Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 24, 1993 TAG: 9310240089
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
NASCAR Grand National inspector Marlin Wright reportedly was slammed against a car by a Spencer crewman, Mike Culbertson, as Wright tried to separate the combatants. Wright was limping after the incident and was said to have injured his back.
Spencer and Culbertson were fined $1,000 each and were suspended from the Busch Grand National series for the rest of the season. Spencer, who was put on Grand National probation last year for another incident, said he would appeal the punishment.
Martin led 105 of the 197 laps, including the final 56 circuits around the 1.017-mile speedway. He won by 2.06 seconds over pole-winner Ward Burton.
It was Martin's seventh Busch Grand National victory in 1993 and his fifth on a superspeedway - a record for the Busch series.
"This is a long-haul car, and it runs the long distances really well," Martin said. "It's really incredible. You watch a race and say to yourself, `Well, this guy could beat us, or this guy could beat us, or this guy could beat us today, and maybe even this guy might.' But the longer we can run, the more we seem to wear them in the ground."
Bessey finished third, followed Todd Bodine and Terry Labonte.
GN points leader Steve Grissom all but clinched his first championship with a seventh-place finish because his closest challenger, David Green, dropped out after 58 laps when his engine failed. Green finished 38th.
Grissom, who has a 162-point lead with two races left in the season, will clinch the title by finishing 23rd or better in each of the races.
The trouble between Spencer and Bessey started with a few laps left in the race. Bessey, battling for position on the lead lap, aggressively bumped and banged his way past Spencer, who was a lap down.
"He ain't too smart a driver," Spencer said afterward.
He said that, after Bessey collided with him in the fourth turn, "he kept on pushing and pounding on me all the way up the front straight."
Spencer was black-flagged, but "I didn't think I deserved it so I stayed out on the track," he said. NASCAR penalized him a lap (by not counting his last lap), which left him in 12th place, two laps down.
In the pits, Spencer reportedly tried to punch Bessey while he was still in the driver's seat. Then the crews got into it. A melee erupted but ended almost as quickly as it started.
Culbertson reportedly went after Wright when the NASCAR official tried to restrain him. Spencer team members said the crewman mistook Wright for a Bessey crewman because Wright wasn't wearing a NASCAR uniform. Culbertson reportedly apologized when he realized who he was attacking.
Spencer said he was planning to run the last two GN races at Hickory and Atlanta, so "the fans lose out now" if his suspension is upheld.
\ FASTEST OF THE FAST: All year, Rusty Wallace's pit crew, led by crew chief Buddy Parrott, has laid claim to the unofficial title of fastest pit crew in the Winston Cup series.
They made it official Saturday, winning the 27th annual Unocal 76/Rockingham pit crew competition in a record time of 22.454 seconds, beating the standard of 22.565 seconds set in 1991 by the Bud Moore crew.
"They've been the best all season," Wallace said. "It was hard for me to believe how big a deal this was to them. This will really get them pumped up for tomorrow and keep them motivated for the final stretch of the season."
The team took precious extra time to make sure every lug nut was tight, thus avoiding penalties. But that made them feel as if the stop was slow.
Said Parrott: "Scott Robinson, our jackman and quarterback, said, `Man, we were so conservative, I thought it was going to be over 25 seconds. It seemed like it took forever.' But we've just got the rhythm."
Brett Bodine's Ford crew, led by crew chief Donnie Richeson, finished second at 23.200 seconds. Mark Martin's crew was third, changing four tires and dumping two 11-gallon cans of fuel in 23.394 seconds.
Ernie Irvan's Ford team, which has vied with Wallace's team throughout the year for the unofficial title of fastest crew, finished seventh with a time of 24.506 seconds.
Half of the 30 teams that competed were penalized three seconds or more for pit violations, mostly loose lug nuts.
Kyle Petty's crew had the fastest base time - 21.611 seconds - but had one loose lug nut, which cost them three seconds and relegated them to ninth.
Bill Elliott's team had a disastrous stop. Elliott's foot reportedly slipped off the clutch before the stop was completed, knocking the right-rear tire off the car, badly bruising a crewman's hand and bending the sheet metal on the right-rear quarter panel.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB