MOTORSPORTS ROUNDUP : Rockingham Victory Draws Payout That’s Anything But Petty

Kyle Petty took the blame for turning Sunday’s Goodwrench 500 NASCAR stock car race into a dull show.

“I didn’t mean for it to be entertaining today,” Petty said after running away with the race at North Carolina Motor Speedway. “I meant for it to be domination.”

It was. Petty led 433 of the 492 laps, including the final 109 as he earned $302,050, including an oil company bonus of $228,000 for winning after starting on the pole. He averaged 122.842 m.p.h.

Petty, who started from the pole for the first time in his 11-year stock car career, said his Pontiac Grand Prix was untouchable all weekend.

“It came off the truck strong,” he said. “I put it out front, man. When you have a car like this, all you have to do is set it up and turn left.”

Petty gained his third Winston Cup victory and his first since the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May of 1987--70 races ago.

Sunday’s race was almost no contest. Petty beat second-place Geoff Bodine’s Ford Thunderbird to the finish by 25.48 seconds--nearly a full lap on the 1.017-mile oval.

Ken Schrader was third.

Dick LaHaie, John Force and Warren Johnson were winners in the third-annual Fram Supernationals at Houston Raceway Park.

The $1,152,900 event was the third stop in the 19-race, $18-million NHRA Drag Racing Series.

LaHaie, of Lansing, Mich., claimed the Top Fuel title, driving his dragster to victory over Gene Snow, of Fort Worth, Tex., when Snow left the starting line too soon and drew a red light resulting in disqualification.

Force, of Yorba Linda, Calif., took the Funny Car title, defeating defending champion Bruce Larson, recording a 5.368-second time at 272.39 m.p.h. in his Olds Cutlass.

Johnson, of Duluth, Ga., also had an easy time in the Pro Stock finals, using a 7.252 at 189.11 in his Olds Cutlass to defeat Bruce Allen, who had mechanical problems and trailed at 8.708 and 98.72.

Ivan Stewart of Alpine, Calif., won his second straight off-road race, capturing the inaugural Nissan 400 Saturday.

Stewart, 44, driving a Toyota pickup truck, completed the four-lap, 405-mile race run over a course north of Las Vegas in nine hours 15 minutes 42.9 seconds. He finished the race almost one hour ahead of a full-size Chevrolet truck driven by Frank Vessels of Mountain Center, Calif.

Third went to a Porsche-powered dune buggy driven by the team of Bob Gordon of Orange and Frank Arciero Jr. of Laguna Hills.

The race featured 284 vehicles and was the second in the nine-event 1990 HDRA-SCORE Desert Series that includes competition in Nevada, California, Arizona and Mexico.

Indy-car drivers Al Unser Jr. and Danny Sullivan and road racing champion Geoff Brabham have been added to the lineup for the 14th IROC series.

The three-race series, featuring 12 driving stars from major series in identically prepared IROC Dodge Daytonas, will begin May 5 at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.