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Motorsports
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 24, 2003
BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Crumpled fenders, wadded up sheet metal, name-calling and a whole bunch of angry drivers: Just another day at Bristol Motor Speedway.
There were 17 cautions in Sunday's Food City 500: some for accidents, some for drivers just slipping up on the tight, high-banked .533-mile ring.
Few were happy about it at the end of the day.
"I've never been hit so much in one day," Tony Stewart said after finishing 26th. "It was a bad day. I can't wait to get out of here."
Stewart was one of the many drivers all over the track.
He made it clear he wasn't happy with Ricky Rudd after Rudd pinched him against the wall as the two tried to avoid Jamie McMurray's disabled Dodge.
After righting his Chevrolet, Stewart ran up onto Rudd's bumper and forced the nose of his car under Rudd's in a continuous bump as the two circled the track.
"I don't know what was on his brain," Rudd said. "I think he had a little brain fade on the backstretch."
Other highlights:
Jerry Nadeau sprinted to Ryan Newman's pit to yell at Newman's crew chief, Matt Borland, after they tangled on the track. Nadeau was fourth at the time; he ended up 28th. "Damn lapped car can't use his head," Nadeau said. "I don't know what Ryan was thinking. ... He needs to use his head."
And Terry Labonte, who ran as high as second, wound up 39th after he and Brett Bodine wrecked. "Any time you race with a Bodine, you're liable to get in a wreck," Labonte grumbled.
STERLING SNAPS SLUMP: Sterling Marlin, who led the points for 25 weeks last season, broke his poor form this year with a sixth-place finish. His was one of the cars to benefit from staying on the track longer and waiting for a late caution to pit, leaving many contenders a lap behind.
"We needed this," crew chief Lee McCall said. "We had about a 15th-place car and played it out right and got a good finish."
MILESTONE: Sunday was the 2,000th Winston Cup race, dating to the series' debut in 1949 when it was called the Grand National Division.