The calmest driver prevailed as a patient Rusty Wallace didn't let anything get to him-or past him-on Bristol's cement banks by Bruce Newman Rusty Wallace continued his domination of NASCAR's small ovals by earning his 13th win in his last 32 short-track starts. (Margin of victory: .630 of a second) Rusty Wallace, Ford, 500 laps, 91.267 mph Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 500 laps Mark Martin, Ford, 500 laps Dale Jarrett, Ford, 500 laps Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 500 laps 2 hours, 55 minutes, 12 seconds; 8 flags, 67 laps run under caution Mark Martin 124.857 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Terry Labonte 3,292 (155) 2 Jeff Gordon 3,178 (175) 3 Dale Jarrett 3,165 (155) 4 Dale Earnhardt 3,094 (91) 5 Mark Martin 2,872 (170) In matters of wardrobe, the men who run NASCAR's elite teams have a devotion to cowboy boots and blue jeans that could be described as unvarying if not—this being stock car racing—unswerving. In matters of cars, however, these guys are slaves to fashion, turning out designer originals specifically tailored for superspeedways or short tracks, for the high-banked centrifuge at Michigan or the concrete mixer at Bristol International Raceway. Not all of the 45 teams that ran in the 1996 Winston Cup Series could afford such finery, but if only one outfit showed up at Bristol with a "concrete car," it figured to be the Roger Penske-owned outfit that fielded Rusty Wallace's number 2 Ford. Wallace and his crew had developed a combination of springs and shock absorbers unlike any they had ever run before on the molar-jarring cement at Bristol. The result was a rout of the Goody's Headache Powders 500 field. Wallace led 353 of the race's 500 laps en route to his fifth victory of the year. "It was pretty easy for me," he said. "Although many times I started second or third [on the race's eight restarts], after about six or eight laps I could pass the leaders and go to the front. You have to have a really good race car to do that." Said second-place finisher Jeff Gordon, "Rusty was so strong. When he had new tires on and they threw the green, he checked out." As usual, the Bristol race was an exercise in patience and punishment—a test to determine how much drivers had of the former, and how much of the latter they could take before blowing up. Bobby Labonte held his temper in check for the first 408 laps, but on the 409th, while attempting to pass a slower car, he ran straight into John Andretti's wrecked T-Bird. A furious Labonte climbed out of his car and kicked his tires and hurled down his helmet; his team's spotter had apparently failed to give him adequate warning that Andretti's car was dead on the track. And when Jimmy Spencer spun out on Lap 19, he let it be known that he thought it was Geoff Bodine who had sent him pirouetting around the cement pond. "I can't believe that no-good, bald-headed bastard," Spencer fumed to his crew via the radio. Bodine himself traded some serious paint in Turn 4 of Lap 71 and told his crew, "I got that from my f------ brother," referring to Brett Bodine. Wallace (2) ran circles around Earnhardt at Bristol. photograph by George Tiedemann Wallace's radio conversations were not nearly as profane. For most of the night, the only voice he heard was that of his spotter, telling him "nice and smooth, nice rhythm, you're looking good." Sometimes it's not what you've got on the outside that counts; it's what's inside. In Wallace's case, that came down to shocks, struts and a low boiling point.