THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610060175
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: 60 lines
Robby Gordon's Winston Cup weekend took another strange turn Saturday when he agreed to drive Joe Nemechek's car after all in today's UAW-GM 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The flip-flop occurred after Dale Earnhardt, whose wife owns the car Gordon will be driving, objected to the driver switch.
On Thursday, Gordon qualified the No. 14 car owned by Teresa Earnhardt but wrecked it later during practice. Teresa Earnhardt then bought a car from Nemechek as a backup and, after Gordon decided to withdraw from the race, Nemechek, who had failed to qualify, agreed to run as a substitute driver for Gordon.
Gordon got back into the car for the Saturday morning practice session and afterward decided to drive today. Then he hustled to a jet for a flight to Nevada for a three-hour off-road race Saturday afternoon.
``I probably backed away from it a little too quick,'' Gordon said. ``I wasn't comfortable in it. My knees were hitting the steering wheel and I was very cramped up in it. We took the seat out of Earnhardt's car and put it in Nemechek's car. I'm more comfortable in it now.
``I wasn't going to drive the car. I walked away from the program. Dale called me and said maybe I was doing it a little too quick, give it a fair shot.''
Felix Sabates, who will be Gordon's car owner next year, put a different spin on it, suggesting that he was the one who asked for Gordon to get out of the car.
``He wasn't happy about getting out of the car,'' Sabates said. ``I told him I wanted him to get out, and he said, `OK, you're the boss.' Then Earnhardt called him at home and told him I was a wimp.''
But the real problem was that no one had checked with Earnhardt before making the decision to substitute Nemechek for Gordon.
``He didn't know about it,'' Sabates said. ``To tell you the truth, I forgot he owned the car. I thought I owned the car.''
EARNHARDT CRASHES: The Gordon/Nemechek saga was one of Earnhardt's lesser problems of the day. Earnhardt was speeding into turn 3 above Morgan Shepherd when he moved down in the groove, collided with Shepherd, spun and hit the wall in turn 4.
``I wrecked,'' he said. ``I went into the corner and Morgan was on the inside of me. I thought he wasn't up to speed.'' Earnhardt will start from the rear of the field today in a backup car.
``Things have been happening all week long,'' he said. ``The Busch car (driven by Jeff Green) wrecked yesterday (Friday).''
But that wasn't the end of it. In Saturday's All Pro 300, Steve Park trashed another Earnhardt car in a wreck in turn 2.
``I tell you what, this has been a (expletive) weekend,'' he said. ``Two of 'em are trashed. This has not been a good weekend for Dale Earnhardt, Inc.''
Ernie Irvan was the other major Winston Cup crash victim Saturday, hitting the wall in turn 4 during practice. Irvan will go to a backup car and will also start from the rear of the field. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dale Earnhardt checks out the car he damaged during practice
Saturday. He'll start a backup car in today's race at Charlotte. by CNB