Wrecks mar Protection One 400
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
October 1, 2001
12:01 PM EDT (1601 GMT)
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Warnings and expectations went for naught Sunday at Kansas Speedway as two accidents in the first 10 laps forecast a brutal inaugural Protection One 400 that sent former NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett to the hospital.
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Ricky Craven, John Andretti and Casey Atwood were involved in the Lap 1 accident.
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Jarrett's No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford was involved in a wild accident in Turn 1 on lap 247 with defending Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte's No. 18 Gibbs Racing Pontiac. Jarrett was briefly knocked unconscious in the wreck and was airlifted by helicopter to KU Med Center in Kansas City.
At 5:50 p.m. ET Jarrett was listed in fair condition, was alert and scheduled to undergo a CT scan. Labonte was not injured.
"It was unfortunate," Labonte said. "I got behind a lapped car and he (Jarrett) got a run and came by on the outside. I tried to get out of the way and didn't get fast enough."
Jarrett is the second Winston Cup driver to suffer a head injury in the last four race weekends. Steve Park suffered a brain bruise in an accident in the NASCAR Busch Series South Carolina 200 Sept. 1 at Darlington Raceway, has been sidelined ever since. His return is indefinite.
"My concern is for Dale," Labonte said. "He hit pretty hard."
By the time the 267-lap race on the 1.5-mile oval was over, 13 cautions had consumed 70 laps. Six cautions for wrecks or spins occurred in the first 82 laps of the 267-lap event. No less than 13 cars were either eliminated or badly damaged in accidents.
In the opening corner of the first lap, Stacy Compton squeezed from the second lane down on Casey Atwood. Their contact caused Compton's car to ricochet up the track while Atwood spun up the track behind him.
There, Atwood was T-boned by John Andretti's No. 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge, which had started 12th. Behind the first spin, Ricky Craven's No. 32 Ford appeared to be struck from behind by Rusty Wallace's No. 2 Taurus. Craven spun and was bumped by Jimmy Spencer.
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The No. 66 Ford of Todd Bodine is hauled off after a hard crash with Ward Burton.
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"Everybody was scrambling trying to get to the bottom on that first lap," Atwood said. "I was inside the 92 and he wanted to get to the bottom. Maybe I should have backed out a little bit. I knew from past experience with him he wasn't gonna give me much room going into Turn 1."
"If I had backed out and let him in, we'd still be out there racing," said Atwood, who is third in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings. "I don't think he should have cut down, either."
"I apologize to Casey," Compton said after he brought out the sixth caution at lap 82 when he spun and hit the wall in Turn 2. "I looked back and thought I was clear. I wasn't and I hate it for those guys -- they had a good car."
"All I saw was a car spinning out," Andretti said. "It's real unfortunate -- it was the first corner of the first race here. We had a really good car so this is really, really frustrating for me and the guys.
"It's been this way for a year. Why can't anything good happen for this race team? We've worked so hard."
Three laps after the race was restarted; the Dodges of Buckshot Jones and Sterling Marling were tightly racing out of Turn 2 of the fast 1.5-mile oval when Jones' No. 44 Intrepid suddenly broke loose and hit the outside wall. He continued around to the pits, where his car was worked on for about 15 laps before he returned.
"You can't win this race, or any other race, on the first corner of the first lap," NASCAR race director David Hoots had informed the drivers in the morning drivers' and crew chiefs' meeting. It is a speech that is repeated weekly.
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Michael Waltrip's car sits in the infield after a crash.
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"I think they're fighting awful hard for something that doesn't matter for 200 something laps," Andretti said while his crew worked to repair his car, which eventually returned. "My car was up high and working fine, but someone spun up from the bottom and I had nowhere to go.
"You'd think guys would know better. Accidents happen because that's racing. We don't seem to cause many but we're certainly in our share of them."
"When you have split seconds like that to make a decision about something, sometimes things happen that you wish you hadn't done," Atwood said. "I really don't think it was my fault from what I saw in the car. I think I should have got a little more room, but maybe we can do it next time."
About 40 laps later, Jimmy Spencer brought out the third caution when he ran into Turn 1, washed up the track and brushed the wall broadside in his No. 26 Ford.
At lap 61, the caution waved again when rookie Kurt Busch spun off Turn 4 through the trioval grass without hitting anything.
The race's worst accident in the first half occurred when Ward Burton slowed in Turn 1 and a fast closing Jerry Nadeau didn't. When Nadeau's No. 25 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet ran into the back of Burton's No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Dodge, the latter was knocked up the track into Todd Bodine.
Bodine's No. 66 Haas Carter Motorsports Ford slammed into the wall, pinned by Burton's car. Both drivers exited their cars and Burton showed his displeasure at being knocked out of 14th spot by waiting until the field came by behind the pace car and hurling his heat guards at Nadeau's car.
"I know Jerry didn't mean to do it -- Jerry is a good guy, he's a good driver," Burton said later. "I look at me as a driver who doesn't wreck many people -- I don't even touch many people. I've got the hell knocked out of me a bunch of times this year and it gets frustrating.
"There's no telling where we would have been by the end of the race. I'm just upset with people running over me. People have got to look in front of 'em. He (Nadeau) did it and I'm tired of it, so I vented my frustration on him."
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