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BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Fans stayed and NASCAR legends played at Bristol on Saturday. Afterward, some competitors said they'd like to see more of these old-timer races.

For the record, Sterling Marlin, who is in today's Sprint Cup race, won the race for former winners at Bristol. Rusty Wallace, who had a late model car built for this race, finished second in the 35-lap race that featured Cale Yarborough, Harry Gant, Terry Labonte and Junior Johnson among the 12-car lineup. Labonte finished fourth with Jimmy Spencer completing the top five.

Wallace said he'd like to see such races at Richmond International Raceway and Martinsville Speedway. His opinion was backed by Marlin and 70-year-old L.D. Ottinger, who finished third in the race although he said it was only his second time in a race car in 15 years.

Competitors smiled after the event and talked about what they would do if they had another chance.

"It makes you want to run (Sunday), 500 laps," said Gant, who finished sixth.

Wallace said that running these races three times a year -- once at Bristol, Richmond and Martinsville -- could work.

"You look around, a ton of people stayed for the race," Wallace said. "It was so cool seeing that. Popularity has been down a little bit and I think bringing all these guys back definitely brought some popularity back to the sport."

Marlin said he thought a series of about five races at some of the Cup tracks would be good.

The rest of the finishing order was: Phil Parsons in seventh with Jack Ingram eighth, Yarborough ninth, David Green 10th, Johnson 11th and Larry Pearson was 12th.

NO SYMPATHY: Carl Edwards was asked if he felt for pole-sitter Mark Martin, who is 35th in the car owner standings, after some early-season engine problems. Edwards'response? No.

"I'm not going to feel for Mark just yet," Edwards says. "He's too fast. I firmly believe he'll be in the top 12. That guy could run in the top three for the next 20 weeks and it wouldn't surprise me. If they can just have a little bit of luck, I think they'll be fine."

EXTRA WORK: Richard Petty Motorsports has added races to AJ Allmendinger's schedule. Allmendinger is running a fourth car for the team with limited sponsorship. The team planned to run him in the first eight races and the July Daytona race. Richard Petty said the team has pieced together extra funding to run him through the Coca-Cola 600.

PIT STOPS: Denny Hamlin was the fastest in the final practice session with a lap of 123.372 mph. He was followed by Ryan Newman (123.245 mph), Jeff Gordon (122.953), Kyle Busch (122.795) and David Reutimann (122.756). &ellipses; Gary Bechtel, a former Cup owner, is back in the series as a part owner of Tommy Baldwin Racing. The team, though, failed to qualify for today's race.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dustin.long@news-record.com