Drivers Almost Fight at Pepsi 400

B R O O K L Y N, Mich., Aug. 20 -- Rusty Wallace’s third win of the seasonwas almost upstaged today by another altercation between JeffGordon and Tony Stewart.

Wallace, riding with four fresh tires on his Penske Ford, tookthe lead with 15 laps to go and steadily pulled away from RickyRudd’s Ford and Bobby Labonte’s Pontiac in the Pepsi 400.

“I had a fast car,” said Wallace who has won five of his 52career NASCAR Winston Cup races at Michigan Speedway. “I figured Ihad a first- or second-place car all day. I knew I’d have to raceRicky Rudd, because he was quicker than me.”

Wallace, who beat Rudd by 2.971 seconds, averaged 132.586 mph ina race which took 3:01.01 to complete.

Dale Jarrett was fourth and Johnny Benson of nearby GrandRapids, Mich., was fifth.

Drivers Involved in Recent Crash

For the second straight week, the outcome of the race was almostupstaged by an incident involving Gordon and Stewart.

The brash Stewart, as he did a week earlier at Watkins Glen,took Gordon into a wall, causing serious damage. That time, the twoalmost got in a fistfight. But it didn’t lead to such bad blood onthis occasion.

Stewart was running second to Wallace when his car got loose andtouched pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. on lap 37.

Earnhardt Jr. drove on, but Stewart’s Pontiac began to swervebadly. The car got sideways between the first and second turn andspun into Gordon, who was trying to get past the trouble on thehigh side.

Gordon’s car slammed into the wall, damaging the front end, andhe had to take the multi-colored Chevrolet in to have the brakesrepaired.

“I just lost it down there,” Stewart said. “We were justracing hard out there. It was my fault. I just got down into oneand I don’t know why I got loose. I hadn’t been loose there allday.

“For some reason, it just got loose that one lap down there andI crashed a bunch of people I didn’t mean to crash. It was myfault. I just lost it.”