Monday, April 6, 1998 | 8:48 a.m.
Martin, the first driver ever to turn a lap on the 1 1/2 -mile oval and the winner of the track's first race, won Sunday's Winston Cup race, then immediately began trying to pump the $130 million superspeedway.
"This is a state-of-the art facility that we come to and for that I'm thankful," Martin said. "You've got to hand it to somebody who is willing to stand up and make a move to further the sport, to better the sport, to raise the image of the sport.
"This is an awesome place to be and it's a big place to win, regardless of if it is a one-groove track or whatever else negative you want to say about the track's surface."
His comments were echoed by his car's owner, Jack Roush, whose cars have won three of the first four NASCAR events hosted by the year-old track.
"Whenever we get a new track like this that has different characteristics there is some anxiety, but we have positive feelings for it," Roush said. "Over time, this track will be fondly thought of for its uniqueness the same as people feel anxious about it today for its uniqueness."
Some of the unique things about the track are a fourth turn that has a bump in the middle and is considered dangerously tight at the exit, a first turn that tends to get wet even when it's not raining and a surface that drivers say is too slick to handle side-by-side racing.
All the negatives crystallized on the first turn of the second lap, when a highway-style chain reaction of crashes damaged 10 cars, knocking three out of the race. The pileups, which delayed the race by 33 minutes, ended any hopes of victory for Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon and caused many drivers' bitter feelings to resurface.
"I've never seen anything like this," said 27-year veteran Darrell Waltrip, one of crash victims and the cause of a similar fiasco in virtually the same spot on the first lap last year.
"It's just a terrible race track," said Kenny Wallace, also damaged in the wrecks.
Speedway general manager Eddie Gossage vowed that things will improve.
"We want these drivers and NASCAR to know that we will make the changes and improvements necessary to the speedway," he said. "We will ask the drivers for their input and most certainly seek direction from NASCAR."
There's no doubt drivers would like this place to be perfect. After all, the race drew roughly 200,000, about 15,000 more than last year, and the overall purse was more than $4 million, one of the year's most lucrative.
Martin took home $356,850 of it for his second title of the year and the 24th of his career. He moved from seventh to fourth in the points race, 57 behind Rusty Wallace, who stayed on top despite finishing 12th.
Martin pulled into the lead for good with 30 laps left as he overtook teammate Chad Little coming out of a caution. Little wound up second, the best of his 128-start career, to provide Roush with a 1-2 finish.
Roush drivers also finished fifth (Johnny Benson), 29th (Jeff Burton) and 30th (Ted Musgrave).
Burton, the defending champion, led for 48 laps before his car suffered damage on the right side. That same problem knocked out pole-sitter Jeremy Mayfield, who had led 105 of the first 177 laps.
"I thought we had the two best cars and neither of us will get a chance to show what we really had, unfortunately," Burton said.
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