Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 18, 1994 TAG: 9404180068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Long
Spencer applied the eye-for-an-eye principle to Ken Schrader and gave NASCAR fans something to hoot about during an otherwise somnolent period of the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
It started when Spencer and Schrader raced into turn 3 on lap 209, with Schrader under Spencer.
"I got up to his door and he hung a left," Schrader said.
"We had a car capable of winning the race," Spencer said. "He can say what he wants to say, but . . . he hit me in the back and spun me out."
"All I know, I was up to his door and I was almost running over the curb, and he just came down. So he got turned around," Schrader said. "The guy on the inside wins."
Considering what happened next, Schrader didn't exactly win.
Spencer waited for Schrader to drive back around the track. Then, Spencer pulled in behind Schrader and gave him a hard tap. Spencer paused for a moment, then drove into the back of Schrader's car as if he was driving a snowplow through a drift in his hometown of Berwick, Pa.
NASCAR penalized Spencer five laps, but he already had decided his racing day was over.
"I showed him I was pretty [upset] about it," Spencer said after the race. "I figured I would voice my displeasure right there. I didn't hurt him at all, but I just wanted to show him I was pretty upset about it.
"I just felt bad for my guys," he said. "We've been taking the brunt end of it all year long. We've been getting stepped on. They've been picking on my people and stuff. And what happened today just wasn't right."
But during an interview while the race was going on, Spencer put a different spin on the retaliation. "And then of all things, I got my car jammed in gear and I couldn't get the thing slowed down quick enough and I got into the back of him," he said. "I didn't mean to spin him out."
But that wasn't all. About 100 laps after the first incident, it happened again, in reverse. This time Schrader was on the outside and Spencer on the inside going into turn 3. This time, Spencer's car bounded along the curb, got into Schrader's car and spun it.
"I cut real low and I got into the curb," Spencer said. "I guess I must have got Schrader. I sure as hell didn't mean to do it. It was just a racing deal. If it wasn't, NASCAR would have penalized me."
"Jimmy and I just sort of kept running into each other," Schrader said.
Schrader said no one on Spencer's team spoke to him about the incidents. "They know what kind of driver they've got, so what can they say?" Schrader added.
\ BLAZING PIT STOPS: It didn't win the race for Rusty Wallace, but he may have had the first four-tire pit stop of less than 16 seconds in Winston Cup history during the First Union 400.
On the final round of pit stops after a yellow flag on lap 328, Wallace's crew, considered among the fastest, changed four tires and dumped two cans of gas in his Ford Thunderbird in 15.53 seconds, according to Jim Phillips of Motor Racing Network.
ESPN timed the stop at 16.2 seconds, but whether it was under 16 seconds or slightly over, it set a standard for quickness. ESPN also timed Ernie Irvan's crew at less than 17 seconds on one of his stops.
"I can't remember nothin' about it. It was all a blur, it was so fast," said crew member Todd Parrott, son of crew chief Buddy Parrott. "I told my dad before the race, `You'll see the first 15-second pit stop.' I don't know why I felt like that. I just felt like we had it in us."
Brad Parrott, another of Buddy's sons on the crew, said, "We did the 15-second thing because we just decided to get aggressive and go for it. You can feel it when you know you've done good."
Said Wallace: "The crew put a killer pit stop on everybody today . . . "
\ EARNHARDT'S STEADY RUN: He never led a lap, and he did little to put himself in the spotlight, but at the end of the race here Sunday, Dale Earnhardt drove into the garage with another strong finish.
Earnhardt finished fifth, on the lead lap, to retain the top spot in the Winston Cup championship race by 20 points over Ernie Irvan.
"We were out there slipping and sliding all day," Earnhardt said. "It was just one of those days. I've got my shoes off and I'm ready to go home. We're pretty happy with a fifth-place finish under the circumstances . . . "
\ ANOTHER TOP 10 FOR MAST: Rick Mast was three laps down at the end of the First Union 400, but he finished 10th - his third top 10 finish of 1994.
"We had a good car today, but the first time we went to pit, we just waited too long to pit and I got hung up behind a pack of cars and we lost a lap," said the driver from Rockbridge Baths.
He lost more laps after pitting under the green flag just before a caution. "Other than that, we had a top five car all day," he said.
\ BAD DAY FOR BURTON: Jeff Burton dropped out of the race after 352 laps with handling problems after hitting the wall in the wake of Jeremy Mayfield's spin on lap 327. Burton finished 33rd.
by CNB