A Close Call for Gordon

Jeff Gordon credited God and the HANS device with his survival of a crash Saturday night at Concord, N.C., that was eerily similar to the one that killed Dale Earnhardt in the Feb. 18 Daytona 500.

On a crash-aborted start of The Winston, NASCAR’s all-star race, Gordon’s Chevrolet slammed hard, right-front first, into a concrete wall at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, much as Earnhardt’s Chevy had done at Daytona International Speedway.

Gordon escaped with only pain in his neck.

“My neck snapped really bad--it really stretched out there,” Gordon said.

But not enough to cause the head-whip basilar skull fracture of which Earnhardt died almost instantly.

Gordon climbed into a backup car and won the race, which was halted for more than two hours by rain that caused his first-lap crash.

Gordon was wearing a HANS head-and-neck support device. Earnhardt was not.

“I knew I hit it [the wall] pretty good, but the HANS device did its job,” Gordon said. “It worked well.”

Kenny Bernstein moved into contention for the top-fuel points lead by beating Doug Kalitta in the finals at the Matco Tools SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J. He’s five points behind leader Mike Dunn and one behind Larry Dixon.

Tony Pedregon won in the funny-car division, Richie Stevens in pro stock and Matt Hines in pro-stock motorcycle.

*

Joe Ruttman won the Jelly Belly 200, a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event, at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colo. . . . Driver Mike Gagliardo died after being injured in a two-car crash during the Trans-Am Series 125 at Mosport International Raceway at Bowmanville, Ontario. The other driver, Gary Longo, was listed in critical condition after being airlifted to a hospital.