THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 29, 1996 TAG: 9604290138
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
As he covered the remains of Ricky Craven's Chevrolet Monte Carlo, the agony on crewman Banjo Grimm's face told the story of the worst Winston Cup crash at Talladega Superspeedway in three years.
But when the toll was measured in damage to drivers, a single-car accident involving Bill Elliott was worse. Elliott broke his left femur when his car slammed on its left wheels after getting airborne on the backstretch on lap 78 of the Winston Select 500.
Elliott was airlifted from the infield care center to Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham. He is scheduled to undergo surgery on the broken thigh bone this morning.
In the big 14-car crash of lap 130, Craven's car sailed above the first turn wall and tore up the catch fencing as it flipped amidst some of the 13 other cars in the wreck. Other drivers involved included Mark Martin, Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon, Rusty Wallace and Ernie Irvan.
Craven, bruised and battered, was airlifted to Carraway, but apparently wasn't seriously hurt.
``He's bruised and sore, but the CAT scan was negative and there are no broken bones,'' NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said at the end of the race.
``Ricky said his back hurts and there's a bruise on his arm,'' car owner Larry Hedrick said as he emerged from the infield care center at the north end of the garage. ``He's coherent, but he feels rotten as you can well imagine.''
Martin limped out of the care center to his car, but said he'd be okay. ``I've got a little bit of a bruise,'' he said. ``It hurts now more than it will later. I just hit my foot on something.''
``It just happened real fast,'' said Wallace, who actually led 16 laps, but was the victim yet again of a superspeedway crash.
``Three-wide racing going on down there in turn 1,'' he noted. ``We're doing it out there, but that's really not the right way to do it.
``It was a bad deal - cars getting clipped on the inside, cars getting clipped on the outside.''
Gordon said: ``It's the first time I've been in a wreck quite like that and it wasn't fun. It's one of the scariest feelings you can ever imagine. You're sitting in there sliding along at 180-190 mph and you're just holding tight. Every time I opened my eyes, I got hit. I just closed my eyes. I'd be sliding along there and you think it's going to stop and then - boom - someone else would hit you.
``You could blame anybody or everybody or nobody. It was one of those deals where I was going for a hole, and everybody was going for a hole. We were just trying to be patient. Maybe that wasn't a patient thing to do.''
Elliott's crash occurred when he got clipped coming off turn 2. His car became fully airborne, with the bottom facing forward, and then touched the ground again at the right front corner .
That slammed the car down hard on its left side and no doubt that was the hit that broke Elliott's leg. The car bounced hard a couple of more times on its wheels, but never did flip over.
After coming to a halt, Elliott pulled down his window flap and waved. He was conscious when he was helicoptered out. Team members collected his racing uniform and helmet and walked to the infield.
At first it was thought that Elliott had broken or dislocated his hip, but the broken leg was diagnosed when he reached the hospital.
MORE TESTS: NASCAR tested race winner Sterling Marlin's car and those of Dale Jarrett and Bobby Hamilton on the new portable horsepower dynamometer after Sunday's race.
Although the tests were conducted in the open, NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said no results would be released.
Winston Cup director Gary Nelson was at the wheel for the three tests. The check was done on Jarrett's car over the heated objections of car owner Robert Yates and team manager Larry McReynolds. Friday after Yates driver Ernie Irvan won the pole, Nelson tested that car and slipped the clutch, damaging the clutch and sending sparks through the exhaust. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A hard hit on the left wheels of Bill Elliott's car was the jolt
that broke his left thighbone. After his car was clipped coming off
turn 2, it went 10 feet in the air and sailed down into the
infield.
by CNB