MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Allison Dominates in Winning at Talladega

Davey Allison led 110 of the 188 laps and won Sunday’s Winston 500 at Talladega, Ala., to step closer to a $1-million bonus.

Allison also won the Daytona 500 and will take the prize if he wins either the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24 at Charlotte, N.C., or the Southern 500 on Sept. 6 at Darlington, S.C.

He was in control at Talladega. “I’ve never had so much fun in my life,” Allison said after leading five times, including the final 71 trips around the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway oval, and averaging 167.608 m.p.h. while earning $89,325.

“My goal is not necessarily the Winston Million, but the million they put up at the end of the year (for the series champion),” Allison said.

Only Bill Elliott, in 1985, has won the $1-million prize since it was offered that season to a driver winning at least three of the big four events.

The leaders’ last pit stops came on lap 144 during a caution period, and Allison was in the lead--a spot he had held since lap 118--when the green flag came back out on lap 148.

By the end of that lap, the first five were again nose-to-tail, just as they had been before the caution flag, with Elliott second, followed by Dale Earnhardt, Morgan Shepherd and Sterling Marlin.

It appeared the order would stay that way until an anticipated last-lap dash, but one last caution flag changed the order.

After the field was drawn together under the yellow flag, Shepherd was shuffled out of the top five, replaced on lap 186 by pole-winner Ernie Irvan, who moved into fourth.

It stayed that way until the last turn of the final lap when positions two through four went up for grabs while Allison easily went on to a two-car-length victory, giving Ford its 13th consecutive triumph and ninth of the season.

Elliott nipped Earnhardt for second, and Marlin barely got ahead of Irvan for fourth.

“We were outnumbered out there,” Earnhardt said of himself and Irvan, Chevrolet drivers. “Ernie tried to help me, but he was worried about (No.) 22 (Marlin). If he could have gone with me, we could have passed Davey and all of them, I believe.”

There were only five caution flags, but the last came on lap 177 after what was easily the most spectacular incident of a mostly uneventful day.

As the leaders drove toward the finish line, well ahead of a pack of 18 cars, Kyle Petty’s car tapped the car driven by Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Dallenbach whacked Jimmy Spencer’s Pontiac.

Spencer’s car slid off the backstretch into the infield grass, spun around and flew high into the air, with the front nearly perpendicular to the ground. When it hit, the car bounced into the air the other way, then came to rest on its wheels and slid to a stop.

Spencer was able to drive the battered car to the garage area.

Nigel Mansell splashed his way into the record book, winning the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona to tie a Formula One mark with his fourth victory in as many races.

Driving a Williams-Renault, Mansell tied the record of defending series champion Ayrton Senna, who opened last season with four consecutive victories. Mansell beat Michael Schumacher by 24 seconds to claim the 25th victory of his career, tying him with Jim Clark and Nikki Lauda for fourth on the all-time list.

Mansell played down his success, saying he was impressed with several drivers.

“Every driver that finished deserved a medal today,” he said. “You could see nothing at all behind you.”

Mansell, like others fighting to keep his car from spinning in the persistent rain, completed 65 laps on the 2.95-mile Catalunya Circuit at an average speed of 99.017 m.p.h.

Only Schumacher, driving a Benetton-Ford, Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger were on the lead lap at the completion of 191.727 miles. Frenchman Alesi finished third in a Ferrari and Austrian Berger fourth in a McLaren-Honda.

Mansell has won races this season on four continents. His earlier victories were in the Grand Prixes of South Africa, Mexico and Brazil.

Michael Andretti, driving a car powered by a new Ford Cosworth engine, had the fast lap of the day at 226.18 m.p.h. as the opening weekend of practice for the May 24 Indianapolis 500 concluded.

Eleven drivers had laps in excess of 221 m.p.h. on the second day of practice leading up to Saturday’s start of time trials. Three others cars topped 220 m.p.h.

Winds gusted to 32 m.p.h.

“The car felt stable in the wind, but . . . it was upsetting the balance,” said Andretti, the defending Indy-car series champion. “In turns one and two it was giving you more of an under-steer. That was the biggest problem everybody was facing.”

Roberto Guerrero was second fastest in a Lola-Buick at 226.034 m.p.h.

Italian Fabrizio Barbazza became the first driver to crash this year. Barbazza, 29, was unhurt after hitting the wall coming out Turn 1.