Earnhardt Wins a Wild Race at Talladega

Dale Earnhardt won a typical Talladega Speedway finish Sunday, barely holding off Ernie Irvan to win the Winston Select 500 at Talladega, Ala.

It was a wild race, punctuated by two multicar crashes, Earnhardt grabbed the lead from Jimmy Spencer with five laps remaining and beat Irvan to the finish by .067 seconds, less than two car-lengths on the 2.66-mile, high-banked oval.

Earnhardt, the defending NASCAR Winston Cup champion, and Irvan, who had two of the strongest cars all day, both wound up losing ground on pit stops during the last of only four caution periods in the race.

Earnhardt took on four fresh tires and fell to 11th, while Irvan, who had been leading before rookie Kirk Shelmerdine hit the wall on lap 161, had to make a second pit stop to tighten a spoiler and came out 16th.

During the final green-flag run, from lap 167 to the finish on lap 188, those two moved quickly through the heavy traffic, often working together. They were fourth and fifth by lap 175 and second and third on lap 178.

Earnhardt, who picked up his third victory of the season and the 62nd of his career, made a strong move on lap 184 to pass Spencer on the low side of the turn-two banking. Irvan was not able to get up to second until the last lap, charging to the end of the backstretch and racing low through the third turn to pass Michael Waltrip, who had helped shuffle Spencer back in the pack.

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Mike Cofer, an NFL free-agent kicker, won his first stock car racing event, the Plummer Pontiac 100 at Stockton 99 Speedway.

Jurisprudence

New York City police plan to question Derrick Coleman and Jason Williams of the New Jersey Nets about a late-night street brawl in which three teen-agers were injured.

The three teens alleged that Coleman and Williams were among a group of men who fought with them outside a bar in the Chelsea section of Manhattan at 4 a.m. on Saturday, police said.

Police issued arrest warrants for two unidentified Pittsburgh Penguin players and a third person in connection with a brawl, KDKA-TV reported.

The warrants for aggravated assault stem from a brawl Friday night at Froggy’s Bar in downtown Pittsburgh, the station reported. It said the warrants would be served today.

Volleyball

Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne was awarded the lone at-large bid to compete in the NCAA men’s volleyball championships Friday and Saturday at Fort Wayne, Ind.

It’s the first time in the tournament’s 24-year history that the at-large bid hasn’t gone to a team from the West Coast, which has dominated the event.

UCLA, seeking its 15th title, will play the host school in the semifinals on Friday. Penn State will play Ball State in the other semifinal.

The top-seeded team of Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes defeated Mike Dodd and Mike Whitmarsh, 15-9, to win the $15,000 Atlanta Open beach volleyball tournament.

In the women’s final, Angela Rock and Nancy Reno defeated Cammy Ciarelli and Holly McPeak, 14-12.

The top-seeded team of Karolyn Kirby and Liz Masakayan defeated fourth-seeded Deb Richardson and Dennie Shupryt-Knoop, 15-5, to win a Women’s Professional Volleyball Assn. tournament at Austin, Tex.

Names in the News

Mark Pigg won the World Cup triathlon for the fourth time in its seven-year history, beating fellow American Mark Allen by more than three minutes across the finish line at Gold Coast, Australia. . . . Norm Frank, 62, set a record for most marathons completed when he finished his 525th. Frank, of Rochester, N.Y., completed the Buffalo Marathon in 4 hours 41 minutes, an average time for him. . . . Abel Gisemba of Kiisi, Kenya, overcame wind and cold to become the first repeat winner in the 10-year history of the Pittsburgh Marathon. He finished in 2:13.51. Tammy Slusser won to become the first local female champion. . . . . Defending champion Malcolm Elliott of England won the First Union Grand Prix bicycle race through the streets of Atlanta.