`slow No Wake' Limit Maintained At Lake 
Fish And Boat Commission 
Votes Unanimously After 
Accepting Recommendation Of 
Boating Advisory Board

All Or Nothing 
Jarrett's Fortunes At Pocono Raceway 
In The Past Year Have Been Extreme

By JOHN ERZAR; Times Leader Sports Writer
 Monday, July 22, 1996 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 





LONG POND -- Leading the most laps in Sunday's Miller 500 at Pocono
International Raceway was the easy part for Mark Martin. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Trying to get back to the front proved difficult. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; An untimely caution and a troublesome pit stop prevented Martin from
securing his first win of the season. The driver of the No. 6 Valvoline Ford
ended up settling for a ninth-place finish. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We had a good car," said Martin, the pole sitter for Sunday's race who led
121 of 200 laps. "I hated to see that caution come out. We were all set.
Things were looking good." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 They certainly did as Martin took off from the start, and led the first 36
laps until the first round of green-flag pit stops. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 After everyone eventually pitted, Martin assumed the lead on lap 46 and led
for 22 more, surrendering only during green-flag pit stops for the most part. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 During a 155-lap stretch of green-flag racing, Martin had command of the
field. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 He held off the challenge of his three nearest competitors -- Dale Jarrett,
Ernie Irvan and Ricky Rudd -- until a caution on lap 161 for debris in turn
two. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "They probably needed some action there," Martin said of the caution, which
regrouped a field that was spread all around the 2 -mile tri-oval. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The debris, according to eventual winner Rusty Wallace, was pieces of tire
rubber that accumulated on the racing groove. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "There were some huge hunks of rubber laying in the groove of the turn, the
tunnel turn," Wallace said. "I don't know how they rolled on the track. There
were big pieces there and everybody was straddling them as they went past
them. If you hit one of them things, they were big enough that it could have
just knocked the grille off the car." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Instead, they knocked Martin from a chance at his first win since the 1995
October race at Charlotte. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The caution, the first since a four-car accident on lap two, dropped Martin
from first to 15th after he needed to pit twice under yellow. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "We stuck a lugnut in the socket," said Martin, whose best finish this
season was a second on the Sears Point road course in May. "I guess some days
it just goes that way. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "I didn't want to get myself to believing we were going to win, but she was
pretty awesome. It would have been fine if we just hadn't stuck that lugnut." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Wallace said that caution, along with Martin's troubles, was a significant
turning point. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Track position is real important here," said Wallace, who battled most of
the race with Jeff Gordon for fourth place, but didn't have track position to
close in on the front-runners until the caution period. "If you stuck Mark
Martin in front of me at the end of the race, Mark Martin would have won the
race." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Martin never got the chance despite quickly moving to fifth with 20 laps
left. Two more cautions -- the first when Wallace's brother Kenny's car put
fluid on the front straightaway and the second when Brett Bodine spun --
prevented him from battling back. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It was just a mess," Martin said. "There were two cautions and the
cautions were long. After one caution, everybody behind me got new tires and
we didn't. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "It was just gone, and we just lost the race." &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Caution Flag, Pit Stop Haunt Martin