Motor Racing Roundup : Elliott Wins the Race; Earnhardt Claims Title

Bill Elliott went the distance to win the AC-Delco 500, but Dale Earnhardt became a winner after one lap.

Elliott took the lead with 39 laps remaining at Rockingham, N.C., Sunday and held on for a 5.26-second victory over Earnhardt, who won the NASCAR Winston Cup championship for the second straight year by completing the first lap. Earnhardt needed only to start the race to secure enough points to win the title.

The victory was Elliott’s fifth of the season and second at the 1.017-mile North Carolina Motor Speedway.

“At the first of the race, I didn’t know what I had,” Elliott said. “The car was awful loose. I went to the low side and got something going.

“When (Ricky) Rudd blew on the backstretch, I got oil on the windshield. Ernie (Elliott, crewman) asked me if I wanted to come in and get it cleaned, and I told him I didn’t. I couldn’t see anything running into the first turn. I was running high and running on the apron. We finally got the oil cleaned off.”

When they did, Elliott took charge, leading 7 times for a total of 234 laps. Earnhardt was ahead 7 times for 121 laps.

Earnhardt, winner of 11 races this year, had to settle for second after brushing the wall and spinning between turns 1 and 2 while chasing Elliott.

“I just couldn’t catch Bill (after that incident),” Earnhardt said about the spin on lap 414 of the 492-lap race. “(Before that,) I was catching Bill and I just drove it into the wall.”

Elliott won $50,025, and averaged 118.258 m.p.h. in the race which was slowed by eight caution flags for 46 laps. There were 30 lead changes among 11 drivers.

Darrell Waltrip finished third and Terry Labonte held fourth, both in Chevrolets. Morgan Shepherd took fifth in a Buick.

Team Hyper-Cycle of Anaheim took advantage of some early race problems by faster teams to win the MotoWorld 250 American Motorcyclist Assn. Endurance race at Daytona Beach, Fla.

Riders Carry Andrew and James Domay finished the 71 laps of the 3.56-mile road course at Daytona International Speedway on their Suzuki 1100 nearly two minutes--almost a full lap--ahead of second-place High Tech Racing of Allendale, Mich.

The winners averaged 100.685 m.p.h. for 2 hours 30 minutes 37.639 seconds.