MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Unser Takes Title, Fittipaldi Wins Race

Al Unser Jr. was in the treatment room at Easton, Pa., Hospital when he officially clinched his first CART PPG Cup Indy-car championship Sunday.

Unser was banged up in a three-car crash midway through Sunday’s Bosch Spark Plug Grand Prix at Pennsylvania International Raceway at Nazareth, a race that did not live up to its billing as a championship duel between Unser and Michael Andretti but wound up with Emerson Fittipaldi outracing Rick Mears for the victory.

Unser, 29, had a mild concussion and was released.

Rick Galles, co-owner of Galles-Kraco Racing, said, “It’s unfortunate to win it this way. Al’s doing great. He was excited about the championship.

“The championship means something because it is won over a 16-race season. We think we earned it. We had six wins this season, and we don’t think we are finished yet.”

On the one-mile tri-oval, Fittipaldi, who led 166 of the 200 laps, managed to hold off Penske teammate Mears over the final 32 laps.

Mears’ final pit stop came during the caution period before those final 32 miles and lasted only 3.6 seconds. That allowed him to close on Fittipaldi.

Unser clinched the $400,000 season championship with one race remaining when Andretti, the only driver with a chance of catching him, fought handling problems and wound up fifth.

Andretti goes into the season-finale Oct. 21 at Monterey, Calif., only 11 points ahead of Mears in a battle for second place.

Fittipaldi’s winning speed of 112.170 m.p.h. was slow because of five caution flags. He won $85,334 in his 12th Indy-car victory.

On lap 112, Unser was setting up the lapped cars of Arie Luyendyk and Danny Sullivan for a pass in turn three when Luyendyk and Sullivan crashed, sending Luyendyk’s car into Unser’s Lola and both of them hard into the wall.

Davey Allison, taking advantage of Bill Elliott’s tire troubles with a bit more than 100 miles left, held off Morgan Shepherd to win the Mello Yello 500 Winston Cup stock-car race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

It was the second victory of the season and eighth of his career for Allison, 29 and a Hueytown, Ala., native. Driving a Ford Thunderbird, Allison beat Shepherd to the checkered flag by 3.4 seconds for the $90,650 winner’s purse.

Allison averaged 137.375 m.p.h. in a race that featured 14 lead changes among 10 drivers. There were six cautions for 38 laps.

Elliott led 243 laps and was dominating the race until the 258th lap, when the left rear tire went bad on his Thunderbird. He faded to 15th.

Mark Martin, never a factor, won a major victory over Dale Earnhardt in their two-man showdown for the Winston Cup driving championship. Martin added 33 points to his margin and leads Earnhardt by 49 points with three races left.

Martin finished only 14th, but Earnhardt placed only 25th after a pit road mishap put him several laps down before the race’s halfway point. For Earnhardt, it was another episode of bad luck at Charlotte that includes eight consecutive races without a victory.

His car was stopped in the pits following the race’s second caution period when Alan Kulwicki smacked into Ernie Irvan coming out of pit road. The force of that accident sent Irvan’s car into Earnhardt’s Chevy Lumina.

About 10 laps later, Earnhardt lost control and crashed into the wall in turn four. When he pitted for tires, his crew failed to tighten the lug nuts on the left-side tires. As Earnhardt was about to return to the track, his left rear tire went sailing off and around turn one.

By the time Earnhardt’s crew was able to put on new tires, he had lost six laps to the leader, Elliott.

Robbie Groff of Northridge, who started second, next to pole-winner Robbie Buhl, took the lead at the start and beat Buhl to the finish line by 13.671 seconds in the 75-lap race American Racing Series event for Buick-powered Wildcats at Nazareth, Pa. Groff averaged 132.666 m.p.h. in his first ARS victory and earned $25,500.