By Mark Aumann, Turner Sports Interactive
January 26, 2003
8:57 PM EST (0157 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- For what reason would you need a back bumper on a race car, anyway?
Bobby Allison sheared off his back bumper -- and knocked his primary rival out of the way -- in winning the 24th annual Daytona 500 by a comfortable 23 seconds.
In an incident that brought back memories of 1979, Allison clipped Cale Yarborough while making a pass on the fourth lap, a move that caused Allison's bumper to fall off, triggering an accident that knocked three other cars out of the race.
Yarborough rallied to wind up second, but after the race he asserted Allison purposely clipped him to improve his car.
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"I have been in a bunch of wrecks and when you bump hard enough to knock a bumper off, it leaves an impact on your car," Yarborough said. "But there's not an imprint on mine. I wondered at the time what he was trying to do because he made an awful stupid move that early in the race.
"It meant there was absolutely no drag under his car."
Terry Labonte, who finished fourth, hinted that Yarborough's accusations may have had merit.
"I didn't see the bumper come off," he said. "But after he lost it and I was running behind him, I noticed no bumper brackets sticking out."
Allison defended his position, claiming it was nothing more than a racing incident.
"I may have crowded Cale too much," Allison said. "We came here with our bumper extended farther back than the others. When we ran so strong in the race last Sunday, NASCAR made us move it in closer.
"It didn't help when the bumper fell off. The car handled worse until a couple of pit stops allowed us to make some chassis changes."
Allison also drove the final 40 laps on one tank of gas, setting off speculation in the garage area that perhaps his fuel cell wasn't legal.
"We couldn't make it those final laps without stopping for gas," said Dale Inman, crew chief for third-place Joe Ruttman. "Our tank holds just 20.8 gallons. I wonder about some others."
NASCAR technical director Dick Beaty quickly came to Allison's defense.
"All fuel cells must be nine inches high, 17 inches wide and 33 inches long," Beaty said. "That figures out to 5,049 cubic inches of space, or room for 21.857 gallons."
Allison actually went 43 laps -- including three pace laps -- on his first tank of fuel, so he ignored his critics, claiming he had just enough fuel to complete the distance.
"I ran out of gas on the last lap, in the fourth turn when my car started knocking," Allison said. "It was the perfect gamble because I came in with the engine off."
Interestingly enough, none of Allison's detractors filed a protest.
Several other contenders were wiped out in a huge wreck midway through the race.
When Bobby Wawak's car blew an engine on lap 103, the resulting accident collected Richard Petty, Neil Bonnett and Benny Parsons. Petty suffered a sprained ankle and left the track on crutches.
"When that guy's engine went, there was so much smoke I think everybody slowed down," Petty said. "When I did, somebody got me in the back. That got me moving."
NOTE: This is one in a series of articles counting down to the 2003 Daytona 500.
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