Bill Elliott crashed and Dale Earnhardt spun...

Bill Elliott crashed and Dale Earnhardt spun out during the first day of practice for the Daytona 500 stock car race. Elliott, the NASCAR Winston Cup champion and a two-time race winner here, suffered a broken left wrist that will probably knock him out of action, and the incidents aroused fears that the new radial tires are not as safe as believed.

Wayne Estes, a spokesman for the Ford teams, said that Elliott told him the accident occurred when a tire blew with no warning. Earnhardt, a three-time Winston Cup champion, escaped injury when he hit the wall after a tire shredded.

Goodyear is introducing its new stock car radial this week.

Ken Schrader turned the fastest unofficial lap, 197.776 m.p.h. Elliott was next at 196.859.

In qualifying for Sunday’s ARCA 200-mile late model stock car race, Patty Moise of Jacksonville, Fla., became the first female driver to win a pole position at Daytona Friday when she qualified her Buick at a speed of 195.499 m.p.h., more than 2 m.p.h. faster than runner-up Tracy Leslie of Mt. Clemens, Mich., who did 193.087 in his Pontiac.