MOTOR RACING: NASCAR AT PHOENIX : Allison Climbs to Top of Points Mountain

Davey Allison, who has seen so many peaks and valleys this season, was enjoying the view from the top Sunday.

Allison won the Pyroil 500 at Phoenix International Raceway and vaulted back into the Winston Cup point lead.

“This has been a pretty emotional win already. I’ve never stopped believing in this race team,” said Allison, a 32-year-old Alabamian who has had to overcome seven crashes, several injuries and the death of his younger brother this season.

Allison’s solid showing was a sharp contrast to that of Bill Elliott, who grabbed the points lead 10 races ago on Aug. 9 at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

Elliott, who finished no better than 26th in four of his last five starts, has gone from a 154-point lead to third place and a 40-point deficit going into the season finale on Nov. 15 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“You hate to see other people have problems, but we’ve earned where we are right now,” Allison said. “We’ve only had three top-five finishes since July, and we just weren’t running the way we needed to be racing. . . . But we’ve been staying in there close (in the point race) and our team doesn’t give up. They never quit. I think today proves that.”

Alan Kulwicki, who came into Sunday’s 312-mile, 500-kilometer event on the one-mile oval in third place, trailing Elliott by 85 points, kept Allison in his sights and moved past Elliott with a fourth-place finish, leaving him 30 points behind Allison.

Allison, who won $65,285 Sunday, can join father Bobby, the 1983 champion, as a series winner by finishing fifth or better at Atlanta, no matter what Kulwicki does.

The victory was the series-leading fifth by Allison--and first since July 21 at Brooklyn, Mich. That gives him 18 in his career and two in a row at Phoenix. He averaged 103.885 m.p.h.

“The car was good all day,” Allison said. “We made a few adjustments, and it just kept getting better.”

Mark Martin led Allison by about five seconds when Martin made what was to be his final pit stop under the green flag on lap 283. It was a quick two-tire stop and Martin stayed on the lead lap, hoping to regain the top spot when the other leaders pitted.

A harmless fourth-turn spin by Jeff Davis on lap 285 cost Martin dearly, bringing out the last of seven caution flags and allowing everyone to make their final stops without losing ground.

Allison came out of the pits in the lead. Martin was able to drive back from fourth to second, but Allison pulled away at the end, driving across the finish line 3.19 seconds ahead in a duel of Ford Thunderbirds.

“Mark Martin had a tough break,” Allison said. “We hate it for him that that happened, but it’s about time the luck changed and went our way again.”

Darrell Waltrip held off Kulwicki for third and Jimmy Spencer wound up fifth.

Elliott never was a factor in the race, starting 18th in the 42-car field and running between 11th and 16th most of the time until smoke began belching from his exhaust pipe on lap 132. He pitted two laps later, losing five laps and falling to 32nd before getting back on the track.

Junior Johnson’s team was unable to fix the problem but was able to keep Elliott on the track the rest of the way, running slowly and just completing laps to earn as many points as possible. He wound up 31st after seeming to right his season with a fourth-place finish a week earlier at Rockingham, N.C.

Rusty Wallace, who started from the pole and led 163 of the first 203 laps, wound up far off the pace after his battery went dead on lap 216.