Trucks Are a Spectacle

A violent chain-reaction collision that erupted into a series of fireballs sent two drivers and five spectators to the hospital Friday during the first race of NASCAR’s Craftsman trucks on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway.

Geoffrey Bodine, 1986 Daytona 500 winner who failed to qualify for Sunday’s main event, somehow escaped with non-life-threatening injuries after being catapulted down the front stretch tri-oval like a pinball in the accident, which involved 13 trucks.

Five spectators were taken to Halifax Medical Center and three others were treated at the infield care center after having been hit by flying debris, but none of their injuries were life threatening. Three were released after treatment. One of the two who remained overnight was to undergo surgery on his left arm, the other will have plastic facial surgery for cuts.

Driver Jimmy Kitchens was also hospitalized and was undergoing tests for a possible concussion.

In a drafting pack, the 3,400-pound trucks were racing three abreast at 180 mph down the front stretch when rookie Kurt Busch and Rob Morgan clipped fenders, sending Morgan sideways into Bodine, whose Ford truck hit the wall and burst into flames. As Bodine’s truck began tumbling and flipping, it was hit several more times, tearing it--and the catch fence--apart.

The engine wound up on the grass infield about 50 yards from what was left of Bodine’s roll cage, which rolled to a stop on its top in the middle of the track.

The race was stopped on Lap 56 for 2 hours 23 minutes while emergency crews attended to the injured, cleaned up the mess and repaired about 50 feet of protective fencing in front of the main grandstand.

Bodine was admitted to intensive care in “serious but stable condition” with a concussion, multiple bruises and cuts, a broken right wrist, burns on his wrist and a small fracture to a vertebra.

“ ‘I’ve never had a wreck like that in my life,’ ” Bodine said, according to Emmett Boyd, publicity director of Bodine’s team. “ ‘I was fully aware of the trouble down on the inside of me. I saw that they were coming up into me, and then I just went on a wild ride.’ ”

Morgan, whose Ford was the first to hit Bodine’s truck, criticized fellow drivers for going three abreast through the tri-oval.

“There’s no reason we should have been three wide at that point,” he said. “The trucks are stable, but when you do things that you maybe shouldn’t be doing, you’re going to get caught up in something like that. The key is to have patience and wait until you are on the back straightaway.

“We were three wide and I got tapped in the rear and I think I went up into someone, I don’t know who [apparently Bodine]. I got into him and came back across the track sideways and it was just a chain reaction after that.”

Mike Wallace, with a last-turn pass of Andy Houston, won the 100-lap race in which there were a series-record 31 lead changes. Busch, a 21-year-old rookie from Las Vegas who won the NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour series, also passed Houston a few feet from the finish line to take second place in his first truck race.

Wallace said the accident was the result of “an overanxious rookie making a mistake.”

Busch’s reaction: “Before the last lap, I was just trying to make friends out there. I don’t know anybody here so I was thinking ‘friends’ today and tried not to make any enemies. I think I may have done the opposite.”

The accident was reminiscent of one at Talladega, Ala., in May 1987 when Bobby Allison’s car slammed into the catch fence, injuring a number of spectators. The violence of that accident, which also caused a long delay to repair the fence, prompted NASCAR to require restrictor plates on carburetors to cut down the high speeds at Talladega and Daytona, the fastest tracks on the circuit.

Restrictor plates were not used for the truck race here because speeds were not considered excessive.

The top speed was 187.563 mph by pole-sitter Joe Ruttman.

Although no spectators suffered life-threatening injuries, the debris flying into the stands caused concern, in light of two recent accidents that were fatal to spectators.

In July 1998, three were killed by a flying tire and other parts at Michigan Speedway during a CART race. Ten months later, in an Indy Racing League race at Lowe’s Speedway in Concord, N.C., three spectators were also killed by debris.

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Dale Earnhardt added to his long string of Daytona International Speedway victories, toying with the field and winning his sixth IROC and 34th race overall at the track.

After starting from the pole--won in a drawing--Earnhardt gave up the lead to his son, Dale Jr., on the third lap of the 40-lap race for identically prepared cars.

Tony Stewart, Jeff Burton and Dale Jarrett also led at times, but with a lap to go, Earnhardt swept past Burton and was an easy winner. Stewart finished second and Burton third. Earnhardt averaged 181.178 mph for the incident-free race.

Notes

Busch Grand National cars will take over Daytona today with the 42nd running of the NAPA Auto Parts 300.

Former Winston Cup veteran Hut Stricklin will start on the pole in a Pontiac with former Craftsman Truck champion Ron Hornaday of Palmdale alongside him in a Chevrolet.

Jason Leffler of Long Beach will start 11th and former CART driver PJ Jones of Torrance 32nd.

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SPECTATOR INJURIES

Motor racing has gone through a series of high-profile track mishaps over the last few years involving spectators:

FEB. 16, 1997--Two spectators were injured at the Daytona 500 when debris--including the hood from Ernie Irvan’s car--flew into the grandstand during a wreck involving Irvan, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett.

JULY 26, 1998--Three spectators were killed and six injured when a wheel and suspension parts from Adrian Fernandez’s car flew into the stands during a CART race at Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

JULY 31, 1998--Two spectators suffered minor injuries when they were hit by small pieces of fiberglass that cleared the catch fence after a multicar crash during an IROC race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

MAY 1, 1999--Three spectators died and eight were injured, among them a 9-year-old girl, after being hit by debris from a three-car wreck in an IRL race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

DAYTONA: UP NEXT

TODAY: NAPA

Auto Parts 300

* Time: 9 a.m., Channel 2

* Race distance: 300 miles, 120 laps.

SUNDAY

Daytona 500

* Time: 9 a.m., Channel 2.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 200 laps.