North Wilkesboro

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- In a telling twist, Jeff Gordon, the driver who most represents the changing face of Winston Cup racing, won the last race scheduled at this tiny, five-eighths-mile speedway in the Carolina hills.A standing-room crowd of more than 40,000 jammed the North Wilkesboro Speedway to witness the running of the Tyson Holly Farms 400 and the end of an era after a half-century, as NASCAR moves its major-league series to new and bigger facilities in Texas and New Hampshire next season.

It used to be a laughingstock, a sport whose players wore so many advertising patches on their uniforms you could hardly see the cloth, a sport whose fans were viewed as roughnecks, grease monkeys and Southern rednecks -- a sport whose very status as a sport was questioned.Now, Winston Cup stock car racing is no laughing matter. It has become a giant, a corporate playground and a family sport that attracts fans from all economic levels across the country.How big has it grown? A few months ago, Eddie Gossage, the vice president and general manager of the new Texas International Raceway near Fort Worth, sat down in the middle of his then-unpaved, 1.5-mile speedway and surveyed its 150,061 seats.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is the track where it all began for NASCAR and Winston Cup stock car racing.Here, behind the red clapboard walls that make up the old-fashioned face of North Wilkesboro Speedway is the oldest track on the NASCAR circuit.Tomorrow, at age 50, the .625-mile track will run its last Winston Cup race, the Tyson Holly Farms 400, ending a long, colorful history and, perhaps more than anything else, signifying the end of an era.The little track that ran its first race in 1947, where the legendary Junior Johnson left the plowing of a cornfield to drive a race among moonshiners' cars in 1948 and that ran its first NASCAR race in a division called Strictly Stock, has reached the end of its road.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- In a telling twist, Jeff Gordon, the driver who most represents the changing face of Winston Cup racing, won the last race scheduled at this tiny, five-eighths-mile speedway in the Carolina hills.A standing-room crowd of more than 40,000 jammed the North Wilkesboro Speedway to witness the running of the Tyson Holly Farms 400 and the end of an era after a half-century, as NASCAR moves its major-league series to new and bigger facilities in Texas and New Hampshire next season.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Darrell Waltrip broke a 34-race winless streak yesterday, keeping his car out of trouble and capturing the First Union 400 NASCAR race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.Waltrip, who passed Jimmy Spencer with 52 laps remaining on the .625-mile track, became the seventh driver to win this season as many events. He also has won 10 of 34 races on this short track in the North Carolina mountains.But Waltrip, 44, from Franklin, Tenn., had to avoid one more pileup, the 17th caution flag of the day, to capture his 80th NASCAR victory.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Davey Allison, equipped with a flak jacket and a special seat to relieve pain, outraced Rusty Wallace over the final 50 laps yesterday to win the $551,921 First Union 400.Allison's victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway also gave Ford cars their seventh straight victory on the NASCAR circuit this season and 11 in a row dating to last year.The seven victories to start the season is an all-time NASCAR record, passing the old mark of six consecutive wins set by Hudson cars in 1952.

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Lost amid all the crashing and controversy at North Wilkesboro Speedway last Sunday was an interesting NASCAR Winston Cup Series record:In becoming the seventh winner in as many races this year, Darrell Waltrip helped improve the "varying victor" mark for the sport's modern era, which began in 1972. The 1984 and '86 tours had six-for-six starts in which different competitors got the checkered flag.And Waltrip's win tied the all-time record for disparate drivers visiting Victory Lane at the opening of a season.

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Michael Andretti kept plugging until it all came together yesterday, hanging onto the pole position for today's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.The defending IndyCar PPG Cup champion, who won the provisional pole Friday on a street circuit that this year is shorter and faster than previous years, turned a lap of 106.894 mph with only about four minutes remaining in yesterday's session to grab his second straight pole and 10th in the past 20 events.Danny Sullivan, a former CART series champion who struggled through a frustrating year in 1991 with the now-departed Alfa Romeo engine program, took the outside spot on the front row with a last-minute lap of 106.191 before slamming nose-first into a tire wall.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Recent history apparently will be on the side of drivers in General Motors cars as they try to break Ford's 10-race NASCAR Winston Cup Series winning streak Sunday in the First Union 400.Only once since the Holly Farms 400 in the fall of 1980 has a Ford been driven into Victory Lane at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where the seventh of the season's big-time stock car races is scheduled at 1 p.m. (ESPN). Mark Martin achieved that victory in a Thunderbird in the autumn race of 1990 on the five-eighths-mile track.

E. Robert MarlowUnion officialE. Robert Marlow, secretary-treasurer of the International Chemical Workers Union, died Monday of cancer at his home in Essex. He was 57.Mr. Marlow also maintained a home since 1992 in Akron, Ohio, where the union has headquarters.As secretary-treasurer, he supervised the union's financial affairs. He was the union's regional vice president in Washington from 1988 until 1992.While in Washington, he headed the union's legislative and political action department, lobbying Congress and working with other unions and consumer groups on legislation.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains is the track where it all began for NASCAR and Winston Cup stock car racing.Here, behind the red clapboard walls that make up the old-fashioned face of North Wilkesboro Speedway is the oldest track on the NASCAR circuit.Tomorrow, at age 50, the .625-mile track will run its last Winston Cup race, the Tyson Holly Farms 400, ending a long, colorful history and, perhaps more than anything else, signifying the end of an era.The little track that ran its first race in 1947, where the legendary Junior Johnson left the plowing of a cornfield to drive a race among moonshiners' cars in 1948 and that ran its first NASCAR race in a division called Strictly Stock, has reached the end of its road.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Terry Labonte has gone about his Winston Cup racing career as quietly as anyone can in a sport that thrives on the noise of racing engines.Methodically, race day to race day, he has suited up, climbed into his car and roared off in pursuit of the ever-beckoning checkered flag.When he won the Winston Cup championship in 1984 while driving for Billy Hagan, it wasn't because he was always the fastest or always the best on a single day. It was because he was persistent, consistent and resolute.

E. Robert MarlowUnion officialE. Robert Marlow, secretary-treasurer of the International Chemical Workers Union, died Monday of cancer at his home in Essex. He was 57.Mr. Marlow also maintained a home since 1992 in Akron, Ohio, where the union has headquarters.As secretary-treasurer, he supervised the union's financial affairs. He was the union's regional vice president in Washington from 1988 until 1992.While in Washington, he headed the union's legislative and political action department, lobbying Congress and working with other unions and consumer groups on legislation.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Rusty Wallace took comman in the First Union 400's second half yesterday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, cruised to his third NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory this season and charged into the points lead toward the season championship.Wallace swept under the checkered flag 1.5 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Petty as the two gave Pontiac a 1-2 sweep.To the cheers of an estimated 45,000 fans, a record crowd at the .625-mile track, Wallace whipped his Grand Prix around on the front-stretch and took a counter-clockwise route to Victory Lane.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Davey Allison turned determination into a two-car-length victory over Rusty Wallace in a First Union 400 thriller yesterday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, extending Ford's NASCAR Winston Cup Series winning streak to 11 in a row.Included are seven straight Ford victories this year, a record opening a season. The previous mark was Hudson's six in 1952.Despite rib and lower back injuries that threatened to remove him from the Robert Yates Racing Team's Thunderbird in favor of relief driver Jimmy Hensley, Allison drove the 400-lap, 250-mile distance before a crowd of 44,000, the largest in track history.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Davey Allison, equipped with a flak jacket and a special seat to relieve pain, outraced Rusty Wallace over the final 50 laps yesterday to win the $551,921 First Union 400.Allison's victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway also gave Ford cars their seventh straight victory on the NASCAR circuit this season and 11 in a row dating to last year.The seven victories to start the season is an all-time NASCAR record, passing the old mark of six consecutive wins set by Hudson cars in 1952.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Davey Allison turned determination into a two-car-length victory over Rusty Wallace in a First Union 400 thriller yesterday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, extending Ford's NASCAR Winston Cup Series winning streak to 11 in a row.Included are seven straight Ford victories this year, a record opening a season. The previous mark was Hudson's six in 1952.Despite rib and lower back injuries that threatened to remove him from the Robert Yates Racing Team's Thunderbird in favor of relief driver Jimmy Hensley, Allison drove the 400-lap, 250-mile distance before a crowd of 44,000, the largest in track history.

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. -- Rusty Wallace took comman in the First Union 400's second half yesterday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, cruised to his third NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory this season and charged into the points lead toward the season championship.Wallace swept under the checkered flag 1.5 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Petty as the two gave Pontiac a 1-2 sweep.To the cheers of an estimated 45,000 fans, a record crowd at the .625-mile track, Wallace whipped his Grand Prix around on the front-stretch and took a counter-clockwise route to Victory Lane.

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Michael Andretti kept plugging until it all came together yesterday, hanging onto the pole position for today's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.The defending IndyCar PPG Cup champion, who won the provisional pole Friday on a street circuit that this year is shorter and faster than previous years, turned a lap of 106.894 mph with only about four minutes remaining in yesterday's session to grab his second straight pole and 10th in the past 20 events.Danny Sullivan, a former CART series champion who struggled through a frustrating year in 1991 with the now-departed Alfa Romeo engine program, took the outside spot on the front row with a last-minute lap of 106.191 before slamming nose-first into a tire wall.

Edberg loses in Tokyo; Courier No. 1 againJim Courier regained the men's No. 1 world ranking this morning when Stefan Edberg was beaten in the semifinals of the Japan Open, on the hard-court surface of Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo.Richard Krajicek had 12 aces in beating the former No. 1 from Sweden, 6-3, 7-5, ending Edberg's three-year run as champion of the event.Edberg, who has been battling Courier for the No. 1 ranking all year, relinquished it for the second time. Courier got it in February after winning the Australian Open but dropped back to No. 2 in March.