third place car is on pit road jeff broedine brings the levi garret chevallade out of the attention of what el wilson and the crew let's check on that pit stop with jim phillips they're going to the right side routine stop new tires and also the pit board is out again for rusty wallace rusty wallace to bring you the codyac cognac back in the pits he's slowing down through his pit stall and they're going to go to the left side and put on left side tires also they just put on right side now they're putting on new left side jeff bow nine is down away and now bill out it's bringing just cripple board in the pits for routine service edition the final pit stop but uh unfortunate break for rusty wallace and we'll check out the situation that may be a very costly pit stop for rusty wallace it could cost him a million dollars if circumstances should go the right way wallace is down and away goes back onto the speedway talk about some drama for the winsto cup championship wallace came in here needed to finish only 18th and as we said that sounds easy but it certainly isn't on pit road right now morgan shepherd is making a stop so is ernie ervin and michael waltrip's car continues to sit on pit road with a hood up and he would have posted a top 10 finish here this afternoon but now he is losing even more time these are all routine stops and they're being made under green ernie ervin is down and away so is morgan shepherd as he goes back onto the racetrack the leader kenny strader waiting for strader to make his final stop of the day along with sterling marlin dale earnhardt now comes back up into third position that he has already made his final stop assuming this race would remain green we're winding down just 38 laps left in the atlanta journal 500 right now can shredder being posted as the leader he has yet to make a pit stop we're seeing green flag pit stops right now sterling marlin running second then comes dale earnhardt dale the first of the cars to have made a pit stop to come back up through the leaderboard so dale earnhardt right now looks to be in a good position as we wind down to the closing laps of the atlanta journal 500 little bit earlier this afternoon brad adcox was involved in a serious crash in turn number one dick brooks has been down by the infield care center he has an update for us well he did he had a serious serious crash and you can hit over there awful hard they've transported him to the georgia baptist hospital with head and chest injuries he was uh uh wasn't conscious but he's in guarded condition i'm gonna have to wait a little while to find out what happened that's the report on grand ad cocks who again crashed in turn one here in atlanta this afternoon he's been taken to georgia baptist hospital in guarded condition with head and chest injuries let's put it in a perspective as best we can where rusty wallis is right now now he made an unscheduled pit stop and that should have put him three laps down here just a moment ago he was already some two laps behind and the best we can get from nascar scoring now indicates as kenny strader pulls on a pit road he is a leader would indicate that he would be no better than 18th or 19th and as soon as we can get confirmation on that but that would be the situation he would either be 18th or 19th so he's still running right on the edge of what he needs to do to win the wisdom cup championship down to jim phillips little bit different strategy for kenny strader than the other cars that came in and pitted he's putting on left side tires they did this at charlotte they went out on the race but tried again but on left side tires instead of right side tires the rusty wallis problem was not a tire it was a wheel the wheel was loose of the studs and it routed out the holes in the wheel and the vibes marketing so bad rusty had to bring it in and get a new wheel on the car on the left side it was a left rear and when the car had won the quarters it would hop so they had to bring it in and that was the problem for rusty wallis a bad wheel things have certainly not fallen into place for the co-deac racing team here this afternoon but wallis is pretty well done what he needed to do he hasn't overextended the car he hasn't shoved it off in those corners and taken any chances to increase his odds to get the car in trouble but he is still very much on the edge of where he needs to be as soon as we can the best he could be would be 18th right now and he may be as far back as 19th after this round of pit stuff we'll check that in just a moment but he is certainly on the verge he needs to move up at least a couple of spots to feel a little bit more comfortable as this race is coming to a conclusion here very shortly it's nail button time that's for sure we're coming to the closing stages of the race we're coming up on 30 laps to go 328 we'll make up the distance right now we're on lap number 295 as Dale Earnhardt crosses his stripe sterling marlin made his pit stop just a moment ago so all of the cars in that lead group have made their green flag pit stop should be set to go the rest of the distance without any further stops barring no further problems so we'll reset the order for you Dale Earnhardt is the leader Ken Schrader has reassumed the second position at the moment they are showing darrell waltrip on the board but darrell has yet to make a pit stop so he should cycle back through once he does make a stop fourth at the moment on the racetrack sterling marlin jeff bodeine is running in fifth spot those cars the only cars remaining on the lead lap 296 of 328 laps complete and dale earnhardt is just showing him how to get it done on the atlatt international raceway this afternoon just no one able to stay with him for about the last 40 laps of this event Barney you can almost predict that from the beginning as we said he's kind of been frustrated in recent weeks and in recent races and you knew he was going to come in here and if they had that car anywhere near to his liking he was going to go out there and drive as hard as dale earnhardt has driven in his career he's certainly done it here this afternoon they average speed at this stage of the race despite the fact that we have had several cautions as a matter of fact we've had six the average speed is being shown as 133.35 three miles an hour this is a very fast racetrack we talked to a lot of drivers about that it's very critical racetrack going off into these corners the speeds is tremendous you have very little reaction time if something happens and you get up into that wall in a hurry but we see it's one of the best racetracks on the circuit to watch the race the infield is a little bit low here so the fans can from pretty much down on pit road or wherever it's one of the few tracks that the teams can see all the way around a lot of drivers kind of laugh and joke about it they say we can't say the car did this or did that because the guys can watch what we're doing out there the laps are winding down 297 are on the board 328 and it'll all be over here in the land of this afternoon of the journal 500 rusty wallace continues to run around 18th or 19th position we're trying to confirm that with nascar scoring right now if you've been with us on mr and radio all season long as we followed the winston cup and bush grand national series throughout the 1989 season you've heard us talk about the goodies raced for the money contest we gave away eight racing holiday of the month prizes and we held entries for our grand prize which is a trip the datona 500 dream vacation but we award a trip for two to speed weeks 1990 at the datona international speedway this coming february a little bit earlier this week we drew that grand prize winner and mr and radio and goodies manufacturing company offers its congratulations to melvin adams of heath spring south carolina a listener to mr and radio on ws oc radio out of charlotte north carolina melvin adams is the winner of our datona 500 dream vacation grand prize in the goodies race for the money sweepstakes he wins himself two tickets to the 1990 datona 500 an escorted tour of the nascar garage area two tickets to the goodies 300 accommodations for four nights at the treasure island in datona beach sure is florida and one thousand five hundred dollars in cash in our 1989 goodies race for the money sweepstakes we thank all those that entered we had a good time with it we look forward to doing it again in 1990 with the folks at goodies manufacturing company 300 laps go on the board 28 left now in the atlanta journal 500 day lernhardt just continues to show the way around here right now he's opened up almost three quarters of a mile lead on kens schrader now as erhardt moves into turn number three schrader is just coming off of turn number two so let's make that about a half mile lead now as the laps continue to wind down darryl waltrip is on pit road and this should be his final stop he had been running in the third position as he makes a stop let's check in the winson kelly right now couple of more cars have retired richard paddy pulled his Pontiac behind the garage area and we've caught up with Greg sachs who allen best we've mentioned earlier has retired great what happened well you know the dinner bell food line Pontiac was running real strong we're in a top five you know about 80 laps in and we cut down a dog on tire and that knocked the rear end out a little bit struggled all day and finally lost an edge at the end there that's great sachs driver of the dinner bell Pontiac and he's out of it this afternoon 15 cars have retired from the atlanta journal 500 covered darryl waltrip's pit stop jump regular stop for darryl waltrip i didn't put out the last time that they didn't get that carburetor changed and it made a really a big difference with darryl waltrip he started passing cars he got all the way up to fifth position so darryl waltrip with that new carburetor they said they might have sucked something up through the breathers into the carburetor got some trash in it but as the regular stop tires and gasoline for darryl waltrip and the tide crew only four cars are now on the lead lap dale earnhardt is the leader kenny strater is second of the lap's wind down jeff bodine is third and fourth is sterling marlin after this pit stop darryl waltrip is now being posted in fifth position he is one lap down and he isn't a lap by himself all the other cars are at least two laps down back in six is bobby hillin seventh right now they're posting allen kawiki eighth would be morgan shepherd in ninth place kyle pettie tenth is kneel bonnet eleventh belongs to ricky rudd lake speed is twelve thirteenth is darryl coke three laps down in fourteenth position is ernie ervin dale jared is fifteenth and the latest rundown we have from nascar scoring will now show rusty wallace in sixteenth position and that's all he needs if he can stay from eightteenth on end he's home free as far as the mister cup championship so wallace kind of teetering along the edge there in seventeenth place is harry gant eightteenth position four laps down as rick wilson 19th is larry pearson and in 20th spot the last car they're showing their five laps down will be hot strictness 19 laps away from deciding the 1989 winston cup champion dale earnhardt leads the atlanta journal 500 as he has just about all afternoon rusty wallace at our last scoring rundown has moved up a spot to 15th position so right now wallace is in position to clinch the winston cup championship and there are now 19 laps left in the event here at the atlanta international raceway this afternoon at the conclusion of this afternoon's event barney and i will vote the have a tampa close but no cigar award the winning driver to get two hundred dollars from have a tampa cigars the m rn broadcast drew will also be voting the peak performance award to the driver or crew chief who makes the coolest move in this afternoon's event he'll get five hundred dollars from peak eddie freese in summer coolant and the members of the media in attendance this afternoon will vote the goodies headache award that will be of seven hundred and fifty dollars this afternoon mark martin might be a good candidate for that this afternoon mark marks chance for the winston cup championship went up in flames a little bit earlier this afternoon when his engine failed and the car went up in a ball of fire down in turn one mark was okay but marks chance at the winston cup championship went out the door this afternoon well they still continue to ride around in this afternoon in the dominant car can't talk enough about it as they learn hard he has just blistered this racetrack all day long you can't overlook the run that kennie strader has put in here today also because freighter put on some of the best racing of the day trying to get the lead away from the day of earnhardt on several occasions here this afternoon outstanding run for shurling marlin and jeff bo dine's been right in the thick of things and darryl waltrop's bounce back on a couple of times and is still running up there in fifth position the true value hard charger points as we approach lap three hundred there just a moment ago obviously earnhardt would be the leader in that strader is second marlin sturling marlin would be third jeff bo dine fourth and dick trickle in fifth position as they look back on this 1989 season so many things have happened in 1989 it's been a year of contrast a lot of first and fans remember 1989 is truly a most unusual year in winston cup darryl waltrop won his first day tona 500 bill ellie it was almost out of the championship alan before the year began breaking that risk down there at day tona and missing several races and getting way behind in the points the racing world kind of had so many things to think about this year rusty wallace proved that he had the championship caliber stuff and that last year's run for the championship was no fluke mark martin finally got his first win death of course claim tim richman this year that a lot of race fans have really been sad about and many will talk a lot about what happened and they'll learn what really truly happened they'll earn hearts battle for the championship as it all went away in the last three or four races you know i spent the last week week and a half or so sifting back through some of our race broadcast beginning to prepare our road to the winston cup feature that we'll do in a couple of weeks when we get to new york and it really has been an interesting season just the twists and turns that it takes over the 10 months that we can test the winston cup championship over it really so many different things happen in the course of a season that if you're a daylord harder if you're a rusty wallace you can't point to any one thing or one event and say this won me the championship or this lost me the championship the winston cup championship is truly determined through excellence over 29 races week to week to week to week and really you look back over the season and you and you know people talk about day learn harden charlotte and what happened in north wolksboro with ricky rudd but the winston cup championship is determined on week to week excellence and yeah there are a couple of incidents like that that may cost you some finishing spots let's remember that in the spring here in march rusty wallace did not finish the race he was one of the first cars out so it's really been an interesting season it's been an up and down season drivers who were involved in the points race at the beginning of the season remember that allen kawiki led the points in the beginning of the year now he's back trying to hold on to 15th spot so it's really been quite a year a lot of drivers have had good seasons a lot of drivers have had seasons not like they'd expect to have and i think there's an awful lot of folks that although they'll be relieved that the season is over this year can't wait to get the day toned in february and start 1990 be another interesting year coming up 316 laps are on the board right now as day learn hard continues to set the pace we can give you another update on grant ad cox he has been transferred to georgia babbis hospital and the report we get is his condition is very serious that is grant ad cox has been transferred to georgia babbis hospital in very serious condition and that is all that we can report to you at this time has 317 laps go up on the board day learn hard hasn't lifted that throttle all afternoon joe more they're showing now a little better than 17 and four tenths seconds the advantage on kenny's freighter and there will be 10 laps to go good look after a while maybe he just kind of soft pedal for a while knowing there's no chance that he's gonna be able to get up there and do any more than he's done already but uh he's still driving the daylights out of that car you know just thinking of back when uh alan best what he was talking about how this year has gone last year this time the exact same situation except the names were different at least one of the names were different bill elliot came in with a strong lead rusty while us came out and did exactly what he had to do that was win the race and of course he could do no more except maybe hope something would go wrong in elliot's bid this year the same situation but a little bit different because of the names it was rusty wallace on the other end of the deal rusty wallace came in here he had to do everything possible and of course to hold on to the car and keep it out there to hold on to the championship bid for day learn heart just win the race and that's exactly what he's about to do nine laps to go for day learn heart to win the atlanta journal five hundred nine laps to go for rusty wallace to win a million dollar winston cup championship it's nail bite in time in the cody act that jim phillips what's the mood they're all watching the watches they quit back and got more tires they have six eight tires laid up here in case something happens if i can get to them real quick they're all just watching that lap counter they look over to it and see how many laps every time by even though they really in their mind they know they want to make sure and get every lap counted and sometimes it looks like they want to count them twice you can well understand that with eight laps to go 320 on the board eight more circuits around here that'll be quite a day for day learn heart if rusty wallace can just hold on to what he has as allen pointed out he'll be the winston cup champion but it's not going to be a bad day therefore day learn heart if he finished a second in the winston cup points he'll collect three hundred and thirty thousand dollars he'll collect another one hundred thousand dollars from unical in their contingency point fund so today clinching it up if he can end up in that number two spot he would be number one for unical that's four hundred and thirty thousand dollars not a bad day's work not a bad day's work at all already now with eight laps to go in the atlanta journal five hundred we see the uh assemblage beginning to gather in victory lane for the celebration eight laps left in the 1989 winston cup season day learn heart leads the atlanta journal five hundred let's go to jim phillips more rich with children she's done all you could do well we're doing what we come here to do so far you know we got a few laps to go and you know we just have to see it ain't over yet they've done everything they could do they run up front all day they've got those extra bonus points we're leading the most laps they've got the bonus points all you can get still a few laps to go that it looks good for day learn heart to win six laps to go as a matter of fact and if you come here and pick up all the possible winston cup points you can that is exactly all you can do and win the race and so far it looks like ernhardt may be on his way to victory lane day learn heart now takes the card down the back straightaway can shredder the second place runner is more than half a lap behind ernhardt or just about a half a lap behind ernhardt we should say as dale comes down to the start finish line now harold kinder holds out the open fist and day learn heart will get the five lap to go signal there are five laps remaining in the 1989 season day learn heart running all by himself up to turn one ernhardt gets around the kyle petting car now closes on davey allison davey puts it right down at the bottom of the racetrack and allows ernhardt plenty erasing room the good rich air relays swings wild on the back straightaway to bypass that car keeping it right up against the outside retaining wall and midway on the banking through turn three he gets around davey allison and bill elliot is the next car on his side ernhardt comes off turn number four he doesn't lift that throttle at all he's catching a lot of lap traffic and bunches a traffic he just sandwiches that car right in between and keeps on getting it he's found a pace that he likes and that's flat out wide open and that's a way he takes it back to turn one clear sailing back into turn one he takes a groove about midway up the banking comes off the corner he goes out to the outside retaining wall straightens it out now and hits down the back straightaway pack a traffic ahead of ernhardt but he has nothing to worry about with the the space that he has between he and his second place car of kens freighter ernhardt just holds its steady through turn four ernhardt with about three quarters of a mile lead on kens freighter it's a run to the checkered flag now for dale he has led the most laps he has dominated the atlanta journal 500 and rusty wallace right now we're showing him in 15th position if he maintains his track position he will win the winston cup championship there are three laps to go ernhardt's in two ernhardt off the banking in turn number two he'll close into the kyle petting car next as he hits on the back straightaway ernhardt keeps it right up against the outside retaining wall goes around above brett go dine keeps it high up in turn three drops down midway on the banking and as he comes off turn number four all the fans beginning to get on their feet move down to the front of the grandstand getting ready to witness victory lane ceremonies and rusty wallace's championship here this afternoon if he can hold just what he has for a couple of more circuits around this racetrack back to turn one ernhardt climbs the banking he'll go around the built eliot car hunt strictly and also next in mind for the good rent chillerway he'll take it wide once again off turn number two pulls up alongside bill elliot he gets around bill elliot with no problem hunt strictly and his straight ahead ernhardt keeps it right in the middle groove around the third turn he's got hunt strictly right ahead of it as dale brings the good rent chillerway up off of turn number four harold kinder begins to wave the white flag and the fans stand on their feet dale earnhardt one and a half miles to go to win the atlanta journal five hundred he's back to turn one and he'll pull up on the hunt strictly car hunt gives him plenty of racing room he's got the inside groove ernhardt's way up in the banking last time around as he leads the way on the back stretch dale earnhardt on his way to victory here in atlanta earnhardt still right up against that outside retaining wall as he moves above hunt strictly and heading into the third turn he can shut it down and coast across the stride final lap for dale earnhardt as he works in the turn number four to win the atlanta journal five hundred he comes out of the corner moves around one of the lap taught him a wheels comes down to the line takes the checkered flag and he will win the journal five hundred rusty wallace will come across the line behind him here in just a moment and he will win the winstick up championship as he sweeps around this racetrack kenny serrater will finish second jeff bowdine will run third and in fourth place that will go to sterling marlin we're still looking for rusty wallace's car to come on around and take the checkered flag he's just heading over into turn number three he's behind a couple of lap cars also he moves up behind ricky rudd and the fans are beginning to wave as wallace comes across the line comes down and takes the checkered flag from harrow kinder and he is the champion let's go down to jim phillips rusty wallace is the 1989 winston kept champion raman beetle it's been an up and down here but it all came together for you here today yeah it really did you know these guys really stuck together and i can't say enough you know this has been a dream we've had for seven years when we finally did it so we're really pleased and i'm just really proud for berry and harrow and rusty and jimmy and everybody back to shop and all the crew everybody's done a hell of a job and i'm really proud of them of course you've been through championships yourself but today it was on needles and pins all day long yeah we just didn't have any luck at all we had a lot of tire troubles so it's one of those deals but least do we come through in the end so that's all the matter that's raman beetle the car owner for rusty wallace says they pulled it off today a lot of anxious moments they had of course tire problems and they had wheel problems and a lot of other problems but rusty wallace again is the 1989 winston kept checking and kenny strader let me update that i said crater was going to finish second we're looking around the racetrack for him and apparently he had some troubles on that final lap and just finally came across the star finish line that's going to drop strader back to at least fourth position unofficially and that will move jeff bowdian up to a second place finish in stirling marlin third and finishing fourth would be strader and fifth would be darryl wall rusty wallace has pulled his car onto pit road and is still inside the machine and before he gets out we can get a word for him let's check in quickly with winston kelly we've caught up with kenny strader who lost power on the last lap kenny what happened i don't know we you know when we had a second place car all day i guess we ran second by his main laps his day of lead but uh she quit we lost fuel pressure but you know we wanted to have a good run for the Folgers crew but we just come up a little shark day outstanding run today though the car seemed awfully strong had a car was good but we're taking home in fourth well he came home in fourth but he very well may have caught that fifth place in the winston cup chase as he was only 71 points behind bill elliot going into today's race and based on our last rundown bill elliot was far enough back in the running order that kenny strader could very well have moved up to fifth position well that was a heartbreaker to have that problem on the final lap here rusty wallace climbed out of his car a moment ago and instead of the first thing he did was climb on top of the car do a little jump up and down like a trampoline bounce off the top hit the hood and then bounce all the way down of course onto the pit road and is now climbed in a convertible and will be taken around this racetrack as the fans will get a look at the 1989 winston cup championship let's check in with jim phillips see if you pick it up he's really beside a happy man i'll guarantee you rushed you all as you did some dancing there congratulations sir i'll tell you what i'll tell you what thank you oh man i can't believe it had two flat tires loose lug nuts Mr. Chassis set up at the beginning the guys did a great job and just held on to run as hard as i could run that thing and uh god i never thought i missed a set up like i did but uh i like to congratulate dale earnhardt i'm glad he won i'm glad i won the championship good to see two good friends up front well you started out at daytona didn't start out too good for you but it got better immediately after daytona yeah sure did you know i mean we really run good i mean doverdell where north will explore on the days about the three most rotten races we had and i can't believe it you know because yesterday we run so good in practice i thought we really had it and uh we just missed it a little bit i missed it uh car was just loose we got it fixed then we got it lost that lap early when we got out of sync on the pit stop and then we lost the tire and oh man i'll tell you i was just praying i just praying earlier in the season of course uh a big hug from raimin beetle his car owner and raimin's going to climb in too rusty going into charlotte you were behind dale earnhardt in the points did you have your doubts that you could pull it off at charlotte i wondered you know i wondered i just uh man i'm just happy this damn year's over with because uh love all them fans even all the ones up there booing for me i'll tell you but uh wonderful race i just can't say enough you know i like to thank cody act my sponsor uh mobile one ac spark plugs and poniac and good year tires everybody because they just had a wonderful year and uh sure i had a problem today and dale blew me off but hey i blew the field off last year and the Elliot one so i guess that's what happens every now and then at the first of the race did you think you were played at two conservative a little bit you come in one time and you there wasn't anything wrong no i didn't play a conservative i just run that thing as hard as it could that's what i was gonna do i had a bad vibration i thought i had a flat tire and what it was just a tire with a bunch of rubber buildup on it i guess and uh that's what happened but uh 89's over buddy she's history she's mine and i love it that's rusty wallace the 1989 Winston cup champion let's go down to victory lane all right i'll tell you there's a there's a happy crew here i'll tell you that signing autographs giving away helmets and about everything you can do they'll tell you uh you know it's it's hard to say what to say but uh you've been here you've also been out there where he is and it's just uh one of those things it's very competitive anymore and these things happen well i do i'd like to congratulate rusted and his team for winning championship my guys did all they could do today and uh they worked all early all year long i'd like to think the support and uh like to thank all the race fans for their support we've had a good year and good wrench and everybody stood behind us it's just been a it's been a pretty good year we end up on a win a note here maybe we'll start out on a win a note a day toner you sure had it hooked up today well uh curtain may have been down here testing and you know getting this thing uh dial in and uh you know we felt like we had a good combination rusty looked pretty good and practiced yesterday but uh we just got in and worked a little harder and tried a few little things there it really helped us and i think that was a combination of car state real consistent all day and couldn't ask for anything better the tires and everything you know uh used to when the racers was over and everybody go home and go to back to work or do whatever you got to do it's a very short time you got to start this thing all over again and as serious as as six or eight or eight or ten people are anymore what happens through the winter now well we're gonna relax a week but then we'll go to the banquet and get second place money and then we'll go back and start testing in daytona for long and we're preparing for daytona right now we've been working on some combinations with engines and stuff for the last month so Eddie Lanier and Kirk and all the guys back in the shop are working really hard to get those new cars ready for it in 1990 well i'll tell you they're looking pretty good here guys they just uh uh i think most everybody's pretty happy with it anyway that stick Brooks down at victory lane with Dale Earnhardt winner of today's Atlanta journal 500 moved up into second position in the Winston Cup point standings quite a gain in money too and Dale said two weeks down the line they'll be in New York where we'll crown rusty Wallace the Winston Cup champion let's go back to Winston Kelly we've caught up with Jeff Bodine who came in second this afternoon after Kenny Schrader had problems there on the last lap Jeff a good run today probably one of the quietest second place finishes i've seen all year we just kind of slid right in there we're real happy with that uh this is the last time i'm going to be taking this Levi Garrett uniform off and of course i'd like to have gone out of winter but like i told the fellas on the radio uh uh we gave it our best shot we came up second which isn't all that bad and i was real proud of them and it's been a pleasure working with them and would Rick Henrich Levi Garrett all our sponsors in Chevrolet and tomorrow well right now i guess i've along to four junior Johnson and that team and uh we're gonna have a little meeting tomorrow so that'll make it i guess official but we're happy with a run uh we worked hard believe me the car wasn't running very good in the beginning of race and we just kept getting caution making adjustments and uh we finally made some adjustments that worked pretty good and uh so we're happy i want to say hi to Kathy berry Matthew everyone back home uh we love you we'll be home tomorrow with his second place finished Jeff Bodine solidly in the top 10 in the Winston Cup points chase and just possibly could have caught Ricky Rudd he was 52 points behind Ricky going into today's race he might have caught that as Ricky finished a little bit further down in the fact in the pack unofficially we show the difference between Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt as being 12 points enough to give him the championship here this afternoon Dale Earnhardt has won the Atlanta Journal 500 this afternoon Rusty Wallace has clinched the 1989 Winston Cup Series Championship Dick Brooks is standing by with Rusty Scroochie well berry dawson standing here he's a pretty happy fellow i'd say you know i guess one of the things that you have to think about uh if you're going to ask somebody something is it's been everybody's been saying can you do it are you going to do it what do you think can you do what you do yesterday what about last week what about right now right now i feel like laying down for about six months i just i tell you we tried and tried and tried and did everything right to the car that we could to prepare it in case we got a lap down we could make it up but i tell you Dale just spanked our bus today they were too strong and uh my hats off to them their champions too and Rusty did a great job every entire member on the blue max team the ones that are at home the ones that are here they're the reason we're champions well if anybody knows what happened to Dale today it's got to be you guys because you did exactly the same thing last year and uh you know somebody's got to win somebody's got to lose but uh this time this time it was favorable for you this time it was favorable for us we knew where he was we knew uh we knew what patch you asked for he was crossing on the track all day and uh i just got to think i got to think Kodiak mobile one AC spark plugs and especially Pontiac for making his champions do y'all get together now and you're going to say well we're gonna we've got to go to work next week and we've got to do this thing again next year you're going to take some time off well i think uh i think we need a little time off and i've been asked all week if we were going to stroke and and uh i didn't say anything but i'll let you know right now we're going to stroke down 55th and 5th I heard that all right that's a bunch of happy people and well they should be winning the Western Cup championship here this afternoon it's been an interesting day here in Atlanta a lot of stories to talk about there've been a lot of things we've followed all through the race among them have been a number of cool moves that we've seen on the racetrack let's get some nominations for our peak cool over the race award first Joe Moore over in turns one and two I don't know throw a nomination towards Mark Martin when it happened i'm sure there was nothing cool about it but his car was on fire he kept it out of oncoming traffic kept it away from the retaining walls brought it down to the inside of the racetrack parked it safely then climbed out so nothing cool about it when it happened but i think it was a pretty cool move so i'll vote for Mark Martin David Hyatt in turns three and four David well back on lap 84 where the third caution came out Dave Marcus tagged the wall about midway down the back straightaway cut a tire and dropped down to the bottom of the racetrack suddenly right at the entrance of turn three he came back up the banking in front of Rick Mast and a couple of other cars and he was able to pull it back down and keep it out of trouble and go on to run a little farther in the race so my nod goes to Dave Marcus that's cold predict Brooks well i guess that's all for good i talked to him later he had a little smoke and dust and oil on his face and i believe that i rode one of them things from about a mile and a half one time on fire anytime you can get out of it get it out of everybody's way it's got to be a cool move so i got to do the same thing Jim Phillips we'll get with Jim Phillips in just a minute Winston Kelly your vote Alan i was standing here in the garage here in watch Mark Martin go through one and two and although i couldn't see him get out of the car that had to be one of the coolest moves of the race so i'll cast my nomination also to Mark Martin before we throw it back to you we've caught up with Starling Marlon who came home in third Starling this is getting to be a habit here at Atlanta qualify well wreck your number one car bring out the backup car start from the back go up to the top five how about today's race hey they went real good uh the snow calls were just ran a perfect all day it was a little too tight the most of the day and you know but the crew went done one heck of a job getting the car ready yesterday and and getting out the last practice and uh you know i gotta tell them after the motor room we'll get some real good gas mileage and uh you know it's gonna want us race here one of these days and you know it's just it helps this year to get going for next year third place and uh i'm looking forward i can wait i'm ready to start next year right now also helped you move up one slot from 13th to 12th in a Winston Cup points chase yet i knew it was pretty tight with Morgan and and he had run good and and couldn't nothing happen but you know the team we should have had finished in top five have a half dozen times this year and just one reason other we had and it's you know stuff that happened and uh maybe it's turns a luck round and i'm looking forward next year that's Starling Marlon he brings the Sonoco Alsmobile home in third this afternoon continuing our voting for the peak performance come over the race award let's try again for Jim Phillips well i'm going to give it to the tied crew because if they had not changed that carburetor there's no telling word they're a Walter for the finished but they changed the carburetor and he worked his way back up to fifth great run for you Darrell yeah it really was uh kind of lap down early and just couldn't ever get it back the way Dale was running and uh but i'll tell you one thing i was thrilled the way the guy has changed that carburetor they uh they dove in there and i told Jeff i said look Jeff we're gonna lose the lap let's just get the thing changed get it right and we'll go from there and they did it without losing a lap and uh i don't know what you voting on but they get a great big vote from ODW well that was the peak cool move of the race is what i was voting on there yeah that's great it really is uh just again i want to thank the lord for a good day for us and uh i hope grandad Cox is okay we're praying for him that's Darrell Walter fifth place finished today and again that crew changing the carburetor made it work for him today Barney i've never been in a race car doing about 150 miles an hour with an on fire underneath me and a cockpit full of smoke uh but that sure looked awful cool to me with Mark Martin getting the car down off the banking getting stopped and getting out without getting himself crashed or getting in anybody else's way so i'll give it on to Mark Martin as well it takes a lot of perseverance to kind of do what he did over there and keep that car running in a straight line at 140-50 miles an hour because usually when an engine blows all the flames gonna come up in there and the temptation is to slam on the brakes get it stopped and if you do all that oil underneath the car it's going to get very hot in there but if a guy really keeps his head he'll drive straight ahead and blow the flames out and then get out of the car and that's what he did so i think i'll cast a vote in that direction also so Mark Martin will be awarded $500 is one of the peak performance cool move of the race award some of the other awards being passed out here today Mark has also been voted the goodies headache award by the members of the press and attendance today $750 will go to mark plus the $250 donation to the Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem North Carolina in Mark's name also Dale Earnhardt will win the Gatorade Circle of Champions award from today's Atlanta Journal 500 Dale will also win the True Value Hard Charger Award Dale Jarrett wins the Heinz Ketchup Award this afternoon and Sterling Marlin the Van Camps Determination Award as the highest finishing non-winner well have a tap in Philly cigars will award $200 for the close but no cigar award here this afternoon that's going to be a close one i'm tempted to go with three or four different cars and Sterling Marlin certainly is a candidate for that certainly of course would be the gentleman who had problems on the last lap and that's Kenny Schrader so i think i'm going to cast a vote in the direction of Kenny Schrader he was so close and ran Earnhardt all day long and some of the best racing of the day between those two i think you'll get my vote in that department Dale was so strong today Kenny was really the only car to come close to him he was the only one that was able to run with Dale just about any time from when they drop the green flag so we'll give Ken Schrader $200 from half a Tampa cigars as the winner of the close but no cigar award let's take you back through the running order as we have it here right now Earnhardt is the winner it's his fifth win of 1989 as the season comes down to a close here in Atlanta Jeff Boudin will finish second good run for him here today Sterling Marlin finishes third fourth ghost of Kenny Schrader Darryl Walter finished fifth sixth to Kyle Petty seventh to Bobby Hillen eighth spot we'll go to Morgan Shepherd finishing ninth will be Neil Bonnet in 10th that's lake speed the 11th position goes to Ernie Ervin finishing 12th they're showing Derek Cope the 13th position the pole sitter who had a shot at over four hundred thousand dollars this afternoon Alan Kawicki has to settle in in 13th position 14th to Ricky Rudd 15th goes to Rusty Wallace that will cleanse the championship for him Dale Jarrett posted a 16th place finish Harry Gant 17th 18th spot goes to Rick Wilson 19th the Larry Pearson 20th to Hut Strickland 21st to Jim Soder 22nd to Rich Bickle finishing 23rd is Brett Bowdyne 24th will go to Jack Pennington and 25th spot goes to Davey Allison 26th is Michael Walter Bill Elliott finished 27th 28th Richard Petty Greg Sacks came home 29th Mark Martin after the incident you heard us describe came home in the 30th spot 31st was Rick Mast finishing in the 32nd spot was Gran Adcox 33rd was Dave Marcus 34th on the racist afternoon Rob Moroso Dick Trickel was 35th 36th was AJ Foy Jimmy Spencer was 37th 38th was Mickey Gibbs 39th was Ken Reagan Terri Labati finished 40th 41st was Rodney Combs and the 42nd finisher this afternoon was Phil Parsons that's been quite an afternoon it really has and the Util Cal money does goes unclaimed only one time the season was the money one of that one Rusty Wallace did it up at Rockingham back in the March race up there so it moves to Daytona and it'll be worth $212,800 and if a man wins that and wins the poll and wins the race and everything down there he can toad out a pretty good bunch of money as they say up where I live one more thing dad to an already interesting speed week when we get to Daytona in February before we leave there final broadcast of 1989 or some folks we'd like to thank all the track promoters have been so kind to MRN during the season and all the drivers and crews that put up with us week after week as we come around to kind of bug them for interviews and whatever and just all the people who have been really helpful to motor racing network in 1989 and a special thanks to David Hyatt today the young man who filled in very admirably over in turn number three this afternoon it's not easy to get put out there under fire in the middle of a championship battle and everything that went on and he did a great job we'd also like to pass along to you word if you were with us earlier this afternoon Grant Adcox was involved in a very serious accident here in turn one at the Atlanta International Raceway he was transported from the Enfield care center to the Georgia Baptist Hospital the last report we had was no change from the previous report Grant is in very serious condition at the Georgia Baptist Hospital we'll update you further as we get it it's been quite a day it's been quite a season we hope you'll join us in a couple of weeks as we recap it all on our road to the Winston Cup broadcast our thanks for all season long great work to Martha Oliver and Augusta Johnson who have handled the scoring loop for us today our pit runners today Mark Webb Ted Stone and Herman Thomas Joe Moore covered the action for us in turns one and two David Hyatt and turns three and four down on pit road Dick Brooks Jim Phillips and Winston Kelly for Barney Hall I'm Alan Bestwood congratulating Dale Earnhardt on winning the Atlanta Journal 500 and congratulating Rusty Wallace the 1989 Winston Cup series champion motor racing network classics is a production of the motor racing network with studios in Concord North Carolina remember to visit mrn.com for all the latest news and information any use of the accounts or descriptions contained in this broadcast must be with the express written permission of NASCAR and the motor racing network