I always told myself I wanted to master this place -- that if I could win here, can't anybody tell me I can't drive anywhere. If I have had any place I've really, really concentrated on ... it's always been here.

”

LAKE SPEED

The race finally settled down to a duel between Geoff Bodine, Davey Allison, Mark Martin and Speed. Bodine led the next 18 laps, handing it over to Allison, who took the point until Lap 67. Martin and Bodine then traded the top spot for the majority of the next 100 laps before Speed grabbed the lead for the first time on Lap 170.

From that point on, Speed stayed in control, giving up the advantage only for pit stops and short periods. But it was anything but a Sunday drive.

"I just knew with 20 laps to go a caution was going to come out and then it would be a mad scramble," Speed said.

But the caution never came out and it was just a matter of concentration from that point on.

''I bobbled one time and I said, 'All right, idiot. You had better bear down,''' Speed said. ''[Crew chief] Darrell Bryant called me on the radio and told me I had nine laps to go. I thought gosh, so much can happen in nine laps.

"I didn't pay any attention to the [leader] board and then he called me and told me I had four laps. Then I thought, well, if a caution comes out, I think I can win under the yellow. The last three laps were the only ones I was not concentrating on.''

Speed beat Kulwicki to the line by 19 seconds and took home $49,435, making him the 30th driver to amass $1 million in earnings. When Sterling Marlin ran out of gas on the final lap, Allison wound up third and Bill Elliott fourth. Marlin was credited with fifth.

Dale Earnhardt, who had won three consecutive Darlington races, was never in the hunt. He fell off the pace with tire issues, then was involved in an accident and wound up 11th, four laps down.

It was only the third time -- Cale Yarborough in 1978 and Buck Baker in 1953 were the others -- that an Oldsmobile had won at Darlington. And in Victory Lane, Speed had a chance to finally silence his critics.

"I always told myself I wanted to master this place -- that if I could win here, can't anybody tell me I can't drive anywhere," Speed said. "If I have had any place I've really, really concentrated on ... it's always been here.

"I've always looked forward to it, ... especially because so many of the drivers avoid it. If they could take it off the schedule, they'd not come here. To me, that just adds to the odds. It just makes it that much easier for me to beat them, if they don't like it here, if they're scared of it, if they're intimidated by it. It makes it that much easier for me."

Speed would record seven more top-five finishes before an accident at Sears Point in 1998 left him with a broken sternum and led to his eventual retirement. Dieringer, who won the 1966 Southern 500 for Bud Moore, died in October of 1989.

And Speed's prophecy about Darlington was partially correct. The track's annual Labor Day race, a fixture on the NASCAR calendar since 1950, was given to California Speedway in 2004 and Darlington's second date was eliminated the following season. However, significant track improvements -- including a complete repaving of the Lady in Black -- were completed in time for Sunday's Dodge Challenger 500, and the existence of Darlington Raceway appears safe for the immediate future.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.