Motor Racing Roundup : Elliott Wins Southern 500 for Fifth Victory This Year

Bill Elliott defeated Rusty Wallace by one-fourth of a second Sunday at Darlington, S.C., to win the Southern 500, his fifth NASCAR victory of the year in a Ford.

In winning the event for the second time, Elliott raised his lead over Wallace to 26 points in the Winston Cup championship with eight races remaining.

“We have our ups and downs but the last six or eight weeks we have been coming on strong,” said Elliott, who won $75,800. “What I tried to do all day long was think, ‘Don’t make mistakes.’ I was doing everything I could not to make a mistake. I knew if I could work lapped traffic, I would be all right.”

Placing third behind Wallace’s Pontiac was Dale Earnhardt in a Chevrolet. Darrell Waltrip was fourth in a Chevrolet with Sterling Marlin fifth in an Oldsmobile.

Elliott averaged 128.297 m.p.h. in a race slowed by 10 caution flags for 38 laps. There were 25 lead changes among 13 drivers. Elliott led three times for 154 laps. The event’s other top lap leaders were Earnhardt, 5 times for 85 laps, and Wallace, 4 times for 50 laps.

The final 35 laps in the 367-lap event at the 1.366-mile track became a two-car duel between Elliott and Wallace. The two ran bumper-to-bumper or side-by-side the rest of the way.

Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil made a daring pass on the 69th lap to take the lead from Mario Andretti and win the Escort Radar Warning 200 CART race at Lexington, Ohio.

Fittipaldi, a former Formula One driver, drove to the outside of Andretti into Turn 7, then held the inside line into Turn 8 as the left rear tire of his Marlboro Lola kicked up mud from the edge of the track.

Fittipaldi came out of the turn in the lead and went on to win by 7.7 seconds ahead of Andretti.

Al Unser Jr. was third and Danny Sullivan fourth.

Sullivan moved into the lead in the PPG Cup Championship point race with 115 points. Unser Jr. is second with 114 points and Bobby Rahal, who failed to finish for the first time in his last 14 starts and first time at Mid-Ohio, dropped to third with 107 points.

Rahal was knocked out of the race while running in fourth on the 61st lap of the race. Ludwig Heimrath spun at the exit of turn nine and caught Rahal’s Lola, sending him into the guardrail.