Tag, He’s It: Earnhardt Pulls Out Victory

Dale Earnhardt won a high-stakes game of bumper tag, barely avoiding disaster two turns from the end of the Pepsi 400 Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.

“It’s like playing a high speed game of chess to see who is going to do what out there,” Earnhardt said, after holding off Sterling Marlin and Ken Schrader to win for the 57th time in his NASCAR Winston Cup career and the fourth time this season.

Earnhardt’s Chevrolet Lumina led 110 of 160 laps, including the final 29 on the 2 1/2-mile oval. But it wasn’t easy.

At the end, with 32 of the 41 cars still running and 19 of them on the lead lap, Earnhardt crossed the finish line only two car lengths ahead of Marlin, who barely beat Schrader for second.

“It got crazy those last couple of laps,” Earnhardt said. “We were fortunate to hold them off with my car getting so loose at the end.”

I had to crack the throttle a little and kind of wobbled and Schrader got into my backside at the end of the backstretch. I about wrecked. It was almost another one of them half-lap-short deals.”

Said Marlin, who is winless in Winston Cup competition but with eight runner-up finishes: “It looked like Earnhardt got a little high and Schrader got under him. They touched. I got up under Schrader and I about had enough to get up under Earnhardt, but I’d have been out there in the (infield) pond somewhere, so I checked up a little.”

Earnhardt, who leads runner-up Dale Jarrett by 251 points in the standings at the halfway point of the 30-race season, earned $75,940. He averaged 151.755 m.p.h. in a race slowed by caution for 23 laps.

*

Damon Hill, son of the late driving great Graham Hill, won the pole position for today’s French Grand Prix at Magny Cours, France.

Hill, in winning his first pole, ended Williams-Renault teammate Alain Prost’s run of seven consecutive pole positions. Hill completed a lap of the 2.64-mile circuit in 1 minute 14.382 seconds, an average of 127.84 m.p.h. Prost was timed in 1:14.524.

*

Bobby Dotter, a Chicago native with thousands of laps on the Milwaukee Mile, won his first NASCAR Busch Grand National pole of the year and second of his career with a record run in qualifying for today’s Havoline 250 in West Allis, Wis. Dotter’s average speed on the wide, flat one-mile oval was 113.845 m.p.h.

The NASCAR Busch Series is making its first appearance in the Milwaukee area since 1985. Current NASCAR Winston Cup driver Dick Trickle, then of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., held the previous qualifying record of 112.984 m.p.h., set on May 12, 1984.

Miscellany

Olympic champion Elisabeta Lipa of Romania was upset in a women’s single sculls final at the Henley Royal Regatta after stopping mid-race with a nosebleed.

The incident did not ease fears of those who think that women might not be invited to return to the male-dominated event at Henley-on-Thames, England. Women made their official debut this year after being refused for 154 years.

Lipa was two lengths ahead of Olympic silver medalist Annelies Bredael of Belgium when she let go of her blades and put her hand to her face. By the time she recovered enough to continue sculling, she was more than a length behind.

Olden Polynice, the former starting center for the Clippers, who was traded to the Detroit Pistons last year, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon at his Santa Monica residence, authorities said.

Officers were called at about 4 p.m. after Polynice allegedly threatened two acquaintances with an unloaded 9-milimeter handgun, said Santa Monica police Sgt. Ian Page.

“He was booked for assault with a deadly weapon and other related threat charges. An investigation is continuing,” Page said.

Polynice is originally from Haiti, where his father was a policeman. He has recently been a spokesman for the Haitian refuges and has joined Jesse Jackson at a number of rallies for that cause.

The riot in Montreal that followed last month’s Stanley Cup victory by the Canadiens over the Kings probably will cost insurers about $2.5 million for damages to private property, much less than originally predicted, said Raymond Medza, the director general of the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The figure originally was put at $10 million.

Boxing

Sung-kil Moon of South Korea retained his World Boxing Council super flyweight title by winning a split decision over Carlos Salazar of Argentina in a 12-round bout at Seoul.

Confusion marked the seventh round when a towel was hurled into the ring. Moon’s trainers denied they threw the towel.

Moon was bleeding from a deep cut over his right eye. The referee checked Moon and allowed him to continue. It was Moon’s ninth defense the title.

International Sports

Todd Walker of Louisiana State hit a three-run homer and had a run-scoring double to lead the United States to a 6-3 victory over Japan in the semifinals of the Intercontinental Cup tournament at Parma, Italy.

The United States (5-1) will meet Brazil (6-0) today in the final game of a women’s world championship basketball qualifying tournament at Sao Paulo, Brazil. The United States advanced despite losing to Brazil, 99-92, in the semifinals. USC’s Lisa Leslie led the U.S. team with 19 points.

Names in the News

Red Auerbach was released from Massachusetts General Hospital, two weeks after undergoing quintuple bypass surgery. The Boston Celtics’ 75-year-old president planned to return to his home in Washington to convalesce before starting a rehabilitation program at George Washington University.

*

Houston Oiler linebacker Lamar Lathon, saying new defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan is not giving him a fair chance to compete for a starting job, requested a trade.