Grissom Wins Race After Kenny Wallace Runs Out of Fuel

MARTINSVILLE, Va. —  Kenny Wallace’s dominating bid for his first career victory went up in fumes when he ran out of fuel with three laps left, allowing Steve Grissom to go by and win a 200-lap Busch Grand National Sunday.

The victory in the season-ending race was the fourth this year for Grissom, who averaged a race-record 73.968 m.p.h. in his Oldsmobile.

Wallace, the 1989 Grand National rookie of the year, led 107 laps on Martinsville Speedway’s .526-mile, low-banked oval and built his advantage to nearly three seconds between cautions.

But a wreck on lap 183 involving Bobby Moon and Joe Nemechek brought out the seventh caution and bunched up the leaders for a nine-lap sprint to the finish.

Wallace continued to hold off the field before his Pontiac slowed dramatically coming out of the fourth turn on lap 197. Grissom banged into the left rear of Wallace’s car as he went by.