ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602260127
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
Loy Allen apparently received nothing worse than a concussion and a possible broken right shoulder blade in a hard crash Sunday at North Carolina Motor Speedway.
But it could have been far worse had he been badly cut, or had he stopped breathing, after his single-car crash on lap 172 of the Goodwrench 400.
Entering turn one, Allen apparently blew a tire and went straight into the outside wall at full speed. As Bobby Labonte rushed behind him, Allen's car shot back down off the track and smashed hard into the infield fence.
Within about one minute, crewman Jeffrey Baker was at the car.
A fire truck also arrived, but there was no ambulance.
About two minutes after the crash, as the field slowly made its way around the track on the second caution lap, Baker shouted into his radio: ``Somebody tell a NASCAR official! We need an ambulance down here right now!''
Baker later told Allen's hometown reporter, Gerald Martin of the Raleigh News and Observer, that when he approached an official and pleaded for an ambulance, the official told him, ``The ambulance is at the other car.''
Labonte was unhurt, but NASCAR stopped the race for almost 10 minutes so workers could peel back the roof and roll bar of Allen's car to remove him.
Allen was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, where he was reported alert and awake. He was expected to be kept there overnight and perhaps through Tuesday.
GORDON'S WOES: A year ago, Jeff Gordon left the Rock with the first of his seven 1995 victories.
This year, the reigning Winston Cup champion left in 43rd place in the points after failing to finish his second straight race.
Gordon's 40th-place finish in the Goodwrench 400, coupled with his 42nd-place finish in the Daytona 500, left him trailing even Elton Sawyer, who failed to qualify for Sunday's race.
Gordon has 80 points and is 275 points behind Dale Jarrett and race winner Dale Earnhardt, who are tied for the lead with 355 points.
``It's hard to smile,'' Gordon told reporters. ``We're being humbled right now. We realize how well things went for us last year. This is frustrating, but we're going to bounce back.''
IRVAN WEAK: While teammate Jarrett was motoring to a second-place finish to complement his Daytona 500 victory, Ernie Irvan was struggling.
Irvan never even smelled the lead on his way to a 14th-place finish, three laps down.
``We were just too tight all day,'' Irvan said. ``If we loosened it up, it would slide the rear end. [Crew chief] Larry McReynolds and I looked at the records on this car last night and it wasn't bad.''
But it didn't work Sunday.
On top of that, Irvan was blamed by Ward Burton for causing Burton's crash on lap 97 - the first crash of the race.
``He might have been under me, but it wasn't enough for him to take the position,'' Burton said. ``We have to all use our heads, and I don't think Ernie Irvan did that right there.''
WRONG SETUP: It's still a learning curve in the new Pontiac Grand Prix for Rick Mast and his team. He finished 10th, two laps down, but the team would have liked another shot at the chassis setup.
``We wanted a top-10 finish and we got us a top-10 finish,'' said Mast of Rockbridge Baths. ``But we tried to stay with the same setup as we had with the Ford last year, and it just wasn't going to work. On to Richmond.''
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB