DATE: Monday, October 13, 1997              TAG: 9710130142

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB ZELLER

                                            LENGTH:   75 lines

NASCAR REPORT

Points-race leaders among the victims of lap 140 mayhem

TALLADEGA, Ala. - When the big crash occurred in Sunday's DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the most overwhelming result was the huge cloud of dust that obscured the view of the destructive toll.

A dry spell has settled in across Alabama of late, and instead of mud and wet grass, the air was full of dirt.

Hidden in that cloud, until the red clay dust settled, were the top five contenders in the Winston Cup championship.

Winston Cup points leader Jeff Gordon triggered the wreck on lap 140 of the 188-lap race when his left rear tire blew. His car lurched left, side-slammed John Andretti's car, then crashed into the outside wall.

Behind Gordon, Mark Martin, who is second in points, bumped Ernie Irvan and pushed him past the wreck a split-second before Sterling Marlin's damaged car hurtled into Martin's path.

Dale Jarrett, who is third in points, went deep into the grass infield. He lost control bouncing over an access road and was hit by another car.

Jeff Burton, fourth in points, was involved only in a minor way. But Dale Earnhardt, who was fifth in points, was also nailed by Marlin and suffered serious car damage.

Aside from wrecking a total of 23 cars and providing spectacular video footage for the Sunday evening sports telecasts, the crash did little to shake up the current order of points.

Only Earnhardt lost a position in the standings, dropping back to sixth. Terry Labonte moved past him by two points after winning the race.

Gordon, who finished 35th, remains in the lead by 110 points. He lost 15 points to Martin, who tooled around the speedway for an additional 13 laps after the crash to finish 30th.

Jarrett finished 21st and gained the most. He now trails Gordon by 155 points. He entered the race trailing by 197.

``I felt the left rear go just before it turned sideways,'' Gordon said. ``I felt it get squirrelly. I knew right then something was wrong with the left rear. That's the last thing you want to have happen to you in the middle of the pack like that.

``I tried to save it and I got into the 98 (Andretti). This is exactly what we didn't need today.''

Said Martin: ``I just knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I wasn't doing much racing there, I was just trying to finish this thing. I thought they were going to wreck to the inside, but they came up (to the outside) and took me out.''

Said Jarrett: ``I guess we came out on the best end of the whole thing, but it certainly wasn't what we were looking for.''

When asked to describe the wreck, Earnhardt answered without words. Instead, he waved his hands and arms in and out and back and forth.

``There was nowhere to go and nowhere to hide,'' said Jeremy Mayfield. ``All I could think of was, `Hold on.' I felt a whooomp, and I looked over to my left and I'll bet my nose wasn't 10 inches from Jimmy Spencer's nose.''

Calm before the storm

For 140 laps, the race was almost as clean as the spring race, which was run without a single yellow flag. There were, however, two yellow flags for single-car accidents before the big wreck.

On lap 52, Billy Standridge was knocked out of the tightly bunched field and sent into a spin down the backstretch. Somehow, everyone avoided him. Standridge kept his car in the garage.

On lap 99, Michael Waltrip pinched Wally Dallenbach so low on the backstretch that Dallenbach's left tires got into the grass. He took the entire car onto the grass and kept it going straight until he hit the access road at the end of the backstraight.

Dallenbach then spun. And on the long trip back to the pits, his shredded tires tore up the body of his car so badly he had to drop out of the race. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jeff Gordon, left, and Dale Earnhardt found themselves pointed the

wrong way after Gordon's tire blew on lap 140 Sunday, triggering a

23-car crash.

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