Plenty of yellow in early laps at Michigan

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Ken Schrader and Ricky Rudd got together in the early stages of Sunday's Sirius 400 at Michigan International Raceway, marking the second consecutive week Schrader failed to complete even 10 laps of the Winston Cup Series event.

	Ken Schrader has completed 11 of the past 400 laps run in the Winston Cup Series.

Seven days removed from a fiery barrel roll on the seventh lap at Pocono, Schrader was coursing three-wide through Turns 1 and 2 at Michigan with Steve Park on his inside and Rudd on his outside.

Midway through the corner on lap 3, Schrader said Park washed up into the BAM Dodge, starting a chain reaction that sent Schrader into Rudd, wrecking both and eliminating both from competition.

"It was right at the start of the race, and I was tied up side-by-side with the 30 and Ricky shot the gap on the outside. I think the 30 got up into us just a little bit, and Ricky was right beside me and that's all it takes," Schrader said.

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"We all wrecked and ran out of room. I'm okay. Everything that hurts hurt before."

Rudd, the all-time leader in miles completed at MIS, started 32nd and was quickly working his way to the front when the accident occurred.

Wood Brothers Racing has now finished 33rd or worse in four of the past five events. Rudd has dropped outside the top 25 in the championship standings.

"Bad luck on a day like today," Rudd said. "We had a very fast car gauging off of practice, probably was one of the strongest cars, but we never got a chance to show it.

	Ryan Newman

"That's probably the biggest disappointment besides losing a good race car. Only thing is nobody got hurt. It could have been a lot worse."

Likewise for second-year driver Ryan Newman.

Newman was battling Tony Stewart for the race lead on lap 36 when his engine expired, triggering a fire inside the cockpit that torched the entire dashboard area.

Fire was also pouring from under the hood and out the rear end of Newman's machine.

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Unable to see through the thick smoke and flames, Newman drove around the track until he could no longer tolerate the conditions. At that time, he pulled to a stop at the bottom of the track at the entrance to pit road.

Newman quickly hopped out of the fiery machine to the aid of track safety workers, tore off his helmet and sat on one knee trying to catch his breath.

"I'm alright. I got a little burn on my face," Newman said. "I think the fire extinguisher hurt the worst. I had a wild ride, that's for sure. It just goes with the territory. Blowing the engine didn't surprise me.

"Typically, when an engine blows there is fire. The magnitude of the fire surprised me. I saw when I was going into Turn 3 and that's the last thing I saw. I pulled the fire extinguisher, and I had to actually aim the fire extinguisher to put the fire out.

"It was getting the right side of my body pretty good.

"On top of that, trying to stop the car and get out and all those things, it was pretty tough. It got my face pretty good. I was good until Turn 3, and then toe fire flared up pretty good and I didn't anticipate the magnitude of the flame we had."

Newman's spotter, John Erikson, was barking assistance to his driver throughout the ordeal. But Newman didn't hear much of it.

"The spotter didn't help me a whole lot. I was pretty busy," he said. "He told me to take it down to the inside. I was kind of looking out for myself, and the flame got so bad I had to lock it down and try to bail.

"The burns are just on the side of my face. That's about it. It just the first layer of skin. It's like a really bad sunburn."

Over the past several weeks, Newman finally began to outrun the bad luck that had plagued him for much of the season. He'd posted three consecutive top-five finishes, including a victory at Dover, to jump from 27th to 16th in the standings.

Park was involved in another skirmish 37 laps later -- this time with Christian Fittipaldi - that resulted in Park spinning out in Turn 2. He did not hit the wall.