Talladega and Sears Point notes

>From NASCAR Public Relations

APR. 29, 1996

NASCAR WINSTON CUP NOTES OF INTEREST

DAYTONA BEACH. Fla. --- Wrapping up Talladega:

*** Sterling Marlin's win in Sunday's Winston Select 500 at Talladega Superspeedway kept a string going that dates back two decades. No defending champion of the Winston Select 500 has repeated as winner since Buddy Baker did so in 1975 and '76, breaking David Pearson's string of three straight 1972-74.

*** With his $32,155 in winnings, Ernie Irvan crossed the $6 million mark in career winnings. His total now reads $6,002,473.

*** Dale Earnhardt's third-place finish was his sixth in the last seven Winston Select 500s.

*** Dale Jarrett's second-place finish in Sunday's race was the second-consecutive Talladega event in which he has finished in the runner-up spot. He finished second in the Sears Diehard 500 last July --- to Sterling Marlin.

*** None of top-finishers in last year's Winston Select 500 finished in the top five Sunday.

TURNING TO SEARS POINT And the Save Mart Supermarkets 300

*** Just how good does Ricky Rudd get around Sears Point? Well, let's look at the numbers: In seven races since the NASCAR Winston Cup Series first went to the wine country of California in 1989, Rudd has posted six top-five finishes, including a win in that first year. To show his versatility, those finishes have come in three different car makes. The only year he finished outside the top five was a 14th-place finish ill 1994. That drops his average finishing position there to 4.42. Busch Poles? Rudd has four of them including last year's top spot.

*** Ernie Irvan is the only driver to have won more than once at Sears Point. Irvan captured the top spot While driving for the Morgan-McClure Kodak Team and again in 1994 driving for his current team, the Robert Yates/Texaco/Havoline Ford. From 1991-94, Irvan had two wins, a second and a fourth at Sears Point

Jack Durbin indy500@freenet.tlh.fl.us Motorsport News International jackd@motorsport.com (Moderators for "rec.autos.sport.info") Homepage http://www.freenet.tlh.fl.us/users/indy500/index.html