Bristol 500 : Earnhardt Overcomes Crash and Wins

Dale Earnhardt overcame a crash and raced to his fifth Winston Cup circuit victory in seven starts Sunday by winning the accident-marred Valleydale 500.

The Kannapolis, N.C., driver, who was involved in three-car wreck with Sterling Marlin and Geoff Bodine on the 243rd lap, held off a late charge by Richard Petty and won by .79 seconds. Marlin, who had led at the time, was knocked out of the race by the wreck.

Accidents also knocked out a number of other drivers in the race watched by 34,000 fans at Bristol International Raceway.

Earnhardt, the defending Winston Cup champion, averaged 75.621 m.p.h. in a Chevrolet. The race, which was red-flagged for 90 minutes after 265 laps because of rain, also was slowed by 13 caution flags on 127 of the 500 laps.

Petty, in a Pontiac, finished second in his best showing since placing second in Atlanta last November. Completing the top five were Ricky Rudd, Bill Elliott and Alan Kulwicki, all in Fords.

“It was a tough day,” Earnhardt said. “Sterling and I got together, and I fell back in the field. But I ran a good pace late in the race.

“I probably could have run harder if Richard had been pressing.”

“This is Bristol,” Petty said. “I hit the cars that didn’t hit me. This is just a tough race track.”

Earnhardt now has 1,210 points in the points race on the Winston Cup Circuit. Elliott, second to Earnhardt with 1,073 points, led three times for 147 laps.

Earnhardt led three times for 135 laps. Eleven drivers led the race and there were 18 lead changes.

The race was red-flagged shortly after the Earnhardt-Marlin-Bodine incident in the first turn. On the first turn, Earnhardt tapped Marlin’s rear fender and Marlin’s Chevrolet spun into the wall. Bodine hit Earnhardt, but both were able to stay in the race.

Pole-sitter Harry Gant finished sixth in a Chevrolet. The only other driver on the lead lap was Kyle Petty in a Ford. Rusty Wallace, the defending champion for the Valleydale 500, ran most of the race on seven cylinders and finished 16th in a field of 30.

Among drivers knocked out by accidents were Bodine--in a later accident--Bobby Allison, Benny Parsons, Ken Schrader and Darrell Waltrip.