M'ville race in '98 shows how much has changed

If you want to see how much change has occurred in NASCAR in a 10-year period, one need only to look at the 1998 Goody's Headache Powder 500 at Martinsville Speedway as a prime example.

The race, delayed by one day by rain, was dominated by Bobby Hamilton's Morgan-McClure Chevrolet. He overcame a pair of slow pit stops to lead 378 laps, including the final 63.

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"This is probably the one race that I never got uptight about," Hamilton said. "I never was antsy about the situation. I actually took my time. I let the car roll, and when you let it roll here, the motor runs free and everything. It just worked good like that all day."

Coming off six consecutive top-10 finishes at Martinsville, including runs of third, second and third in his previous three trips to the flat half-mile, Hamilton knew right from the start that if he remained patient and didn't press, he had the car to beat.

''You can say you're good here, but you've got to have the equipment and I had a good car today," Hamilton said. "I knew at the start of the race when I passed them guys on the outside that we had a horse.''

Rusty Wallace had won six previous races at Martinsville, and started alongside Hamilton on the front row. But the Nashville, Tenn., native knew early on that his car was better.

''Nobody is better than Rusty Wallace at this place,'' Hamilton said. ''His car was off today, and he wasn't as good as we were. I was concerned about [him] today. When I finally got by him the last time and ran down [Jeff Gordon], I knew it was going to be pretty easy if we didn't get in trouble.

''On Lap 389, I looked on the scoreboard and I was running by myself. I knew then I had a shot at winning. I knew Rusty had fired his best shot two or three times. I let him up under me in [Turns] 3 and 4 two or three different times and was able to pull back off. I knew if I could do that, if I could get out front, it was going to be tough for anybody to pass me.''

Hamilton wound up mired in the field twice in the final 200 laps -- once because two of his crewmen collided while changing tires and another time because he opted for four tires while most of the other leaders chose to go with two. But both times, Hamilton easily worked his way back to the front.

Restarting eighth after his pit problems, it took Hamilton only 25 laps to run down Dale Earnhardt and regain the lead. It took 44 laps for Hamilton to go from 10th to first after the green came out on Lap 394 -- and he was never headed from that point on.

"They said, 'Let's take on two [tires] and gas,' " Hamilton said about trading track position for fresh rubber." I said, 'How many cars on the lead lap?' It wasn't that many so I said, 'Let's take on four [tires]. This car's handling too good to take a chance on it.'"

Rusty Wallace

John Andretti's Pontiac -- the car Hamilton was driving the previous season -- had been within striking distance of Hamilton in the closing laps, but Andretti ran out of fuel with five laps to go. Hamilton then had clear sailing, beating Ted Musgrave to the line by more than six seconds.

Dale Jarrett, Earnhardt and Randy LaJoie -- subbing for the injured Ricky Craven -- rounded out the top five. Wallace, in sixth, was the only other car on the lead lap at the finish.

Hamilton said when he joined the team, co-owner Larry McClure ''told me when he hired me in a laughing manner that if I'd win him a short-track race, he'd promise me a superspeedway race. So it's his turn now.''

Hamilton would get that Talladega win, but not with McClure. It would come in 2001 with Andy Petree's outfit -- and would be Hamilton's last Cup victory. Hamilton would go on to win the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series championship, but die of cancer before the start of the 2007 season.

Hamilton's Martinsville victory also signaled the last win for Morgan-McClure Motorsports. The team lost primary sponsor Kodak after the 2003 season and closed its shop after making just 16 starts with Ward Burton behind the wheel last year.

With Jarrett retiring at Bristol, only three of the drivers who finished in the top 10 that day -- Gordon, Jeremy Mayfield and Ken Schrader -- are still active in the series. In fact, three of the drivers in that field -- Jarrett, Wallace and Darrell Waltrip -- now work as television analysts.

Only 12 drivers who started the 1998 race at Martinsville have made at least one Cup start this season, and only Gordon is still driving for the same team a decade later.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer