MOTOR RACING : Risk Pays in Victory for Bodine

MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Geoff Bodine held off Rusty Wallace to earn his first victory in nearly a year Monday, taking the rain-delayed Goody’s 500 NASCAR stock car race at Martinsville Speedway.

For the second consecutive race, a late gamble brought victory to a team for the first time this season.

A week ago at Dover, Del., Ricky Rudd chose to take on only gas and no tires on a late pit stop and barely beat Bill Elliott. This time, Bodine didn’t pit at all during the last caution period, running the final 126 laps on the half-mile oval on the same tires.

Wallace pitted on lap 471 of the 500-lap event, taking on new tires. He came out fourth and made it to second on lap 484, but couldn’t catch Bodine’s Ford Thunderbird, which crossed the line 19-hundredths of a second ahead. “My car ran good on old tires and it was junk on new tires,” Bodine said after his first victory since Oct. 6, 1991. “That’s why we stayed out.”

Dale Earnhardt’s disappointing season continued as the two-time defending Winston Cup champion made a lengthy pit stop on lap 101 when a piece fell off his engine while running seventh. He came back out, but finished last.

The race was rained out Sunday without a lap being run, and more rain Monday morning postponed the rescheduled 10 a.m. EDT start. Finally, the rain stopped just past midday, and after track safety and utility vehicles had gotten the oval fairly dry, NASCAR sent the field onto the track at 1:54 p.m.