Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 11, 1991 TAG: 9102110047
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Forced to the back of the pack after cruising to victory in the first segment, Earnhardt sliced through the entire field in the first lap-and-a-half of the second segment to take the lead for good.
"To come back leading the race in two laps, it was amazing to me," Earnhardt said. "I didn't believe we could do it. I told [wife] Teresa and [car owner] Richard Childress earlier in the week it would take King Kong to come from 14th in 10 laps and I didn't believe we could do it in two."
Under a new format for 1991, the Clash was divided into two 10-lap races and the field was inverted after the first race.
Earnhardt's overwhelming twin victories moved him to the forefront as the favorite for Sunday's Daytona 500, even though, as usual, he showed no such dominance during testing in December and January and qualifying on Saturday.
Starting sixth in the Clash, Earnhardt moved to the lead on the second lap and held it from there. Starting the second race from the back, Earnhardt passed four cars in the first lap. On the second lap, he moved to the bottom groove, passed the rest of the field and grabbed the lead going into the third turn.
Ernie Irvan followed Earnhardt across the finish line in the first segment. Mark Martin finished second in the final dash to the checkered flag. Earnhardt won $60,000 of the $280,000 purse - $25,000 for winning the first half of the race and $35,000 for the second.
Moments after Earnhardt grabbed the second-segment lead, the race became destructive, particularly for car owner Rick Hendrick.
His top two cars, driven by Ricky Rudd and Ken Schrader, were damaged in a three-car front stretch crash triggered by Derrike Cope.
Cope, struggling with his slower car in a pack of faster ones, tapped the right rear of Rudd's Chevy, sending both cars out of control. Cope's spinning car then caught Schrader and both cars tagged the front stretch wall.
Cope took the worst of it, mangling the front end of his Chevy Lumina and bending the frame. Schrader's car had moderate right front damage. Rudd spun down toward the pit entrance, where the right rear of his car struck the wall.
Cope took the responsibility, but a steaming Rudd blamed the race format, not his fellow competitor.
Right after the crash, Rudd told a television interviewer that the Clash format was "junk" and added, "I don't think I'll run it again."
After the race, in the shade of his garage, a calmer Rudd said he would probably race in the Clash again, but not with his best car, as he did Sunday.
"The format created the wreck that we had today," he said. "When they restarted, it bottle-necked everything up. It had the fast cars in the back trying to get to the front with the pressure of only having 10 laps to get to the front."
Hendrick criticized the format, too. "I don't like it," he said. "It cost me two cars and a lot of work here."
Rudd said he didn't see Cope hit him.
Cope said: "We were all just stacked up. I didn't want to be three abreast like I was here last July, but I got put in that position again. I tried to squeeze out of the gas coming out of turn four, but it was tight quarters and I don't really know what happened. I hate it that it took three Chevrolets out of the race. I feel bad about it."
Said Schrader, who had finished third in the first segment, said, "I was trying to make a pass, but the hole I was going for was filled up by Derrike's car. He was sideways and I couldn't do anything."
Schrader said he has no problems with the format. "If somebody's going to pay us $280,000 to run 20 laps, I don't care what they want us to do. We'll run it however they want it," he said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB