THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408110674
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Jimmy Spencer's second right-shoulder fracture of the 1994 season is far worse than the first and he won't even try to drive this weekend at Watkins Glen, he said Wednesday.
``I'm feeling pretty good, can't complain, but this one's a lot worse than the one in March,'' he said by telephone Wednesday from Junior Johnson's shops near North Wilkesboro, N.C. ``It sort of like shattered the bone inside.
``There's a pretty deep crack and then four or five more cracks coming off the big one. It'll be another week or two before I can drive.''
Sports-car ace Tommy Kendall, who has carved a niche in the Winston Cup series substituting for injured drivers on road courses, will drive Spencer's Ford in the Bud at the Glen.
Spencer's accident, in the third turn of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on lap 11 last Saturday, will go down in history as the first crash in the Brickyard 400.
``I don't remember it,'' he said. ``It knocked me out. All I remember is something broke, the car went down and I just locked it up.''
After Spencer came to and got out of the car, he walked to an ambulance, gingerly holding his right arm.
``I'm going to try and run at Michigan (on Aug. 21), depending on how I feel,'' he said, adding that crew chief Mike Hill won't arrange for a relief driver for Michigan unless it becomes clear he needs one.
Winston Cup practice for the Bud at the Glen begins at 10 a.m. Friday. Pole qualifying is at 3 p.m. The race starts at 1:10 p.m. Sunday.
TIRE WAR FIZZLES: Prerace predictions that Hoosier tires would dominate the Brickyard 400 never came to pass. All 16 cars that finished on the lead lap were using Goodyear tires.
Even though Hoosier built a tire that was equal to or better than Goodyear's, only Geoff Bodine's car was fast enough to take advantage of it. When Bodine was punted out of the race on lap 100 by his brother Brett, so was Hoosier, for all intents and purposes. The highest-finishing Hoosier car was Greg Sacks', a lap down in 18th.
Hoosier's problem continues to be that Goodyear has nearly all the top teams. But race winner Jeff Gordon said Geoff Bodine's No. 7 Ford Thunderbird was his toughest competition at Indy.
``I ran a little bit with the 7 car in practice and I knew he was going to be the guy to beat,'' Gordon said. ``I actually believe the 7 car was tougher'' than the car driven by Ernie Irvan, who was leading Gordon with five laps to go when his right front Goodyear deflated from a puncture.
``I felt like at the end, when I was running with Ernie, I could pass him any time I wanted to,'' said Gordon. ``But the 7 car - at one point he had on older tires than I did and I had fairly new tires and I was having a tough time staying with him. I thought he was going to be the guy to beat and it was going to be tough.''
NOT YET A MUSEUM PIECE: Gordon said the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has already talked to car owner Rick Hendrick about obtaining his winning Chevrolet Lumina for the Hall of Fame Museum. But he's not ready to let go of it.
``I don't know how they're going to arrange that, because I don't want to give that car up to the museum yet,'' he said. ``But I'd sure like to see that car in the museum someday.
``I know I called the shop (Monday) and they said they're saving every lug nut, every tire and every nut and bolt off that car.''
Gordon said the car (nicknamed ``Booger'' because the team said it was a ``booger'' to put together) had not been run much this year, but it was fast right off the truck at Indy.
``We knew right then we had a great car for this event,'' Gordon said. by CNB