Drivers just wanted to race

Monday, March 2, 1998 | 5:56 a.m.

It may not have featured the close, side-by-side racing that has made NASCAR's Winston Cup Series so wildly popular. But Sunday's inaugural Las Vegas 400 was a huge hit with at least one race fan.

"I loved it," Mark Martin said after cruising to an anticlimactic victory over Jeff Burton despite a badly vibrating transmission.

The 267-lap race was slowed by only two caution periods -- a stark contrast to Saturday's Busch Grand National Series race, which was interrupted by seven yellow flags and a spectacular multi-car crash on the final lap.

"I think (the fans) got that yesterday, with cars turning over and all that mess," Martin said. "I think that the Winston Cup drivers didn't really want to wreck today. I don't think that, deep down inside, they thought that a crazy wreck for taking a risky move wouldn't make a lot of sense.

"It wasn't in order today -- some days it certainly looks like that they decide that that is in order. Today, all the drivers used their heads and decided that they wanted to run this race and finish this race."

Martin led a parade of Fords to the finish line as the Taurus claimed the top seven finishing spots and 13 of the top 14. Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt, who finished eighth, was the lone non-Ford driver in the top 10 and the only one on the lead lap.

Martin, who led the final 23 laps and never was seriously challenged in the closing laps by Burton or the third-place car, Rusty Wallace, dismissed the notion that the 111,000 fans didn't get to see a representative NASCAR race.

"I didn't see much of the race -- I had a lot of things on my mind -- but I know that I passed a lot of cars," Martin said. "I passed a whole lot of cars and that is racing to me.

"Whether it's the kind of show that you had hoped you would see here or not, I can't answer that. I can tell you that I passed a whole lot of cars and at another race track, I couldn't have done that. So this is a racing race track. Next time, the show will probably be completely different than it was today -- that's one thing you can always expect from Winston Cup racing."

Martin said that although the design of the 1.5-mile superspeedway allows for three-abreast racing all the way around the track, most drivers chose to play it safe -- especially in the turns.

"It was a very, very secure race track," Martin said. "When you go it three wide in these corners, you can do it but it's better if you don't. I think when it got three abreast, someone backed out. I was in three-wide situations a number of times when one of the three backed out of it and let it down to two, which made it a passable situation.

"This race track is conducive to two- and three-wide racing (but) two-wide racing is about as much as you need to do when you're really racing to win and driving hard because you need some slide factor in there. If you don't allow some slide factor, then you're going to run out of room."

After leading on three separate occasions during the first 114 laps, Martin picked up a bad vibration in the transmission of his No. 6 Valvoline Ford midway through the race and decided to go for broke.

"I was just sure we were going to fall out of the race," Martin said. "Early in the race, 120 laps into the race, we had a terrible vibration and I was sure we were going to fall out but I prepared myself to accept it. I said to myself, 'I want to be leading if that happens,' so we went to the front and tried to stay there.

"I just feel like God answered my prayers today."

Martin, who said the transmission wouldn't have made it another 100 miles, was thrilled to be around at the end and take the checkered flag before the largest crowd in Nevada sports history.

"There are a few race tracks I really, really do like and this one is certainly on the top of the list now," Martin said. "It's a big win to win the inaugural race here in Vegas. It's a big win for a Ford Taurus and it's a big win for a brand-new race team."

Although Martin has been driving for team owner Jack Roush since 1988, he recently moved his shop to Mooresville, N.C., to be closer to the Roush five-car stable (to which Burton belongs).

Although he won four races last year and finished third in the Winston Cup standings, Martin, who was winless in 1996, said he no longer takes winning for granted.

"I've gotten to the point now ... that I don't know if they're ever going to come and each one is real special," the 39-year-old Martin said. "It's real hard to win these races and we may win 20 or 30 more in my career but we may not win any more and I realize that.

"I went through a season in 1996 where I had a good race team and good cars and I didn't win a race and that broke me from expecting to win. I expect to do my best and I expect everyone around me to do their best and that might win two in a row like it did last year, and it might not win a race like it did the year before."

The race was completed in an un-NASCAR-like 2 hours and 43 minutes, thanks to only two caution periods for only nine laps. Kenny Irwin brought out the first yellow flag when he spun in turn four on lap 89 and Jeff Green brought out the second with a spin exiting turn two on lap 114.

There were 24 lead changes among 12 drivers and 10 cars finished on the lead lap.