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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 17, 1992                   TAG: 9202170089
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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DRIVERS TALK ABOUT WRECK

The 14-car wreck on lap 92 in Sunday's Daytona 500 occurred when pole sitter Sterling Marlin, Bill Elliott and Ernie Irvan went three wide on the backstretch and collided with each other. Here's how they described the incident:

\ MARLIN: "I kinda got sandwiched between Bill and Ernie. I saw 'em coming and I said, `This ain't gonna work.' And I knew what was going to happen, but I couldn't get off the gas fast enough to get out of it. We were all hung together and couldn't get loose. It was just `Katie bar the door' then.

"This was just a racing accident. I'm not mad at nobody."

\ ELLIOTT: "The accident was a combination of all three [cars]. Sterling was in the middle and got caught up in all that stuff and I got turned to the inside and Irvan got turned to the outside. I still don't think Ernie should have been digging the way he was digging down there. He wasn't going anywhere. This is one of those things like - I mean, it's hard to point a finger at anybody, but. . ."

\ IRVAN: "All I could see was out of my mirror, and I thought I was clear [of Marlin]. I got hit, so I'm not real sure what went on. I'm sure there was a way I could have kept it from happening, but I'm sure there's a way Sterling or Bill could have avoided it, too. It was just one of those deals."

Keywords:
AUTO RACING

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