ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, April 14, 1997 TAG: 9704150025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: FOOD CITY 500 NOTES
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER THE ROANOKE TIMES
The Bristol Motor Speedway School of Hard Knocks on Sunday conferred a master's degree of mayhem on Robby Gordon in seemingly record time.
Geoff Bodine and Jimmy Spencer also received their degrees.
While the other Gordon, Jeff, was winning the Food City 500, Robby was well on his way home.
After his final crash, Gordon had come on his radio and said, ``I'm finally done. That's good. I'm not getting back in.''
Gordon said that on lap 91 of a 500-lap race. And as it turned out, his car was too badly damaged to allow him to get back in anyway.
As usual, the tempers of many drivers flared here, in part because of the record-tying 20 yellow flags in the race and also because the expansion from a maximum 37 to 43 cars put more traffic on this 0.533-mile oval.
Nearly half the field - 22 cars - was involved in at least one yellow flag. Ten of those cars were involved in two or more incidents.
Bodine and Spencer were not among those drivers until lap 423, when they got together and spun in turn 3. Bodine rammed Spencer's car during the ensuing caution period. And on lap 442, as Bodine was set to pass Spencer again, his car turned right and rammed Spencer's car. Spencer continued, but Bodine crashed.
Bodine's crew chief, Pat Tryson, told him: ``Geoff, you've got to take [the car] to the trailer, and then you and me got to go to the NASCAR trailer when it's over.''
Said Bodine, ``I can't help it that the steering broke.''
Emerging from his transporter in street clothes, Bodine still was livid, shouting at the assembled media to ``get out of here and go watch the race!''
``Spencer ran into me. He's a jerk. He's an idiot. I know people are probably going to say, `Well, he's whining.' Bull. Put your [expletive] in one of these seats and have that happen to you. I passed him fair I don't know how many times and he just ran into me.''
Spencer, on the radio, told his team: ``I tell you what, I'm going to beat his [expletive] when the race is over. If they don't fine him, I'll kill him.'' Afterward, Spencer didn't want to say anything other than, ``I can't believe he did what he done.''
NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said Bodine was ordered to park his car after the final incident with Spencer. ``There are no fines at this time,'' Triplett said.
WALTRIP'S DAY: The de facto Darrell Waltrip farewell tour hit a high point Sunday when Speedway Motorsports chairman Bruton Smith dedicated the new 38,000 seat grandstand above turns 3 and 4 as the Darrell Waltrip Grandstand.
``Wow,'' said Waltrip. ``I've never had a grandstand named for me before.''
But on the race track, Waltrip was in trouble from the moment the green flag fell.
``I've got a driveshaft problem!'' Waltrip hollered as he went through turns 1 and 2 on the first lap. ``What the ... did you do to this thing?''
Waltrip struggled through the rest of the race and finished 25th, 15 laps down.
MAST FINISHES 17TH: Rick Mast of Rockbridge Baths, Va., managed to avoid most of the trouble on the track and finished 17th, one lap down.
``It's still rolling,'' said car owner Butch Mock. ``It still runs. It didn't blow up. That last set of tires were real tight. Otherwise, I think we would have ended up finishing eighth or ninth.''
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. There was more smoke than racing inby CNBthe Food City 500 in Bristol, Tenn. Lake Speed (9) found his share
of trouble, spinning out while tangling with Jack Sprague. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING