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Wrecks work against and for Spencer

By MIKE READLING, Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 5, 2001

If there was a controversy at Dover Downs this weekend, it was a good bet Jimmy Spencer was somewhere close.

Spencer was the benefactor of some aggressive driving in Saturday's Busch Grand National MBNA Platinum 200, earning his second win this season. But on Sunday the roles reversed.

During the Winston Cup MBNA Platinum 400, Spencer set off a five-car pileup on the third lap after colliding with Jerry Nadeau. Among the cars collected were Michael Waltrip, Casey Atwood, Ken Schrader and Bill Elliott. Waltrip incurred the worst damage, spearing Elliott and dropping out of the race.

"Well, obviously, the guy that never forgets, Jimmy Spencer, forgot I was there," Nadeau said. "I'm pretty frustrated. I mean, we had a car that could win the race and (Spencer's) a bulldog out there. I had a run on him in Turn 4 and he just ran me over."

Nadeau said he had no plans to talk to Spencer about the incident.

"It doesn't do any good," Nadeau said. "We all got big skulls."

Shortly after the race went back to green, Spencer got what Nadeau might have felt was a dose of his own medicine when he found his car careening down the backstretch after Ward Burton tapped him. And this time it was Spencer dishing out the harsh words. Spencer finished 37th, one spot ahead of Nadeau.

"I just got hit from behind. I don't know who was there," Spencer said. "They just hit me in the left rear quarterpanel and spun me out. That doesn't need to be done. I had a good race car."

All of this came on the heels of Saturday's race in which Spencer jumped into the lead when Mike Skinner sent Bobby Hamilton Jr. spinning on Lap 179. Spencer, who earlier in the day called the series "bush league," went on to win by two seconds.

FLYING FRANCHITTI: Dario Franchitti was the fastest car on the track during Sunday's Miller Lite 225 in West Allis, Wis., but that didn't mean he was happy.

Franchitti turned the fastest lap of the race (159.608 mph) but got caught up in the first-lap wreck of Helio Castroneves and Cristiano de Matta. He dropped to 18th, claiming "six or seven" cars passed him under the yellow flag, an accusation that went unheeded by CART officials.

Franchitti worked his way up to fourth before coming in for a strategic top-off of fuel. Everything went perfectly until he stalled coming out and lost a lap. During the ensuing rally he turned the fast lap and managed to finish ninth.

"Disappointed is the first word that comes to mind," Franchitti said. "(We) did a great job during the race to make the car quick. It was fun to come through the field but it wasn't the result we hoped for."

COMING OUT OF NOWHERE: On Lap 62, Winston Cup driver Steve Park's day looked like it was over.

Park, who started ninth, had just pitted for a routine stop when one tire rolled out of the pit box. After a penalty, Park returned to the track in 30th.

After slowly working his way back up to ninth on Lap 129, Park noticed his battery was losing power. When the engine started missing on Lap 321, Park's crew chief, Paul Andrews, told his driver to turn off all of his fans.

The water temperature in his car rose to about 240 degrees, the battery was down to 11 volts and 63 laps remained. The crew prepared to change the battery on the final pit stop, but Andrews chose to hope for the best in the last 48 laps.

It paid off.

Park's battery held on long enough to allow him to finish second.

"We shut off everything to try to regain the ignition for the engine," Park said. "It made it to the end, which shows we had some pretty good stuff."

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