Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 13, 1992 TAG: 9202130088
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
DRIVERS LOSE CONTROL
Wednesday was a day of practice punctuated with crashes at Daytona International Speedway, and Davey Allison picked the worst time to have his.Allison crashed into the second-turn wall at about 4 p.m., near the end of the final Winston Cup practice session before today's Twin 125 qualifying races.
Allison's crew scrambled and got his backup car prepared in time for five or six practice laps before the garage closed.
But Allison will be starting on the inside of the second row for today's first race with far less experience than he would prefer in the car.
The accident occurred as he was running in a pack with Brett Bodine and Rusty Wallace that came up on the slower car of Sterling Marlin.
"We ran up on Sterling really fast because we had a tight draft going," Allison told Ford's Wayne Estes. "I screwed up and stuck my nose somewhere I shouldn't have."
Allison tried to go by Marlin on the low side, lost control and backed into the outside wall.
On the way to the wall, Allison's car tore off a piece of Bodine's back bumper - the same bumper that was smashed in a morning melee that involved seven cars. Bodine escaped both mishaps with his car essentially intact.
"It's not too often you have two practice deals at Daytona like I've had today and still get to race the same car," Bodine said.
The morning crash, which also occurred in turn 2, began when Jimmy Spencer began to lose control in the middle of a big pack. Bodine, who was behind him, backed off. Ricky Rudd touched Bodine's car, which spun.
"That started the whole mess," Bodine said.
Although Rudd and Spencer escaped without damage, four others did not. The cars of A.J. Foyt, Wally Dallenbach Jr., Michael Waltrip and Bobby Hillin were damaged beyond repair. Dallenbach, Waltrip and Hillin went to backup cars, and Foyt borrowed Rick Mast's backup car.
\ After a brief, unhappy stint with Stavola Brothers Racing, Winston Cup mechanic Pete Wright is back in familiar surroundings with driver Terry Labonte and the Billy Hagan team.
Wright, 37, a native of Rocky Mount, Va., left Junior Johnson's team in mid-season last year when the Stavolas promised he would be their crew chief. That promise never materialized, Wright said, and "things just didn't work out."
After the Phoenix race last November, Wright rejoined the Hagan team as crew chief Dewey Livengood's right-hand man, serving as the mechanic in charge of Labonte's cars.
Labonte wanted him back.
"He told me, `Every race I've won, you've been with me,' " Wright said.
Wright worked for the Hagan team from 1980 to 1986 and worked with Labonte when he drove for Johnson. Wright's Thomasville home is five minutes from Hagan's shop.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING