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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Wallace Holds Off Rudd For 4th Winston Win Of Year

Compiled From Wire Services

Rusty Wallace says his win in Sunday’s Miller 500 was a lot harder than it had to be.

Wallace took his only lead with 30 laps remaining and held off a strong challenge from Ricky Rudd to earn his fourth Winston Cup victory of the season.

Wallace, who now has three wins at Pocono Raceway and 45 in his career, stayed with the leaders most of the way, but never led until he passed Rudd on lap 171.

The 1989 Winston Cup champion led the rest of the 200-lap race on the 2.5-mile tri-oval, driving his Ford Thunderbird across the finish line about five car-lengths - or 0.3-seconds - ahead of Rudd’s Ford.

“I qualified bad again,” explained Wallace, who started 13th in the 41-car field. “Then I had to work my way up through the leaders and the problem was it was green-flag racing nearly all day.

The race was slowed by a four-car incident on lap two, then remained under the green flag for 157 laps. A piece of debris brought out a yellow flag on lap 160.

That was when Wallace was finally able to make the adjustments that got him to the front.

Mark Martin, who started from the pole and led seven times for a total of 121 laps, was out front when the second caution flag waved. He effectively dropped from contention, though, when his team had a problem with an air gun and had to make a second stop to change his right rear tire.

When the green flag came out on lap 155, Wallace was second and began hounding Rudd, who is winless this season, finally moving past him on the inside as they drove through turn two.

Wallace’s average speed of 144.892 mph broke the track record of 144.023 set by Alan Kulwicki in June of 1992.