MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Earnhardt Increases Chances to Earn His Sixth Driver Title

A broken sway bar in Rusty Wallace’s Pontiac all but gave Dale Earnhardt his sixth Winston Cup championship Sunday as Mark Martin ran off with the Slick 50 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Earnhardt, who came into the race leading Wallace by 72 points, took advantage of his pursuer’s misfortune by finishing fourth. Earnhardt will carry a 126-point lead into the season finale on Nov. 14 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

He can earn the $1.25-million stock car championship on Atlanta’s 1.522-mile oval by finishing no worse than 34th in what is expected to be a 42-car field.

Martin was the class of the field at Phoenix throughout the 312-lap race on the one-mile oval, leading seven times for 254 laps, including the final 23, as he held off a late challenge from Ernie Irvan to win for the fifth time this season and the 12th of his career.

Wallace was seventh, just behind Earnhardt, on lap 228 when he slowed suddenly with the broken sway bar.

Again he got a break when the eighth caution flag of the day came out as his crew was preparing to bring Wallace onto pit road.

He kept his slim title hopes alive by running hard the rest of the way to finish 19th, two laps down.

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It wasn’t the homecoming Nigel Mansell expected. Mansell, the first driver to win Formula One and Indy car titles consecutively, spent Sunday night in a hospital with a head injury as his triumphant return to Britain nearly turned to tragedy in a crash at Donington Park race track.

Mansell’s car spun into the parapet of a bridge six laps from the end of the TOCA Touring Car Shootout.

He briefly slumped into unconsciousness on the way to the hospital, but X-rays revealed he was in no danger.