Petty Dodges Trouble, Wins Race : Auto racing: He misses fan who runs out on track on 108th lap of 200-lap race at Pocono.

Just past the midway point of the Championship Spark Plug 500 on Sunday, a caution flag began waving at Pocono International Raceway, signaling a problem ahead for drivers.

Kyle Petty, straining to keep a lead, and Davey Allison, trying to overtake him, were racing to the finish line at about 155 m.p.h. when, seemingly from nowhere, a fan darted across the track.

“You ever seen a deer in headlights?” Petty said. “That pretty much describes what he looked like.”

Even the interference of Chad Blaine Kohl, 25, of Ephrata, Pa.--his motive not immediately clear--could not keep Petty from his first victory of the season. He led 148 of the 200 laps and pulled away for a 4.9-second victory over Ken Schrader. Petty averaged 138.005 m.p.h. in his Pontiac.

Kohl’s mad dash was over a six-foot chain link fence, 50 feet of grass and across the 50-foot apron and 60-foot track. He dove over a 40-inch retaining wall just ahead of the cars, but was caught in the swamp outside the track.

He was charged with two felonies, four misdemeanors and public drunkenness, a summary offense, and placed in the Monroe County Jail pending a court hearing today.

Among the charges was arson endangering a person and risking a catastrophe, both felonies. Police made the charges because the cars could have caught fire in an accident.

“When I saw him he was about in the middle of the race track,” said Petty, who was on the 108th lap of the 200-lap race on the 2 1/2-mile track. “I let off and threw my hand up at Davey. I turned left and was motioning in my rearview mirror for him to go left. When we got there, his feet were sticking over the wall.”

Said Allison: “I saw the stupid nut. He’s lucky he’s not dead. Is he in jail? I’ve never seen anything like that before. I never dreamed anybody could be that dumb.”

Petty averaged earned $44,960 for his seventh victory.