Bottle-Throwing Happens Again

Shortly after the Auto Club 500 ended, a spectator threw a plastic bottle at Jeff Gordon, who was driving his warm-down lap after taking the checkered flag.

“I felt something thud, and I thought maybe I’d blown a tire, and then I saw this bottle,” Gordon said. “It’s bad enough when hot dog wrappers blow on the track, but this new thing about throwing stuff, like they did last week at Talladega, is not good.”

At Talladega, Ala., after Gordon was declared the winner in a controversial finish over Dale Earnhardt Jr., the track was littered with beer cans and other debris.

“I don’t care what they throw at me once the race is over, but it’s scary to think what could happen during a race. I think the tracks should take a more proactive [approach] than reactive in addressing it.”

Bill Miller, Speedway president, said that tracks continually work on preventing such occurrences, such as not allowing glass bottles of any kind.

“I believe that what happened at Talladega was more of an anomaly, instead of the start of a trend,” Miller said.

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Joe Ruttman, who used to be a NASCAR regular in several series, went for a short drive Sunday.

Driving the Dodge qualified by Johnny Benson, Ruttman, now a robust 62, completed two laps -- four miles -- of the 500-mile race, then pulled in because of the car’s “vibration.”

Car owner James Finch collected last-place money, $64,161. And probably made a profit. Which was pretty much the idea.

The car has sponsorship for only 12 Nextel Cup races this season, and Sunday’s was not one of them, so Finch couldn’t afford to race the car. Still, he needed the owner’s points that go with every start -- not to mention the money.

So he brought the car and Benson to practice and qualifying, got it into the field, sent Benson home and hired Ruttman for the “race,” the car starting at the back of the field because of the driver change.

Two laps later, the Finch car’s race was over.

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As a Hollywood stuntman, Stanton Barrett is used to carefully orchestrated crashes. The one he experienced on Lap 22 had a Hollywood look about it, but the danger was real.

Barrett’s AmericInn Chevrolet got loose -- he said it felt as if a tire were going down -- and turned abruptly into the Turn 2 wall almost head-on. Although awake and alert after the violent crash, the owner/driver was taken to Loma Linda University Medical Center for observation and released.

California Speedway had installed a shock-absorbing SAFER barrier where Barrett made contact, and he was thankful afterward.

“I started shooting up the track and, for some reason as I headed toward the wall, I remembered they were there,” Barrett said. “I thought, ‘Hey, maybe this won’t hurt as bad.’

“It still hurt ... but not as bad as concrete.”

Times staff writers Shav Glick, Mike Kupper and Martin Henderson contributed to this report.