Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991 TAG: 9102160044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
Earnhardt crashed out of the International Race of Champions series opener, and Pruett took the victory in a thrilling 40-lap race that featured 13 lead changes among six cars.
"Happy?" said Pruett. "I can't put into words how happy I feel. It's been a long road back."
Before Friday, Pruett had raced only once since a high-speed practice crash in his Indy car last March in West Palm Beach left him with two broken legs, two broken feet and a broken back. His first race back was the 24-hour sports car endurance race here Feb. 2-3; his car did not finish.
Pruett led the most laps - 14 - but his victory was not sealed until Bill Elliott drifted high into the third turn on the last lap after making a run for the lead on the outside of the backstretch.
Pruett said, "This is the funnest race I've ever had. I didn't feel like I had control of the car half the time. That last lap, I wasn't sure what would happen. I thought Bill was going to go around me, but he didn't."
Elliott finished second, Al Unser beat his son, Al Jr., to the line for third, and Tommy Kendall finished fifth.
The race, which features top drivers from stock car racing, Indy cars and sports cars, was full of drafting duels and passes among close-running Dodge Daytona cars. At one time or another, Pruett, Elliott, Al Jr., Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin held the lead.
On lap 12, Elliott tapped Earnhardt's car in the right rear quarterpanel on the backstretch and sent Earnhardt in a long spin down the grass on the inside of the track. The spin was punctuated by a hard bump that damaged the car, putting Earnhardt out of the race.
Earnhardt was not happy. Afterward, his only comment was, "We were just racing and got together."
Said Elliott: "He didn't clear me and tried to get in."
The next race in the four-race series will be on May 4 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.
ABC will televise Friday's IROC race on March 17 at 5 p.m.
Today's action at the speedway features the Goody's 300 for Busch Grand National cars. Two relatively inexperienced drivers will lead the 44-car field to the green flag at 12:30 p.m.
On the pole will be David Green of Owensboro, Ky., who has never raced here and has run in just two other Grand National events, both on short tracks. Beside Green will be Jack Sprague of Spring Lake, Mich., a 1990 Grand National rookie who is driving for Greensboro, N.C.-based Fred Turner Racing.
On the second row are Earnhardt and Ken Schrader.
"We're going to try not to fade back, but we'll have to see what happens," Sprague said. "In something like this, you have to let nature take its course and then deal with it."
Said Green: "I'm going to let Dale [Earnhardt] put me through school and take as many lessons from him as I can. Being around Earnhardt and Schrader, that's a real honor. Being ahead of them, that's really something."
Some top drivers found themselves mired deep in the field after qualifying Tuesday and Wednesday. Jimmy Hensley and Steve Grissom, for instance, start side-by-side on the 15th row. Ernie Irvan starts on the 18th row. Harry Gant is in the 19th row.
Grand National star Bobby Labonte has been plagued by problems all week. His car broke during Tuesday qualifying, and even though he had the second-fastest time the next day, qualifying rules dictated that he had to start 21st behind all the first-day qualifiers.
On Friday, Labonte wrecked his car in practice, and it had to be withdrawn from today's race. He was unhurt.
"I was following behind a couple of cars, and it looked like they were going to hit the wall," Labonte said. "I let off the gas. When I did, the air lifted off the spoiler and I lost it. The back end came around and it hit hard" in turn four.
Late Friday afternoon, Labonte found out what big brothers are for.
His brother, Terry, who was to start the race 11th, stepped out of his car and gave the ride to Bobby.
Even so, the younger Labonte still was quite distressed about the situation, and it didn't seem to help much when Terry quipped: "Look at it this way, you've already passed 10 cars and the race hasn't even started."
The only fallout Brett Bodine had Friday from his vicious crash during Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying races was a sore neck.
"I'm OK," he said. "My neck's sore, but I feel better than I thought I was going to feel."
Bodine said the accident briefly knocked him out. He confirmed that he was knocked into the fourth turn wall by Bobby Hamilton's car, causing his Buick to careen hard into the inside wall. The car was destroyed.
Bodine was back on the track in his backup car Friday. He said it was "hard to tell" how the car will run. "The main thing is we've got to get this thing going," he said.
Bodine and the rest of the Winston Cup field will have a final practice session this afternoon after the Grand National race.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB