Allison Doesn’t Waste Time in Beating Gant : Stock cars: Final pit stop makes the difference in one-second victory in Rockingham race.

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. —  Davey Allison won the battle of the pit crews Sunday, edging Harry Gant by one second to win the AC Delco 500 NASCAR race in record time.

Allison trails leader and defending champion Dale Earnhardt by 203 points and Ricky Rudd by 46 in the Winston Cup standings with two races left.

It was Allison’s first victory at Rockingham, and he did it with a record average speed of 127.292 m.p.h., breaking the mark of 126.452 set by Alan Kulwicki in last year’s race.

Gant, who had won four of the last six races, dominated most of the race, leading 136 of the first 250 laps. In all, he led 260 laps.

But as Gant, 51, lapped most of the field in his Buick and built a seven-second lead at one point, Allison stayed within striking distance in his Ford.

And Allison, who won $66,050 with his fourth victory of the season, won the battle of the pits. He took on new tires and fuel 43 laps from the finish of the 492-lap race while in third place.

Gant followed into the pits two laps later, but his crew had trouble changing tires, leaving Gant off the 1.017-mile track for 30.3 seconds.

Gant began to gain on Allison in the final 10 laps but ran out of time and laps to finish second for the fifth time in his 19-year career.

Mark Martin took third, and Geoff Bodine was fourth in the last car on the lead lap.

Earnhardt picked up 19 points on Rudd in Earnhardt’s quest for a fifth Winston Cup points title. Earnhardt, who finished seventh, leads Rudd by 157 points with two races left. Rudd finished 12th.