As the echoes of engines died away across the hills that surround Bristol Int’l Raceway, they were replaced by the cries of joy from Ernie Irvan and the Morgan-McClure Racing Team, as Irvan outfought Rusty Wallace to win the Busch 500 NASCAR Winston Cup event.
In a little more than 48 hours, the Morgan-McClure team netted its first victory, the first victory for its young driver and a firm three-year sponsorship deal from Eastman Kodak, which has a plant in Kingsport, just 20 miles away.
All in all, not a bad weekend’s work. And to top it off, the team’s first victory came in front of a record 58,200 fans at BIR, its home track nestled in the eastern Tennessee hills.
lrvan took the lead on lap 410 when Dale Earnhardt began to have tire go down and fought hammer and tong with Wallace over the last 90 laps to earn his first career Winston Cup victory.
The victory, which came in Irvan’s 79th Winston Cup start, was also the first for the
Morgan-McClure team in 161 starts in the big leagues. The team, based in nearby Abingdon, Va., was formed in 1983 with Lennie Pond as the driver.
“We’ve been saying a win was coming,” Irvan said. “We didn’t know It was going to
be tonight, but It couldn’t have come at any better·place. I was hoping Dale would be in there so we could beat him for the win, but I’ll take it like this. He outran us at Michigan (lrvan’s previous best finish) and beat me, and man, I didn’t want to get beat by Rusty.”
Wallace, mired back in the pack much of the race, suddenly emerged as one of the dominant cars on the track on lap 444, when he passed Mark Martin for second place. It wasn’t long before Wallace caught Irvan, and the pair spent the rest of the race within arm’s reach.
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