Rusty Wallace was the toast of Sonoma Valley, uncorking a smooth-tired victory at scenic Sears Point by Bruce Newman Rusty Wallace edged road ace Mark Martin for his first road victory since 1990. Although Wallace's Thunderbird failed a postrace inspection, NASCAR let him keep the win. (Margin of victory: .46 of a second) Rusty Wallace, Ford, 74 laps at 77.673 mph Mark Martin, Ford, 74 laps Wally Dallenbach, Ford, 74 laps Dale Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 74 laps Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 74 laps 2 hours, 24 minutes, 3 seconds; 5 flags, 10 laps run under caution Terry Labonte 92.524 mph* with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Dale Earnhardt 1,556 (165) 2 Dale Jarrett 1,441 (127) 3 Terry Labonte 1,425 (160) 4 Jeff Gordon 1,369 (155) 5 Sterling Marlin 1,293 (118) * Record (previous record: Ricky Rudd, 92.132 mph, 1995) There were moments during NASCAR's annual spring-break jaunt to Sonoma County—the wine country of northern California where cabernet sauvignon flows like 40-weight motor oil on race weekends at Sears Point Raceway—when Rusty Wallace seemed as if he were coming up several grapes short of a full bunch. Wallace spent the Thursday morning before the Save Mart Supermarkets 300 driving a taxicab at breakneck speeds through the streets of San Francisco, occasionally careering onto sidewalks and going in the wrong direction on one-way streets. The stunt, a benefit for United Cerebral Palsy, ended with an unamused member of San Francisco's finest asking to see Wallace's license and giving the driver a lecture. And once he had moved out to Sonoma's stately wineries, Wallace ignored the tasting tours and instead, as he put it, "broke the record for drinking beer every damn day I've been out here." Miller Genuine Draft, sponsor of his black number 2 Thunderbird, must have been pleased to hear that. But with five laps to go in the road race (Sonoma and Watkins Glen are the only two races on the Winston Cup tour with righthand turns) and much of the track covered with balls of tire rubber the size of merlot grapes, Wallace was clever enough to decant most of the debris from his tires before the final restart and snatch the lead—and the win—from Jeff Gordon. "I got it all off and Jeff didn't," Wallace said. "Getting the tires cleaned off was a real key to getting a lot of grip in the rear [the powered axle], so when I launched, I wouldn't spin the tires." It was Wallace's first road-course win since 1990. Committed beer man Wallace beat Earnhardt (#3) and won in wine country. photograph by George Tiedemann Gordon had led the previous 12 laps, but when the green flag waved, the only thing sputtering worse than his chances was Gordon himself. "There wasn't a damn thing I could do, guys,'' he told his crew on the radio after losing the lead. "I just spun the tires all over the place. It happened all day on restarts." He finished sixth, after being passed by Mark Martin and Wally Dallenbach, providing Ford with its first sweep of the top three spots all season. Drivers snaked their way around Sears Point, one of NASCAR's two road courses. photograph by George Tiedemann They were lucky to get it. Wallace's T-bird failed to pass NASCAR's postrace inspection, measuring three sixteenths of an inch lower than the required 51 inches. NASCAR fined Wallace $25,000 but let him keep the win, reasoning that the low measurement was a result of damage incurred during the race. Wallace drank to that.