Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 3, 1993 TAG: 9305030104
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Long
A brief, late-race rain shower actually created two dramatic finishes in the 500-mile NASCAR Winston Cup race, which was just the right number for Irvan but one too many for Rusty Wallace.
The two-act finish was set up by a tiny rain shower that interrupted the race with only nine laps to go. Never has such a small shower created such a crazy, controversial finish.
"Somebody up above was looking for a good finish," Irvan said. "They got one."
When it started to rain, NASCAR first threw a yellow flag and the race slowed on lap 180 of the 188-lap affair, but not before Dale Earnhardt battled past Wallace to take the lead in what appeared to be the finale.
Four laps later, NASCAR stopped the race for 11 minutes. By the time they stopped it, the rain had almost stopped.
When the green flag flew again, there were only two laps to go.
And while "Swervin' Irvan" celebrated his first victory of the year - a two-car-length win over Jimmy Spencer - Wallace was being carried by helicopter to a Birmingham hospital for treatment of a broken wrist, a concussion and bruises after a horrifying finish-line crash that was even worse than his tumble at Daytona.
This time, Wallace didn't walk away.
Dale Jarrett finished third, followed by Earnhardt and Joe Ruttman. Wallace was sixth.
So much happened in those spine-tingling final two laps that long after it was over, some drivers didn't even know where they finished.
"That was the wildest two laps I've ever been a part of," said Jarrett. "Where did I finish?"
All through the pack, cars were bumping and banging during those final two circuits as their drivers fought for position. And the final bump of the race proved to be the most devastating.
Earnhardt, who had dominated much of the contest, bumped Wallace in the rear as they approached the finish line.
That sent Wallace's Pontiac Grand Prix into a backwards spin. And as the car crossed the finish line, it began flipping and tumbling down the frontstretch toward the first turn. After nine flips, it came to a stop right side up with steam and smoke spewing from the wreckage.
Wallace was taken to Carraway Medical Center in Birmingham, about 60 miles from the track, where he was to be held overnight for observation and additional tests. Trauma surgeon Dr. Henry Laws said Wallace was alert and stable, track officials reported.
It was a heavy price to pay for a thrilling finish.
"They should have stopped [the race] earlier and restarted it with more than two laps to go," said Mark Martin. "But this is what you get when you pack 'em all up together and give 'em two laps."
Martin was battling for second when the last lap started. He finished 12th.
"Maybe everyone would have been a little more sensible if they had run more than two laps [at the end]," Jarrett said.
NASCAR spokesman Chip Williams described it as a no-win situation.
"If we go back to green, we're wrong and if we don't go back to green, we're wrong," he said. "If we had known it was only going to rain a little bit, we would have stopped it sooner. But we wanted to leave the cars out under the yellow to help dry the track."
Irvan, of course, had no complaint about how NASCAR handled things.
"I didn't really think they'd allow it to finish under caution," he said. "It was too easy for them to red flag it and get it started again. And I think everybody in the grandstand expected that kind of action. The way it turned out, I'm glad they did it like they did."
For the final two laps, "everybody up there had a lot better shot at it than I did," said Irvan, who was in fourth at the restart. "Myself and Mark Martin didn't get all that good a restart."
Approaching the white flag for the final lap, Earnhardt led Wallace, but Martin and Irvan were coming at them.
"Me and Mark really had a run on Rusty," Irvan said. "But Mark went shooting to the outside, so I shot to the bottom."
Irvan said he was fortunate to get by Wallace as Martin and Wallace bumped.
"And we had such a good shot through there, it shot me right up beside Earnhardt going into turn 1. We collided a little bit down there and the next thing I knew I got past Dale," Irvan said.
Irvan seemed to come out of nowhere to take the lead.
As the bumping and banging continued, Spencer also had a clear hole and shot through it into second.
"I saw Jimmy coming up on me, but he really didn't have that good a run on me," Irvan said.
"I saw a lot of bumping and a lot of grinding and a lot of hard racing," Spencer said. "I got bumped and I bumped people all day."
The bumping caused no problems at all for the first 117 laps, which were run without caution periods.
But there were four crashes in the final 71 laps, including an 11-car melee on lap 129.
Although Wallace's ability to drive is uncertain at the moment, he still has an 86-point lead over Earnhardt in the Winston Cup championship battle.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB