Rookies find Dover monstrous, indeed

DOVER, Del. -- Blame it on rookie mistakes.

Two multi-car crashes in the MBNA Armed Forces Family 400 at Dover International Speedway were triggered when rookies Casey Mears and Jack Sprague lost control of their cars at the exit of turn 4 in separate incidents.

	Mike Skinner was able to return to the track, but finished the race 102 laps down. Credit: Autostock

One lap had been completed of the race when Mears, running in the outside groove, slipped in Turn 4 and slapped the outside wall. With the field bunched together along the frontstretch at the start of the race, cars behind Mears had nowhere to go and started bouncing off one another.

Mears, running his first Winston Cup race at Dover, blamed a green race track for his slip.

"I just got loose of Turn 4," Mears said. "I feel bad for the Target guys. The goal today was to finish the thing, get some laps under the belt."

Before it was done, seven other cars were involved, with Mike Skinner's No. 4 Pontiac getting the most damage. Skinner's car ran into the back of Jeff Green and slammed into the inside wall.

"I guess something happened in front of us," Skinner said. "Everybody started getting together. I plowed in to (Green) and someone else plowed into me. And then all heck broke loose."

VIDEO CLIPS Several cars are involved in a crash on the second lap Play video Marlin spins into the inside wall with help from Gordon Play video Several cars are involved in a spin on lap 211 Play video  •  Results  •  Standings

Other cars involved were Tony Raines, who also hit the inside wall, Ward Burton, Jack Sprague, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Joe Nemechek.

Mears and Skinner went behind the wall to repair the damage, while the remaining cars stayed on the track but made pit stops to fix their cars.

Just past the halfway point on lap 212, Sprague made a similar mistake. Running in the outside groove, Sprague slipped in Turn 4 and sailed into the outside wall.

"I went into Turn 3 outside of Matt and behind Jeff," Sprague said. "I saw Matt wiggle underneath me, and it scared me a little bit, so I jerked right and jerked left to move up and give him some room. When I did that, I lost traction with my own car and just lost it.

"One of these days we're going to put it all together. That one was pretty much my fault."

	Jack Sprague and Jimmy Spencer get together. Credit: Autostock

Sprague had been running well, and his crew loosened up the car on their previous pit stop.

Behind Sprague, cars started piling into one another, with Kyle Petty getting the worst of it, slamming the inside wall. He later ventured into Todd Bodine's pit area, mocking Bodine by pointing his glasses toward Bodine's crewmen.

Other cars involved in Sprague's wreck were Brett Bodine, Ken Schrader, John Andretti and Kurt Busch.