THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408150365
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
Aggressive stock-car drivers have been known to say they would run over their own mother to win a race.
Dale Earnhardt added a new twist to that after Sunday's Bud at the Glen at Watkins Glen International. He ran over a cop.
In all seriousness, it was not intentional, and it happened after the race.
The mishap left Chemung County Sheriff's Deputy John Sullivan with a bump on his head and other bruises, but apparently without any serious injuries. Track officials said Sullivan was treated at the infield care center and released.
Earnhardt, who is almost always the first driver to leave a track after a race he doesn't win, was the first into the garage after finishing third in Sunday's event. But as he drove quickly toward the garage, he encountered the officer about 50 yards outside the garage gate.
``I about ran over the top of a policeman coming into the garage,'' he told Chevrolet's Ray Cooper moments after it happened. ``He started one way and I went the other, then I turned back and went the other way.
``I couldn't tell which way he was going to go. He was trying to dodge me. He fell and bumped his head.''
Earnhardt said he didn't hit the officer. But a reporter who saw a videotape of the incident said it appeared that his car ran over the officer's feet, and that caused him to lose his balance and fall backward.
``I went back and talked to him, and he said he was all right,'' Earnhardt said.
But it was a tense scene as the officer lay on the ground, surrounded by emergency workers. At one point, a track official started pushing a photographer away, screaming, ``No pictures!''
HENSLEY GETS LOST: It would seem impossible for a stock-car driver to get lost in the middle of a race, but that's what happened to Jimmy Hensley after he broke an axle Sunday.
When the axle broke, Hensley turned off the track near turn one and tried to take the same shortcut back to the garage that the drivers took after qualifying.
``But the gate was locked, so I got into the infield,'' he said. ``I kinda got lost out there. I hate to say it, but I actually got over in the souvenir rigs out behind the grandstands.''
Hensley eventually found his way to the garage, got a new axle and returned to finish 33rd after completing 75 laps.
HOOSIER WOES: Hoosier tires apparently came up with a dud for the Bud at the Glen.
Geoff Bodine, Hoosier's lead driver, finished a whopping four laps down in 29th position and had no problems other than his tires.
``Our tires picked up rubber and it wouldn't come off,'' he said. ``It felt like everything was flat or something was broke. I couldn't even run. We pitted and ran good, and then the tires - even new tires - would pick up rubber again.
``We don't know why, but some picked it up and some didn't. It was just a strange phenomenon happening today. When we had tires on that didn't pick up rubber, we didn't run bad at all, even pretty darn good. The guys were cutting them up, trying to figure out why some would pick it up and some wouldn't.''
Some of Bodine's tires had a layer of excess rubber covering almost the entire tread and firmly stuck to the tread as if it had been glued on.
FAMILY CIRCUS: Although they apparently still aren't talking, Geoff and Brett Bodine started next to each other in Sunday's race, which meant they had to share the back seat of a parade car during a trip around the track during prerace ceremonies.
Brett Bodine was black-flagged by NASCAR late in the race for refusing to allow Steve Grissom to pass him on a restart. But he discounted the notion that NASCAR might be trying to punish him for spinning out Geoff in the Brickyard 400.
``I was waving (Grissom) by me, but his crew was telling him to stay put,'' Brett told reporters. ``It's no big deal, but some miscommunication.''
WALLY'S LAST RIDE: Although he dropped from fourth to 14th in the final laps of the Bud at the Glen, Wally Dallenbach was not unhappy with his final ride in Richard Petty's No. 43 Pontiac.
He went out with both guns blazing.
``It was all-out or blowout,'' he said. ``I'd rather go out that way. I wasn't going to sit there and take fourth without going for (third).''
Dallenbach's top-five finish disappeared when Rusty Wallace lost control in turn 10, a fast left-hand corner on the 11-turn course, on lap 89.
``I got in too deep,'' Wallace said. ``Man, I had a third place as easy as can be and I messed it up myself.''
Said Dallenbach: ``Rusty went off, and as he came flying back on the track, he caught me in the right rear. That whacked everything out of shape, and the car was pretty hard to turn after that. And then, when I was trying to get past Earnhardt in turn one, I just went in too hard.''
Dallenbach sailed off into the grass, and by the time he got back onto the track, he had fallen to 14th.
Dallenbach said he intends to stay in Winston Cup racing, but he added, ``I don't know what my plans are.'' by CNB