DOVER, Del. - Ricky Rudd says he's not much of a gambler. Tell Bill Elliott that.
Rudd, who unlike Elliott didn't take on fresh tires during his final pit stop, held off a hard-charging Elliott the final 20 miles to win Sunday's NASCAR Peak Antifreeze 500.
``We were slipping and sliding all over the place, but we decided to take the chance,'' said Rudd, whose Dover Downs International Speedway victory ended a 47-race Winston Cup winless streak. ``The last 5 miles, the tires were gone completely; boy, is it nice when things work out.''
Down two laps midway through the race, Rudd credited his crew - as well as that of Rick Hendrick teammate Ken Schrader - for making the call that clinched the win.
``I didn't know it would be a gas-and-go stop until I hit pit road,'' said Rudd, who led the final 32 laps. ``Those are the decisions I'm glad I don't have to make.''
In addition to outlasting Elliott, Rudd was one of only a handful of drivers who dodged the day's sheetmetal-twisting wrecks. While 24 of 36 cars were officially listed as being under power at the end, a large chunk were Band-aided moving parts.
``If somebody wrecks, you're going to get in it,'' said relatively unbanged third-place finisher Kyle Petty. ``Dover may be listed as 1 mile, but it drives a lot more like a short track.''
That's a sentiment with which pole sitter Alan Kulwicki would agree.
Kulwicki, who qualified his backup short-track car after demolishing his No. 1 ride, lasted only 92 laps before tagging the wall - a scenario that become all too familiar. One 50-lap stretch included five cautions and damage to 14 cars.
Elliott, who survived a tense moment when Jimmy Means squeezed him into the frontstretch wall, got a huge break on lap 187 when Jeff Purvis banged the concrete. One of only five drivers who hadn't pitted under green-flag conditions, Elliott led a race-high 261 miles and didn't give way until simply running out of track and time.
``It was a tortoise and hare situation, but he only had a few laps to catch me,'' said Rudd, 36. ``If the race had been three laps longer, I don't think we could have held him off.''
Said Elliott of his attempt to reel in Rudd: ``Ricky outsmarted us at the end. We just run out of room.''
1 Ricky Rudd
2 Bill Elliott
3 Kyle Petty
4 Davey Allison
5 Morgan Shepherd
6 Harry Gan
7 Terry Labonte
8 Ted Musgrave
9 Derrick Cope
10 Bobby Hamilton
11 Ernie Irvan
12 Dale Jarrett
13 Jimmy Hensley
14 Geoff Bodine
15 Hut Stricklin
16 Rusty wallace
17 Michael waltrip
18 Jim Sauter
19 Mark Martin
20 Darrell Waltrip
21 Dale Earnhardt
22 Brett Bodine
23 Jimmy Means
24 Rick Mast
25 Mike Potter
26 Dave Marcis
27 Dick Trickle
28 Richard Petty
29 Chad Little
30 Ken Schrader
31 Wally Dallenbach
32 Jeff Purvis
33 Sterling Marlin
34 Alan Kulwicki
35 James Hylton
36 Graham Taylor
Time Of Race: 4 hours, 20 minutes, 13 seconds
Average Speed : 115.289 mph
Margin Of Victory: .47 seconds
