ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 29, 1996 TAG: 9607290103
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
Dozens of drivers have walked through the doors of the infield care center at the north end of the garage after the big crashes that have plagued Talladega Superspeedway in the 1990s.
Dozens of drivers, sometimes sporting fresh bruises and bumps, have faced the cameras and microphones outside the care center gate, and then made the long walk through the garage to their transporters.
But for more than 10 years, Dale Earnhardt has never been one of them.
That changed Sunday in the DieHard 500. The seven-time Winston Cup champion had one of the worst crashes of his long career in the rain-shortened event, and was so badly bruised and battered that he never did make it back into the garage.
Earnhardt was taken to Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, where he was diagnosed with fractured left clavicle, or collarbone, and a fractured sternum. Earnhardt was to be kept overnight at the hospital for observation because of the potential of a bruised heart, track spokesman Jim Freeman said.
The man who faced the cameras for Earnhardt outside the care center Sunday was Richard Childress, his car owner.
``I'm sure he'll be okay,'' Childress said. ``But he took a heck of a ride. I'm just happy he's up and talking.''
There were two huge crashes in Sunday's race. The one involving Earnhardt occurred in the trioval on lap 117 when the cars of Ernie Irvan and Sterling Marlin came together at the head of the pack. That turned Marlin into Earnhardt, who was leading. Both Marlin and Earnhardt went into the outside wall nearly head-on.
Earnhardt's car flipped up on its side and slid on the track in that position long enough for the sheet metal body to wear through to the roll cage in several spots.
Then, while Earnhardt's car was still on its side, it was clobbered by other cars. Derrike Cope's car slammed into the rear deck lid. Robert Pressley's car hit Earnhardt's car in the roof, caving in the roof and top front roll bar to a spot that was only about six inches above the gear shift knob.
``I didn't think a man could hit that hard going straight,'' said Pressley, nursing some bruises.
Earnhardt was briefly knocked out in the crash and did not respond to Childress's repeated calls on the radio. But he finally emerged from his car and briefly rested on a stretcher. Then he got up, holding his chest, and slowly walked to the ambulance.
Earnhardt told Childress in the care center that he didn't know who got him. While on his side, ``he said he seen somebody coming and he just ducked,'' Childress said.
``He's hurting in his chest and collarbone where the seat belt held him,'' Childress said. ``He's going to be real sore tomorrow.''
Childress said he wasn't thinking about this Saturday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Earnhardt is defending champion. ``Just having him talk to me is all I care about,'' he said.
In other racing news:
GIBBS HONORED: The crowd watching the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction parade Saturday in Canton, Ohio, was a football crowd, but Joe Gibbs soon found out that there were some racing fans there, too.
``You've got 250,000 people lining the streets, and they're all cheering,'' Gibbs said on a rainy Sunday morning at Talladega Superspeedway.
``And as I went down through there, I could hear people yelling `Bobby Labonte!' and `Go 18 car'. A bunch of race fans were up there telling me they'd be at Talladega.''
Gibbs said he didn't realize how great the honor was until he arrived in Canton for the ceremony.
``You can't guess what it's going to be like until you get up there,'' he said. ``On Friday, we had a get-together with all the past enshrinees, and all the people in the room were in the Hall. They wouldn't let the induction class talk. Everybody else got up and talked.
``When you hear people like Ray Nitschke and [Tom] Landry and Bob Lilly get up and tell you what it meant to them to be in and what a rare fraternity it is, it made me more aware of what I was getting ready to do. You really realize what a select group it is.''
``I told everyone I was not sure I deserved it, but I wasn't giving it back.''
Gibbs has been out of pro football now for five years, and he has no regrets that he left.
``I'm really happy doing what I'm doing. The TV thing [as a football commentator on NBC] I'm doing not to make a living, but because it's fun. But I really like what I'm doing now. My boys are with me and we've got a good team and a good sponsor, even though we haven't been able to get what we want this year.
Would he ever return to the NFL as a coach?
``You never say never, but I don't see it happening,'' he said. ``I'd probably have to go broke or something before I would do that. I can honestly tell you this - the longer I'm in auto racing, it's exactly like football.''
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB