Elder statesman
Part-time driver wins crash-filled Goody's Dash at Daytona
Posted: Friday February 12, 1999 06:33 PM
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Elder was happy just to finish, much less win. AP |
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Fourteen rookies and 13 drivers had never raced at Daytona's fast oval before the NASCAR Goody's Dash Series race.
It showed.
Christian Elder avoided a pair of multiple-car crashes to win the Discount Auto Parts 200 on Friday. The race included three red flags, seven caution periods, 57 minutes in delays and one spectacular wreck that flipped a car eight times.
Elder, a part-time driver on the series from Minneapolis, beat Robert Huffman for a 3.254-second victory after a restart with three laps remaining.
Elder earned $11,550 for taking the checkered flag, although all 21 drivers who finished with their cars running must have felt like winners.
"There were a pretty good number of rookies in the field and a pretty good number of rookie crew chiefs," Elder said. "When you combine those two, you're asking for trouble and we had trouble today."
Three drivers were hospitalized, two with broken legs and the other with a minor neck injury.
The race, normally completed in about 90 minutes, took almost three hours. Just 22 laps into the 80-lap race, accidents had knocked out 20 of the 42 cars.
"Last year, I watched some tapes and thought I realized what it took to survive this race," said Derrick Kelley, who was involved in one of the big wrecks. "I think some of those guys need to watch some of those tapes, watch those wrecks and realize how these cars bump together."
The most dramatic accident, however, was a one-car affair.
Heading toward the start-finish line with just four laps left, Danny Bagwell lost control. His Ford barrel-rolled eight times before coming to a stop in the apron, with every piece of sheet metal sheared off the body by the time it stopped.
He crawled out of the shell and waited for a stretcher to arrive as the 40,000 fans cheered. He was not seriously injured.
The race, involving younger drivers in four- and six-cylinder subcompacts, is normally plagued by accidents, yet this one still stood out.
But Elder didn't feel there were any fundamental problems with the drivers or cars.
"For three years here, I've seen rollover accidents; I've seen people try to knock down the fences," he said. "But I've seen everyone get out and walk away. I think the cars are OK."
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