Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 27, 1995 TAG: 9507270070
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``He's fine, alert, talking,'' said spokeswoman Charlotte Hatfield of Methodist Hospital, where Brayton was expected to stay a few days for observation. No surgery was scheduled.
Brayton, who finished 17th in this year's Indianapolis 500 after starting from the pole position, did a half-spin in the middle of the first turn at about 11:30 a.m. The car hit the outside wall, skidded across the track and hit the inside guard rail, speedway spokesman Bob Walters said.
It wasn't immediately known whether Brayton or his Sadler Brothers Racing car were entered yet for the Brickyard 400. (Sadler Brothers of Nashville, Tenn., is not affiliated with NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler of Virginia.)
Wednesday was the last day of testing before qualifying begins for the Aug.5 race.
PURSE GROWS: The purse for NASCAR's richest race - on Aug. 5 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - has grown by $1.3 million to $4,513,015 since last year and dwarfs the $3.2 million payout for the 1995 Daytona 500.
It would seem there's still room to grow. The Indy 500 fills the same 300,000-plus seats at the same ticket prices, and its purse this year was $8,063,550.
The Brickyard 400 winner is guaranteed more than $500,000 for the second consecutive year. Jeff Gordon won $613,000 of the 1994 purse of $3,213,849.
Even more notable is what the ultimate loser - the last-place finisher - will receive. The minimum has been set at $47,520, more than double the 1995 minimum of $21,825.
By comparison, Gordon won $48,520 for finishing second in the recent Miller 500 at Pocono, which had a fairly typical Winston Cup purse of $1.18 million.
Top drivers typically receive 50 percent of their purse payouts on top of annual salaries in the mid- to upper-six figures.
WALLACE FINED: NASCAR has fined Mike Wallace $2,000 for intentionally ramming Chad Little after Little won the Grand National race Saturday at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway.
Wallace was retaliating for an incident on lap 41 in which their cars touched in the trioval, sending Wallace for a wild spin and causing three other cars to crash, including the one driven by Mark Martin.
Little said it was a ``racing accident.'' The fine, for ``actions detrimental'' to the sport, was levied Sunday but not announced until Monday.
GORDON AND SCHRADER: Gordon said he dropped back in the field during the final laps of the DieHard 500 at Talladega because his car was loose, but he said his shock and concern over causing Kenny Schrader's spectacular crash ``certainly played a role.''
Gordon's car may have been loose, but his heart wasn't in it, either.
``I was very upset with myself that I was racing that hard when I knew the tires on our car were pretty worn out,'' he said this week in a teleconference.
Gordon said he was trying to avoid getting near Schrader, but Ricky Craven, who was behind Gordon, ``had a lot of momentum,'' which propelled him forward.
``As I came up off the second turn, the car just kept working up the race track. When I'm looking in the rear-view mirror and I see Kenny's car going airborne and tumbling, it was very scary for me and I was very concerned for Kenny and I was very upset.
``As far as the rest of the race, my car was loose no matter what. Whether that incident would have affected me or not, I still wouldn't have been able to keep my foot in the gas because the car was loose. But it might have played a little role in some decisions I made.
``Before the race was even over, [Schrader] was on my radio assuring me he was not upset with me, although obviously inside you know he was,'' Gordon said. ``As soon as I got home, I called him immediately. He called the next day. We talked. I didn't really know what to say. I just wanted to talk to him and assure him I was concerned.''
by CNB