TRUE VALUE FIREBIRD IROC ROUND TWO
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY -- SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1996

RACE NOTES -- AT FIRST RED FLAG

MARK MARTIN (No. 8 Bright Blue, NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- Well,
we just had an accident. Somebody got into somebody and the cars
spun out. We were all running pretty tight and we all came
together. I'd be racing -- my car's not hurt except the rear end
housing's bent so bad that they can't put a tire back on it.

DALE EARNHARDT (No. 1 Evans Orange, NASCAR Winston Cup Series) --
I got turned around so quick, I knew it was gonna be a helluva
wreck! I hit pretty hard, but not THAT hard. I don't really know
what happened. They said Marlin hit me from the back. I don't know
-- I just know they turned me around pretty quick. Well, we haven't
got radios and we haven't got spotters so you don't know where
anybody is at on the inside or coming up. I was out in front and
came down to go under and Marlin said I cut him off -- but I didn't
cut him off -- he ran into the back end of me. There is another day
and there will be another IROC race.

JEFF GORDON (No. 7 Black, NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- Earnhardt
was leading and I just saw Sterling had a really good run down the
backstretch to the inside. He got underneath Earnhardt and the two
of them came together going into three. It turned Earnhardt
sideways and he come right straight back up the track. I was at the
top of the wall and there was two cars underneath me. He hit one of
them and that shot me right into the wall. That got the right front
pretty good. (GORDON RE-STARTED BUT PITTED IMMEDIATELY.)

RUSTY WALLACE (No. 12 Rose, NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- I started
on the pole and just got drove all over -- drove past. It was just
a typical deal where starting on the front row some time can turn
out real vile for you! I decided the bottom of the race track was
not the place to be so I got to the top. As soon as I did I came
down the back straightaway and saw a real fast draft coming and I
went to the bottom. It looked like Earnhardt tried to go to the
bottom and they all crashed.

JOHNNY BENSON (No. 9 Orange, NASCAR Busch Series) -- It just got a
little exciting, a little tight and the leader lost it and
everybody piled into him. They had a run on him (Earnhardt) and he
come down because he wanted to be in the front of that run -- but
it was the wrong time to do it. He (Marlin) was a good five miles
an hour quicker. There was no stopping him, I'll tell you that. I
thought we were in good shape. We'd led a couple laps and it was
early but there's nothing to do now but work on the Pennzoil
Pontiac.
 
JEFF GORDON (No. 7 Black, NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- I was just
making a lap to get as many points as I could. I was the last car
to come into the pits so I wasn't sure if that meant they were
going to put me last so I just made a lap. The car wasn't capable
of going up to speed so I just pulled out. The way the cars were
falling out I never knew what was going to happen. I just stayed
out there for a little while.

TOM KENDALL (No. 3 Yellow, Road Racing) -- I got in the back of the
pack and I saw someone spinning down low. When he went down to the
apron I knew where he was going -- he was heading back up
eventually so I got on the brakes and just braced myself. (AFTER
RE-START.) The car was damaged so much from the wreck we just
wanted to run a few laps for the points. With them not counting the
laps under yellow, I didn't know whether I was ever going to be
able to get a green lap in to move ahead of those guys in points,
so we just waited until we got in a green lap.

ROBBY GORDON (No. 2 Red, PPG Indy Car World Series) -- I was right
there, to be honest with you. Dale and me stuck together from the
back and went to the front and he was giving me a helluva tow. I
mean, he was weaving through traffic and I was starting to question
some of it. As soon as he gets in front he was running fine. I was
up high and Sterling was running down low. I think I was in third
place at the time and Sterling clipped Dale and just sent him
spinning and then he hit Sterling and Sterling hit me and up the
chain it went.

TERRRY LABONTE (No. 4 Gold, NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- Dale was
beside me and we were going down the backstretch and he kinda
turned left and Sterling Marlin was there and they hit and spun
out.

SCOTT PRUETT (No. 10 Powder Blue, PPG Indy Car World Series) -- I
was right in the middle of it and caught the tail end of it. All I
saw was smoke. I aimed for it and when I got there there was a car
going sideways. I just missed it and came through unscathed.

POST RACE NOTES

AL UNSER JR. (No. 6 White, PPG Indy Car World Series) -- It was a
tough one, I'll say that. (ON BIG ACCIDENT>) It was pretty crowded
down there. I gave Sterling a pretty good push down the
backstretch. Earnhardt saw him and tried to come down but Sterling
was already in there too far and Dale spun him around. With the
rest of the field right there that was all there was to it. Being
right behind Sterling was a key for me. As Dale was spinning I
stood on the gas to get by him before he came back up the track. I
was just real lucky that I was second or third car through the
mess. All it really did was pop my tire.
     Everyone is so equal -- those Firebirds are equal, there's a
lot of downforce and the draft's real big. Basically you've got to
stay in front of the guy behind you. He's gonna dictate where
you're gonna go. Dale wanted to get in front of Sterling and he was
already up next to him. I needed a partner because they shuffled me
right to the back. Coming off two (on lap of the wreck) they went
five wide and that's the biggest vaccum I've ever felt in these
cars. We were going right to the front and we were almost there.
It's a shame (accident) but it's gonna happen when we get 'em this
close and this competitive. I think we had 'em (Winston Cup
drivers) outnumbered there at the end and that tends to be an
advantage out here. We caught on to the draft pretty quick and
Scott and Robby and I worked together pretty good.

SCOTT PRUETT (No. 10 Powder Blue, PPG Indy Car World Series) -- Any
one of the five of us could've won that race. It was so close and
everybody was right on top of each other. Everybody did a great job
-- everybody was tail-to-tail and nose-to-nose. Everybody got to
rubbin' on each other a little bit but it was good racin'. Well,
the race was just wild, needless to say -- I mean real wild. It's
1-2-3 for Indy Car guys and that's unusual.

STEVE KINSER (No. 11 Purple, World of Outlaws Sprint Cars) -- It
(multi-car accident) just knocked all the crush panels -- the inner
body on the right rear -- out of it and it just wouldn't go after
that. It pretty well halted me and I just rode it out after that.
(ON MAJOR ACCIDENT.) Everybody was in a big wad there and it was
hard to see with everybody going three-wide. Everybody sorta
checked up and I hit Jeff and it was just a big mess.

STERLING MARLIN (No. 5 Lime, NASCAR Winston Cup Series) -- Any of
us coulda won. It was a deal where if a couple of 'em layed back
and got lined up on ya you were a sittin' duck. There wasn't
nothin' you could do about it. It was a deal where if someone got
up front it took you a couple or three laps to get wound up. I
thought I could block 'em the last couple, three laps but they got
by me and we just needed a couple more laps. Terry got shuffled way
back and if he would've got back up there we could've pushed back
up to the front. Yeah, the Indy car guys ganged up on us a bit --
they had us outnumbered!
     (ON FIRST ACCIDENT.) I don't guess Dale saw me. He cut
across... We was four deep and I was on the bottom goin' in. He was
on the outside and he just cut across -- I don't think he ever saw
me up under him. Whoever the white car was (Al Unser Jr.) hit me
twice going down the back straightaway and he really got us flyin'!
We had to be running 10 miles an hour faster when we got to 'em.

ROBBY GORDON (No. 2 Red, PPG Indy Car World Series) -- We had a
pretty good race car. When I was running up front I was getting a
little loose. Then guys started running in the back of me upsetting
the car a little bit. I guess we lead in points now, that's one
thing good. Overall, we just had a pretty good car -- we were just
unfortunate we didn't pull off the victory.

RESULTS OF ROUND TWO OF TRUE VALUE FIREBIRD IROC XX
SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1996 -- TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY

Fin. St.  Car. Color          Driver              Status       Laps 
 1    8    6    White         Al Unser, Jr.       Running       38 
 2   11    2    Red           Robby Gordon        Running       38 
 3    3   10    Pwdr Blue     Scott Pruett        Running       38 
 4    9    5    Lime          Sterling Marlin     Running       38 
 5    6    4    Gold          Terry Labonte       Running       38 
 6    2   11    Purple        Steve Kinser        Running       38 
 7    7    7    Black         Jeff Gordon         Handling       6 
 8   10    3    Yellow        Tom Kendall         Handling       6
 9   12    1    Orange        Dale Earnhardt      Accident       5 
10    4    9    Orange        Johnny Benson       Accident       5 
11    5    8    Blue          Mark Martin         Accident       5 
12    1   12    Rose          Rusty Wallace       Accident       5

Avg. Speed: 186.513 mph
Margin of Victory: .093 seconds
Time of Race: 32 mins. 31 secs.
Lead changes: 7 among 7 drivers
DRIVER    LED  LAPS
R. Gordon  1    19
S. Marlin  1     8
T. Labonte 1     4
Unser      1     3
J. Gordon  1     2
Kinser     1     1
Benson     1     1