MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Earnhardt Shows He’s Back, Winning at Daytona

Five-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, coming off a disappointing and frustrating season, overpowered the field Sunday to win both segments of the Busch Clash at Daytona International Speedway.

He quickly began thinking about next Sunday’s Daytona 500, one of the few NASCAR Winston Cup races he has never won.

“We’re fired up,” Earnhardt said. “The guys on this (Richard Childress) team worked hard all winter. They changed the bodies two or three times. It was a big effort by our chassis department, our engine department, everybody on the team, to get us ready for Daytona.

“I’m pumped up and I think this is one of the better chances I’ve had to win the 500, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Earnhardt, who won the 50-mile event for the previous year’s pole winners for the fifth time, started 13th in the lineup set by a blind draw. His Chevrolet Lumina was sixth by the end of the second lap on the 2 1/2-mile oval, closing in on the leaders.

He passed Ernie Irvan for the lead coming out of the second turn on Lap 6 and earned $25,000 for winning the first 10-lap segment.

After a pit stop for all the cars, they went at it again, Earnhardt starting Lap 11 at the back of a 15-car field. He was ninth by lap 12 and fifth by lap 14. He passed Sterling Marlin’s Ford Thunderbird for the lead on the 15th lap and won an additional $35,000.

Ken Schrader was second, followed by Ernie Irvan.

Earnhardt averaged 186.916 m.p.h. for the two segments.

A 22-car crash on the third lap eliminated most of the competition and left pole-starter Jeff Purvis to run away with the ARCA 200 late model stock car race at Daytona International Speedway.

Purvis, driving a Chevrolet Lumina, led 71 of the 80 laps, beating the Ford Thunderbird of fellow front-row starter Loy Allen Jr. to the finish line by 2.2 seconds.

The complexion of the 42-car race changed completely after Bob Schacht and Tim Fedewa, the second-row starters, collided in Turn 4 on the third lap, starting the accident that took out many of the top cars.

There were no injuries reported, but 15 of the 22 cars involved were unable to continue, and five others had to have major repairs before returning to the action.

“It was just inexperience with the draft by some drivers,” Schacht said. “Everybody was running side-by-side. There was no give and take, just take.”

Fedewa said: “It sure wasn’t the way I wanted to start out the season. . . . We were running good there, hooked up with Loy. It was a little nip and tuck and I thought I gave him (Schacht) room. But we got together. I got hit real hard and it spun me around. It was just history from there.”

The race was red-flagged for 9:14 while the wrecked cars were cleared.

Purvis averaged 143.741 m.p.h. in his first superspeedway victory.