Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 12, 1993 TAG: 9307120063
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium
Although he started fourth, Schrader was in trouble early in the Slick 50 300.
On the second lap, Jeff Burton, who was making his Winston Cup debut, cut down on Schrader in turn 1 and they both spun.
"My spotter yelled `Clear,' and I thought I was clear and I came down on Schrader," Burton said. "It was my fault."
"That's racing," Schrader said. "We all make mistakes."
Schrader went to the garage for repairs, came back out and crashed again, this time with three cars in turn 4 on lap 10.
"I don't know what happened that second time," Schrader said. "All of a sudden they were spinning in front of me and I just got into it."
On Tuesday, the National Stock Car Racing Commission rescinded NASCAR's four-race suspension of Schrader and car owner Joe Hendrick.
But his 38th-place finish Sunday ended a hot streak in which Schrader had finished in the top five in five of the six races.
The low finish cost him nearly as much as a one-race suspension, as Schrader dropped from fifth to ninth in the Winston Cup championship battle, 401 points behind leader Dale Earnhardt.
Burton also crashed a second time on lap 89 and dropped out of the race, finishing 37th.
Of his debut, he said: "This isn't how I envisioned it. But you know, things happen."
\ EARNHARDT'S WORST: Dale Earnhardt's 26th-place finish was his worst of the year. His previous worst had been 22nd at Martinsville.
"Everything that happened today happened because the transmission locked up on that pit stop" early in the race, Earnhardt said. "We had a good stop going, and for some reason, it got locked in two gears.
"By the time we got started and on our way, we'd lost a lap. Then we were up there mixing it up a little bit [with Sterling Marlin]. We got nudged a little bit. It happens. That's racing.
"We've still got a pretty good points lead [171 points ahead of Dale Jarrett], but we're very disappointed. Maybe we got a little bit of our bad luck out of the way today."
Earnhardt was four laps down at the end.
\ HIS BEST SHOT: Grand National champion Joe Nemechek also made his Winston Cup debut, and although he stayed out of trouble, he didn't do much better than Burton, finishing one spot ahead in 36th after a rocker arm broke in his engine.
"We gave it our best shot and I'm happy," he said.
\ STRICKLIN STRICKEN: Although Jeff Burton dropped out early, he filled in for Hut Stricklin, who was overcome by illness shortly after lap 200.
Burton drove Stricklin's car to a 25th-place finish, four laps down.
Stricklin and four members of his team came down with food poisoning after supper Saturday at an area restaurant and still were feeling the effects before the race Sunday.
Stricklin was taken to the infield care center for treatment after exiting his car.
\ TOUGH ON ASPHALT: A number of drivers said the track became difficult to drive toward the end of the race because the asphalt surface was breaking up in turns 3 and 4.
Typical of the reaction was the comment of Brett Bodine, who said: "It didn't surprise me that cars with all this horsepower would be a problem on this race track as far as tearing it up a little. It's nothing they can't fix, though."
"We put sealer on it last night and put another coat this morning," said Bob Bahre, the track founder and co-owner. "NASCAR said they inspected the track after the race and the only thing that was out there [in the turns] was chunks of rubber."
Bahre estimated the sellout crowd at 66,000 to 68,000. It was the largest crowd to watch a sporting event in New Hampshire history.
\ HENSLEY MOVES UP: Jimmy Hensley's 11th-place finish in the late Alan Kulwicki's Ford Thunderbird was his second-best result since taking over the ride. His best finish was ninth at Talladega.
"We had one set of tires that we couldn't get to work," he said. "The car got real loose getting in the corners." That dropped him a lap down around lap 200.
Rick Mast, meanwhile, finished 16th - two laps down - after fighting a push all afternoon.
"We got a pretty good last 100 miles, but I was so far down by then I was just hangin' on," Mast said.
\ TOP 10 AGAIN: Ricky Rudd's fifth-place finish was his fourth consecutive top 10 run.
Although he didn't lead a lap, Rudd was running in the top 10 all afternoon.
"Obviously, we weren't quite good enough to run with the leaders," Rudd said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB