Elliott Wins 400-Miler at Michigan

Top qualifier Bill Elliott, dropped back to last place with an unscheduled early pit stop, worked his way back to first Sunday to win the 400-mile NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

The 29-year-old Elliott started on the pole, survived early problems and cruised to the NASCAR-Champion Spark Plug 400 championship with a 4.9-second victory over Darrell Waltrip.

It was Elliott’s ninth NASCAR victory in 18 tries, although the Dawsonville, Ga., native accomplished something that has eluded him all season. He earned money awarded to the driver leading at the halfway point of the race as he won $10,000.

“Something’s always happened,” Elliott said. “We’ve had to pit or had some sort of trouble every time.”

The victory, worth $57,600, also enabled Elliott to increase his lead over Waltrip in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings. Elliott is in first place with 2,841 points and Waltrip is second with 2,693. Elliott has winnings of $732,293 this season and has 12 NASCAR races left in which to become the first driver to win a million dollars on the circuit in one season.

Elliott is assured of setting a single-season NASCAR money-winning record since he’ll either get $100,000 after the Sept. 1 Darlington race--or a $1 million bonus if he wins it.

Former NFL quarterback Dan Pastorini of Sonora, Calif., won the top fuel eliminator in the U.S. Funny Car Nationals at the Seattle International Raceway in Kent, Wash.

Driving the Quarterback Sneak dragster, Pastorini covered the quartermile in 5.70 seconds with a top speed of 249 m.p.h. to set an track record and defeat Frank Bradley of Napa, Calif., who had an elapsed time of 5.83 and a speed of 243 m.p.h.

The winner in the double-A funny car division was Mike Dunn of Bellflower, who had an elapsed time of 6.08 seconds and a speed of 226 m.p.h. Mike Andriotti of Williams, Calif., won the top alcohol funny car title, and Dave Hansen of Belmont, Calif., won the top alcohol dragster title, with Walt Rhodes of Gardena second.

The team of Max Jones, Tom Kendall and Ron Grable, in a Nissan 300 ZX Turbo, won the Firestone Firehawk Endurance race at the Riverside International Raceway.

The team, sponsored by Datsun Alley, finished 155 laps of the 3.25-mile circuit in the six-hour endurance event. Finishing second was Walt Maas and Jon Milledge in a Carlsen Porsche 944.

Freddie Spencer of Shreveport, La., became the first man ever to win the world 250cc and 500cc motorcycling world championships in the same year with his victory in the Swedish 500cc Grand Prix at Anderstorp, Sweden.

Spencer, who clinched the 250cc world title last week, won Sunday’s race on his Honda in 49 minutes 26.73 seconds, more than 20 seconds ahead of fellow American Eddie Lawson.

The 23-year-old Spencer boosted his overall standings to 141 points, 23 more than Lawson, with only the Sept. 1 Imola race remaining.