Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 2, 1990 TAG: 9004020278
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
On Sunday at Darlington Raceway, the 31-year-old California driver discovered what it's like to be roasted.
In a questionable move in Sunday's TranSouth 500, Irvan, running 10 laps off the pace, for some reason attempted to race with leader Ken Schrader after a green-flag restart.
Irvan's car broke loose in turn four, collected Schrader's car and sparked a massive 13-car pileup that knocked four cars out of the race and sent driver Neil Bonnett to a Florence hospital.
"Ernie needs to calm down," Schrader said. "You don't do that stuff when you're 10 laps down. If you beat the guy into the first turn, then you're only nine laps down. You don't race the guy. I was going to let him go."
Sterling Marlin, whose stout-running Oldsmobile was kayoed in the mishap, also ripped Irvan.
"I figured it was coming," Marlin said. "[Irvan] was a little bit over his head and he broke it loose coming off [turn] four and that was it. I'd like to know what the heck somebody 10 laps down is doing up there anyway.
"I got pile-drived by one car and knocked into the wall. Then, somebody [Bonnett] didn't have any place to go and I got pile-drived again."
Bonnett, driver of the Stuart, Va.-based Wood Brothers Ford, was knocked unconscious in the accident. He regained consciousness in the track's infield medical facility.
The injury-riddled Bonnett was taken to McLeod Regional Medical Center, where he underwent a CAT scan. The test was negative, but the 43-year-old Alabama driver was kept overnight for observation.
Irvan, who was driving only his second race for the Abingdon, Va.-based Morgan-McClure team, passed off the incident as "hard racing."
"I didn't think Schrader would race me that hard," he said. "We ran side-by-side into [turn] three a couple times, and I know you're not supposed to do that."
\ Mark Martin was elated to take second place behind winner Dale Earnhardt.
"I was lucky today," he said. "We struggled all day long and I'm tickled to get second.
"At the end, I had only a lucky shot at Earnhardt. I was going to try to make him mess up, and Dale doesn't do that much."
\ Darrell Waltrip's struggle continued. For the fifth straight race in 1990, Waltrip's Chevrolet was never in contention. He finished 11th.
"For awhile, we had a horse and then for awhile we had a donkey," Waltrip said. "When someone got behind me, the car got loose.
"It's a good thing I didn't drive this race 20 years ago. If it had been 20 years ago, we'd be three race cars short now. I wouldn't have had enough sense to let off of it.
"That's just the way it's been all year for us so far."
\ Waltrip isn't the only big name off to a slow start. Defending Winston Cup champion Rusty Wallace also can be added to the list.
Wallace's Pontiac got caught up in a five-car accident only 22 laps into the race. The mishap started when the cars of Earnhardt and Kyle Petty touched, sending Petty into a spin in turn one.
Wallace's car collided with Ricky Rudd's car and suffered front-end damage. He limped home 18th, eight laps off the pace.
"We had to fight it all day long," Wallace said. "And, to add insult to injury, Earnhardt wins and that's really hurting us in the points."
Wallace plummeted from third to sixth in the points race, 168 behind Earnhardt.
"I'm not giving up because I was this far back at one point last year," Wallace said. "But we can't afford to get any further back.
"I know it seems like everything is falling apart for this team, but that's not right," added Wallace, who is leaving the Raymond Beadle-owned team to drive for a new team owned by Indy-car magnate Roger Penske next season.
"We've just had some bad breaks that really hurt us. We've just got to sit down as a team and discuss how we'll get back on track."
by CNB