Nemechek Finds Clear Sailing; Others Mostly Sail Through Air

Joe Nemechek found out Saturday that the safest place on the Daytona International Speedway is out in front.

While the Winston Cup driver from Lakeland, Fla., was leading for 107 of the 120 laps in the NAPA Auto Parts 300, a series of spectacular accidents disabled a number of the Busch Grand National cars behind him.

Before the 43-car field could complete its first lap--before many of the 120,000 fans could even get to their seats--nine cars played pin ball as they entered the third turn. No one was hurt, unless you count feelings, but a lot of sheet metal was crumpled.

Late in the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 23, had a wild ride driving a Chevrolet owned by his mother, Teresa. Although he was many laps behind after stripping his gears in an unfortunate early pit stop, the Intimidator’s son was running down the long backstretch with the front pack when Dick Trickle’s car was bumped into Earnhardt’s. The youngster’s car flipped up and did an aerial barrel roll before it rebounded off the side of Trickle’s car and slammed to the ground on all four wheels.

“It was pretty exciting going down the backstretch like that, but I really didn’t want to be in a predicament like that,” understated Earnhardt, who was making his first start at Daytona.

Shortly after racing resumed, Indy Racing League champion Tony Stewart was making an impressive debut in Joe Gibbs’ Pontiac when his car accelerated slowly on a restart because of a leaking tire and he was tapped from behind by Mark Martin. Stewart was third, behind Nemechek and Jeff Purvis, as he had been lap after lap.

On the restart, however, the pack was bunched together and Martin, trying to help push Stewart toward the front, nudged him too hard and Stewart lost control.

“The tire just got us sideways,” Stewart said. “It wasn’t Mark’s fault.”

Stewart’s car turned abruptly into the wall, directly in the path of the trailing field where it was buffeted along the wall by one car after another.

“If you were in the back of that pack, it was kind of spooky,” Martin said. “Tony and I had a deal that we would help each other in the draft. He was ahead of me, so I tried to push him but he broke loose.”

Purvis, Martin and Buckshot Jones finished nose-to-tail behind Nemechek, but at no time did it appear that the leader’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo could be beaten. After the restart from Stewart’s accident, there were seven laps remaining and the four leaders raced single-file all the way with no one making any kind of move.

Kevin Schwantz, former world motorcycle road racing champion, made his Daytona four-wheel debut a success by finishing eighth, the best of eight rookie-of-the-year candidates.

“It’s been 10 years since I raced [a motorcycle] here, so today was a real learning experience,” said Schwantz, who gained his stock car background racing in Australia after retiring from bikes.

Nemechek earned $78,600 and averaged 137.213 mph for the 300 miles.