Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 17, 1992 TAG: 9202170132
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Long
ALLISON STEERS CLEAR
One pass made the difference Sunday for Davey Allison in the Daytona 500, andluck had a lot to do with it.As the leaders began crashing in front of him on lap 92 of the 200-lap race, Allison picked the right opening on the backstretch of Daytona International Speedway, hit the gas and sped past the carnage that littered the track behind him.
From then on, the race was largely a cakewalk for Allison, because the 14-car crash destroyed or damaged nearly every car that could have been a threat to his fast-running Ford.
At the end, the only driver left for Allison to contend with was lightly regarded Morgan Shepherd. And on the last lap, all Shepherd saw was Allison's rear bumper.
Allison won by two car lengths, but it might as well have been a half a lap.
Geoff Bodine was third, followed by Alan Kulwicki, Dick Trickle, Kyle Petty, Terry Labonte, Ted Musgrave, Dale Earnhardt and Phil Parsons.
"There were a couple of cars ahead of me that were at least as strong as our car, but they ended up in the infield over there with some sheet metal bent up," said the 30-year-old Allison. "It was because of some unnecessary racing at the wrong place on the race track at the wrong time in the race."
Until Sunday, the only father and son to win stock car racing's biggest prize were Lee and Richard Petty. Allison and his father, three-time winner Bobby Allison, now share that distinction. It came, appropriately enough, at Richard Petty's last Daytona 500.
The elder Allison joined his son for the winner's interview and said he felt an "awful lot of happiness" about the victory. "I'm very, very proud," Bobby Allison said. "I keep saying it's really a special pleasure [when you] think about fathers around the country who would like to feel this way about their sons."
Davey Allison's best finish in his five previous 500s was second, when he followed his father across the finish line in 1988. Bobby Allison has no memory of that race. He crashed later that year in Pocono and received serious head injuries that ended his career.
Davey Allison said that 1988 race remains the most exciting moment of his career. Perhaps that's because he was never really threatened near the end of Sunday's race.
Still, Allison said it wasn't easy. "I was very concerned," he said.
But it was all in his mind. There was no final shootout on the track.
"I knew if I could stay in front [of Shepherd], he'd have a tough time getting around the outside of me." Every time either of them moved up to the high groove, "it really bottled up the car," Allison said.
The high groove was the only thing open to Shepherd, because Allison had no trouble keeping his Ford low through the turns.
"We gave it a shot, but we weren't strong enough to do anything with Davey there at the end," said Shepherd. "I backed up there [on the last lap] and tried to get a run at him, and I could get right to him, but I didn't have quite enough to pull up on him."
It could have been different. It could have been Mark Martin battling with Allison, or pole sitter Sterling Marlin, or Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Ernie Irvan or Dale Jarrett.
But all of them, as well as Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Ken Schrader, Chad Little, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Hut Stricklin and Richard Petty, were eliminated or crippled by the wreck on lap 92.
The crash was especially brutal to top contenders. Nine of the 16 cars on the lead lap were involved.
It happened when Elliott and Irvan both tried to pass Marlin, who was leading, at the same time.
Elliott went to the outside. Irvan went to the inside. Marlin was sandwiched. And they all came together at the same time.
"Probably a year ago I might have gotten involved in a wreck like that," said Allison, who was behind Irvan at the time.
"I followed Ernie at first," said Allison. "But then I said, `Whoa, this is enough for me. I'm backing off.' I saw it coming. They all just ran out of room there. So I moved outside, stood on the gas and went on as all hell broke loose right behind me."
The drivers involved in the wreck said, for the most part, that it was just a racing accident.
But that made it no less disappointing.
"I'm aggravated," said Martin, who had one of the strongest cars during Speedweeks. "We easily could have won. You couldn't possibly be more careful than I was. And I still got in a wreck.
"The way it looked to me was that I had a hole cleared through the thing and then somebody hit somebody else and knocked them like a Ping-Pong ball right back in front of me."
After the wreck, "you could ride around in a crippled car and still finish in the top 10," Martin said. "That's embarrassing. You ought to have to race your brains out. This is the biggest race of the year."
Still, one could see this victory coming for Allison. He won five times last year and was particularly strong on the superspeedways. And he's now won three of the last four Winston Cup points-producing races.
Allison, in fact, could have won here last year, but was involved in a late-race wreck with Earnhardt and Kyle Petty.
One year later, the pain of that accident is long gone.
"Probably tomorrow morning, I'll be floating when I wake up," Allison said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING