THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608040242
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SPEEDWAY, IND. LENGTH: 92 lines
Kyle Petty's violent crash in Saturday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway looked a lot worse than the one at Talladega in 1991 that broke his leg, but he managed to stagger away from this one relatively unhurt.
Petty slammed hard into the fourth-turn wall on lap 38 when his right front tire went flat.
Earlier, on lap five, the same thing happened to pole-sitter Jeff Gordon, but his crash was nowhere near as bad as Petty's, who was battered by a combination of blows. The crash came while Petty was running in second place.
After Petty's Pontiac Grand Prix hit the outside wall, it shot back across the track and collided with Sterling Marlin's Chevrolet Monte Carlo. That caromed Petty back into the outside wall. He came back across the track again and hit the inside wall almost head-on.
But after four hard collisions in a single wreck, Petty managed to crawl out of his demolished car and sit down against the wall. He was conscious and able to tell his rescuers that his leg, neck and chest hurt.
Petty was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where X-rays revealed no broken bones. He was released before the race was over with nothing worse than a bruised left leg and back.
``I didn't have anywhere to go,'' said Marlin, who was knocked out of the race. ``Kyle cut a tire. Nothing he could do. Nothing I could do. I'm very disappointed.''
Gordon crashed in the same turn when his right front went down.
``We can get it back on the racetrack, but this thing is tore up pretty good,'' Gordon told his team seconds after hitting the wall.
``Did you hit the wall?'' asked crew chief Ray Evernham, who couldn't see the wreck.
``Oh hell, yeah,'' Gordon said. ``Big time. Blew a right front. Now the motor is dying.''
Gordon eventually re-entered the race but retired after 40 laps. He finished 37th.
The two early crashes prompted concern about tire punctures. During the drivers' meeting before the race, Lake Speed warned that the speedway had used staples to hold down the sod at the edge of the asphalt in the corners. Throughout the race, however, drivers were dipping down into the grass to get better runs through the turns.
``Everybody is running through the grass,'' Marlin said. ``You try to cut the corners as close as you can. It may be throwing the staples on the track and you're running over them, cutting down the tires.''
Said NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett: ``We didn't find any staples on the track, and Goodyear didn't find any staples in the tires.''
EARNHARDT'S DAY: For Dale Earnhardt, Saturday's Brickyard 400 turned out about as well as he could expect.
The caution period that started on lap six for Jeff Gordon's accident allowed Earnhardt to get out after only a short time in the car. And relief driver Mike Skinner managed to bring the car home in 15th place.
Earnhardt, who suffered a fractured sternum, broken collarbone in a crash at Talladega a week ago, said he wasn't having a lot of trouble driving the car.
``The car was real comfortable,'' he said. ``I wasn't in much pain driving along out there. Our plan was to get (Skinner) in there in case something happened so I wouldn't hurt myself any more. It was really hard to get out of there. This is my life right here.''
Said Skinner: ``I didn't get nervous about driving. I got nervous about tearing it up. I didn't want to tear up Dale's car.
``I wanted to gain some respect from the team and from Richard. I just wanted to get them a solid finish and stay in the lead lap and bring it home with all the fenders on it. And that's what we did.''
POINTS JUMBLE: Not a single driver in the top 10 in Winston Cup points remained in the same spot after Saturday's race.
Terry Labonte, with his third-place finish, took the lead from Jeff Gordon, who dropped back to fourth, 104 points behind.
Dale Earnhardt moved from third into second place - 61 points behind - on the strength of Skinner's 15th-place finish. Race winner Dale Jarrett moved into third, 63 points back.
Meanwhile, Marlin dropped from fifth to 10th, while Ricky Rudd moved from sixth to fifth, Rusty Wallace advanced from seventh to sixth, Ernie Irvan moved from 10th to seventh, Mark Martin jumped from ninth to eighth and Ken Schrader fell from eighth to ninth.
ROUGH DAY FOR CHEVY: Terry Labonte, who finished third, was the only Chevy driver to finish in the top 10. And the next-best Chevy driver was Skinner, who was 15th.
``When the tires went away, we were dead,'' said Rick Hendrick, owner of three Chevy teams. ``We knew it. (NASCAR) knew it. I don't know what they're going to do now, but I sure hope they do something.''
BENSON OUT FRONT: Rookie Johnny Benson, who led 70 laps, more than any other driver, finished eighth in the highest-finishing Pontiac.
``I couldn't have asked for (the car) to be any better, except for at the end,'' Benson said. ``Traffic after the last restart bogged us down a little bit.''
Right behind Benson in ninth was fellow Pontiac driver Rick Mast.
``I was passing guys late in the race,'' Mast said. ``I was trying to set up Benson to get by him there at the end, and then the caution came out. We just missed the setup big-time the first part of the race.'' by CNB