Black flag takes win from Rudd, hands it to Allison

Penalties for rough driving are fairly common. But one that ultimately decides the winner is rare. However, that was the case in the 1991 Banquet Frozen Foods 300 at Sears Point International Raceway.

Ricky Rudd, whose first Cup victory came in 1983 at the old Riverside road course -- and winner of the inaugural race in the North Bay foothills in 1989 -- grabbed the lead from the pole and led for the first 11 laps before Rusty Wallace dove under Rudd to take the lead on Lap 12.

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From that point on, it appeared that nobody would catch Wallace, who built leads of up to 12 seconds at times. But timing is everything on a road course, particularly when it comes to strategy.

Road-course ringer Tommy Kendall, subbing for the injured Kyle Petty, was making his final scheduled pit stop on Lap 59 when Morgan Shepherd and Mike Chase got together on the track, bringing out the caution. When Wallace, Rudd and the rest of the top contenders hit pit road the next time by for service, that put Kendall out front.

Still, it seemed only a matter of time before Wallace would overtake Kendall and resume his charge to the checkered flag. Unfortunately, Wallace's Pontiac lost a cylinder just after the restart, and he was unable to mount a charge, as Mark Martin, Davey Allison and Rudd all went by.

Now the task fell to Martin, who chased Kendall for the next 11 laps. Heading into the Turn 7 hairpin with three laps to go, Martin saw an opening. He ducked his Ford to the inside of Kendall's Pontiac heading into the corner -- and held the advantage for a split-second until Kendall's front end clipped the back of Martin's car, sending both off-course and handing the lead to a surprised Allison.

''He didn't do it on purpose,'' Martin said. ''It's just racing. It breaks my heart. We needed that win more than he knows, and we had him.''

While Martin's car suffered heavy damage, Kendall wound up cutting down a tire and was forced to stop.

''My left-rear tire went flat,'' Kendall said. ''That's [a chance to lead] you wait for all day. I thought we might be able to hold him off, but he had fresher tires.''

Banquet 300

Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Davey Allison	Ford
2.	Ricky Rudd	Chevrolet
3.	Rusty Wallace	Pontiac
4.	Ernie Irvan	Chevrolet
5.	Ken Schrader	Chevrolet
6.	Terry Labonte	Oldsmobile
7.	Dale Earnhardt	Chevrolet
8.	Geoffrey Bodine	Ford
9.	Mark Martin	Ford
10.	Michael Waltrip	Pontiac

• Complete Results click here

Allison said later that he had a premonition that something might happen.

"When I was sitting there in third behind Mark and Tommy, I could just visualize something happening," Allison said. "With three or four laps to go ... I said, 'Hey, we're going to end up winning this race.' I could see something was going to happen. I thought it was probably going to take both of those guys out. That was the controversy I expected.

"I kept thinking in the back of my mind that this place is known for controversy and here it comes. After that happened, I thought it was all over with, and then I became part of one."

But before Allison could think about winning the race, he had to hold off Rudd for the final two laps. And Rudd knew he might get only one chance to make the pass -- that coming in the slow, Turn 11 right-hand hairpin, just before the start/finish line.

As the two cars came down the hill to that corner, Rudd put his Chevrolet on the inside of Allison's Ford in an aggressive effort to out-brake him into the turn. But Allison wasn't about to give Rudd the opening, and Rudd wasn't about to back off.

The two made contact, as Rudd's front bumper lifted Allison's car off the ground and turned him around. As Allison fought to regain control, Rudd slipped by on the outside for the lead. Or so he thought.

As Rudd went under the flagstand, instead of the white flag, he was shown the black flag. And when he came around for the final time, with Allison four seconds behind, starter Doyle Ford displayed the black flag a second time, as the checkered was waved for Allison.

"It was just hard racing," an angry Rudd said afterward. "The last four or five laps everybody was racing hard. It was an accident. I got into Davey.

"It wasn't an intentional type of rub or hit or trying to take somebody out. We got together. ... I've never experienced anything like this. This wasn't even to the point where we got to racing each other and rootin' and gouging. This was just a racing accident."

While Allison went to Victory Lane to celebrate, Rudd and his crew immediately made a bee-line for the NASCAR hauler to meet with NASCAR vice president for competition Les Ritcher. Ritcher looked at videotape replays, and two hours later, the official decision was to give Rudd a five-second time penalty, which meant Allison won by a second.

"It would have been more difficult [to judge] if Ricky would have been on the quarter panel of [Allison's] car," Richter said. "It wasn't. He hit Davey in the rear end and spun Davey out. He was running very hard into the corner, racing hard to win. But there comes a time when you have to call balls and strikes, to make a judgment call."

Waddell Wilson, Rudd's crew chief, was livid.

"I think we officially won the race, and we played by [NASCAR's] rules to do it," he said. " ... We were trying to pass the car, not spin it out. You're on your own on the last lap. That's always been the rule. They've told us this. Now, all of a sudden, they're going to pick on the [No.] 5 car. They're going to penalize us. For what reason?

"Are they wanting Ford to win over Chevrolet, or are they picking on us? I just don't understand it."

Allison said he thought the penalty was deserved.

''I had the line,'' Allison said. ''I was on the inside. I didn't cut anyone off. I would not expect that [purposely being nudged] from anyone on this circuit.

'' ... If the roles would have been reversed, it wouldn't have happened. I would have raced it cleanly. I'm not saying it was on purpose, but he could have avoided it.''

The win would be Allison's only road-course victory. In an ironic twist of fate, Rudd's last win -- at Sonoma in 2002 -- would come in the No. 28 Ford.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.