1988 Delaware 500 from Dover Motor Speedway | NASCAR Classic Full Race Replay

gentlemen sture [Applause] engine we're about to unleash hundreds of horsepower as we get set for the Dober Delaware 500 the weather is threatening here this afternoon that's the reason why the command has already been given to start engines and the race will be getting underway very shortly the temperature is 72° we do have overcast Skies right now and a 90% humidity however the forecast is for clearing Skies as we go throughout the afternoon so the cars are lined up now on the uh pit area 40 strong getting ready to move onto the racetrack in just a few moments let's go to Jerry punch on Pit Road well it's a for forsome up front on the poll a brand new track record young Martin Martin here qualifying the Jack Rous strine forward four forwards in the first four starting spots alongside him is Alan Ki of course Ki sett him the front row here a year ago starting third the man who is trying to hang on to this point lead that is B Elliot B Elliott had a problem earlier in the week he tore up the car he was scheduled to run here at Dober in Friday's first practice session the car had a problem with the engine he smacked the wall and had to bring the backup car out this is actually the car he ran at Darlington at one there and starting fourth a car that's won the past two years in a row Brett bodai in the Chrisco Ford and he needs to win in a big way let's go further up Pit Road to Nick Beren dick rney Wallace have been a solid Contender for the Winston Cup points title until last week but an early and controversial wreck with Jeff Bine put him out at the dawn of the race and bued him down to third place points Rusty needs a strong finish here this afternoon to retain any hope of the title Bodine was severely criticized after the race by Wallace Wallace said he had brain fade certainly for Wallace and for Jeff bu ey this race this afternoon takes on added meeting both desperately won a win to overcome last week Jerry punch and dick bergren on Pit Road Larry nuber is at pet Central let's introduce to you right now the starting lineup for today's Delaware 500 on the poll with a new track record of 148.5 mph in the stro light Ford number six Mark Martin outside of row number one it's the xerx anti-freeze Ford Alan kwii from Greenfield Wisconsin row number two Bill Elliott from Dawsonville Georgia in the number nine course board outside of the second row is Brett Bodine in number 15 the Chrisco Ford then Rusty Wallace starts fifth in the number 27 Kodak Pontiac and alongside Jeff o9 in the number five Levi Garrett Chevrolet the fourth row Daryl walri in car number 17 the ti Chevy and Morgan Shephard in the number 88 Red Baron frozen pizza oldmobile in row number five it's Ken Shader Car 25 the folders coffee Chevy and then Davey Allison who won last week at Richmond in the number 28 havlin Ford the sixth row Michael Waltrip a winner in the grand national race here yesterday the number 30 countrytime Pontiac and defending Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhart in the number three GM goodren Chevrolet the seventh row Kyle Petty and the Wood Brothers number 21 sitco Ford and L speed in driving the number 83 WS S mobile the eighth row has Sterling Marlin and number 44 the pedmont airlines S mobile and the 55 Crown skull classic Oldsmobile driven by Phil Parsons row number nine Dale Jared and the number 29 Hardy olds mobile and Bobby Hillen Jr in the Miller High Life Bui car number eight row number 10 the number 26 Quaker State Buick driven by Ricky Rudd and the number four Kodak film Oldsmobile driven by Rick Wilson as you look at the rest of the field let's talk a little bit about the racetrack and how tough it is in the booth with me deed Jared and Gary Nelson is a very tough track some have figured it out and Ricky rut is one of them he certainly is he has won the last two races in September here at Dober Downs he's a very smooth race driver he knows how to take care of his equipment and that is a key factor here at Dober you got to be smooth all day long keep in the lead lap and be competitive as long as you possibly can be he won from 11th and 13th position position but he was driving a Ford he's driving a Buick this year starting in 19th position and Gary Nelson what about all these Fords up front this horsepower the reason they're up there what does it take here well Dober is a very interesting track you know the uh popular opinion has always been that the fors have the the motors produce more lowend torque which gives them a little better pulling power and it's almost uphill coming off these turns so that's been kind of the the uh the way everybody has thought about it but I think in more recent times the horsepower and the torque have evened out between the Chevys and the Fords so it may be a little more aerodynamic today all right here comes the field through corners number three and four and we should be getting a start to this 500 lap race on the 1em do Downs International Speedway the pace car is in the front row Mark Martin and Alan kcki a couple of guys who have never won Winston Cup races the green flag flies and here we go they stay to a press through the first and second turns Mark Martin on the inside and Allan kwii on the outside here comes Bill Elliot though from his second row starting position and Bill Elliot is going to grab the lead as they head for turn number three with Mark Martin running in second position Elliott is going to lead lap number one of [Music] 500 Bret odine has gone to third position Allan kwii is back to Fourth and then the fth F spot is being held by Rusty Wallace as they're down the backstretch once again Bill Elliott and the number nine the current points leader in Winston Cup competition here's some battling going on in the pack that's Dale nhart along with Michael walri also right there in the number 55 car is Phil Parsons lak speed in 83 and there is Kyle Petty and car number 21 looking to the inside of lakes speed you know with the uh threatening Skies here today Dober has always been approached by the drivers as an endurance rate just take it easy wait around for the last 100 laps and then race but today it's all going to change the drivers have to be thinking about what if this race gets shortened by rain we have to be in a position to win so they're all trying real hard right now they're going to look at it as a 250 mile race first and then see how things are at that point and go from there exactly it's going to be very hard on the equipment to run that hard for that long usually everybody just takes it easy today I think we're going to see a lot of racing from early all the way through the middle of the race the 28 car driven by by Davey Allison most recent winner in Winston Cup competition the number 30 yellow car driven by Michael walri the most recent winner in NASCAR competition yesterday here at this track in grand national competition and then the number 55 car driven by Phil Parsons all racing four position Carson's making a move on Michael Walter getting down on the inside we'll see that most of the drivers are using the low Groove here in the early going as the race goes on though the groove will move up and you can see how Bill Elliot and Mark Martin Mar have sort of taken off and left the others in their wake Bill Elliot in the number nine car leads and Mark Martin number six is in second position and about a half a straightaway back already the number seven carav Valen kwii then Brett Bodine Rusty Wallace Jeff Bodine Morgan Shepard darl walri and Ken Trader well that really is a big jump that Mark Martin and Bill Elliott have taken all we Allen kcki there that's uh quite a distance for such a few laps six laps into the race and it looks like they're pulling away pretty good there are Rusty Wallace and Jeff Bodine the guys that had the on track altercation at Richmond last week in which uh Rusty Wallace's car was very heavily damaged and he was unable to complete the race losing second place in the point standings falling to Third and there is Jeff Bodine who had uh the encounter with him now we move up and watch Ricky run in the number 26 car along with Dale Jared in 29 and number 12 That's Mike Alexander and they're all excuse me bobber up to Dale Earnhart Dale is sort of backpedaling through the field at the moment now whether he has changed his driving style here at do he's had a tough time finishing 500 laps on this Racetrack and as we said at the top of the show it's a track that you can't really attack for 500 miles you got to sort of take it easy and uh you wonder if if he maybe is changing his driving style or maybe the car just won't go any faster at this point you can see Dale leard just ahead of Ricky red up there just ahead of thurley Marlon also you know Dale Earnhardt is known as a hard hard charging driver one who charges really hard but I don't think he's ever finished in the lead lap here at Dober that's his crew was telling me that this morning and maybe that's what kind of what you were saying Ned the the track really isn't suited for a hard charging driver well you can see the tire smoke coming off of Sterling Marlins car number 44 as he came off of that turn the fans all came to their feet they thought something was going to happen you can still see smoke from that and you wonder if Sterling maybe has gotten next to somebody as mik Alexander goes on the inside here's Ricky rud going by Dale nhart so rud moves to the inside in number 26 and Dale nhart to the outside that statistic that you guys were talking about is absolutely correct not only is Dale Earnhart never won here at this racetrack he has never finished on the lead lap and he would certainly like to change that statistic here this weekend now last year you remember he was indeed a leader of this race it looked like that he was going to win but the car went away and Ricky rud drove the victory now we see some action from in side Rick Wilson's Car the Kodak incar camera right ahead of him is the patmont airlines Oldsmobile driven by Sterling Marlin Dale Jared also up ahead and so is uh Dale nhart not so sure that that smoke that was coming from uh Marlin's car was Tire smoke will continue to watch that though yeah it uh it looked like that he might have had a tire rubbing now many times especially coming off of turn four we will see Tire smoke from the right rear tire but uh that seemed to be a little bit more and a little bit bit early but as we see him on the straightaway here we don't see any of it we'll see it watching as he goes into the turn and see if any of it happens as Rick Wilson tries to make a move on we're watching outside the back glass of the Hardy Oldsmobile and this action uh continues to heat up as the number 30 car Michael walri is being passed by or at least Daryl walri his brother is attempting to pass him that's Lake speed uh on the inside and Kyle Petty on the inside looks like Daryl may be falling back just a here yes he is I'm not sure his car is handling the way he wants to course now Daryl is a very smart race driver and it could be that he's sort of taking it easy but I don't believe he's taking it that easy he lost five spots the last lap and here he's losing two more well there's a good example right here Ricky red going forward there a walk the point backward that you know you almost guess at your chassis setup because it constantly changes here at do and really at most race tracks nowadays but it looks like Ricky rud starting farther back in the field has chosen a better R starting race set up and Daryl they're they're they pass each other Ricky going to the front Daryl kind of moving toward the back now the 21 car of Kyle Petty is in 13th and Ricky Rudd trying to pass him and pick up the spot now here is Ken shider in car number 25 and Davey Allison in number 28 as they trade positions and Michael Waltrip is also right there Waltrip has to have a psychological Edge at least going into this event because of the tremendous victory that he had yesterday his first in grand national competition yeah that's good racing right there Ken Trader and Davey Allison Davey and the for Ken Trader and the Chevrolet on the outside they're both looks like Ken Trader when he gets up on the outside of Davey gets a little momentum Davey was able to pull up alongside of him but now he's having a hard time going on be pass because of the momentum that Kent Trader gets from running a little higher the car that's on the outside is able to keep his RPMs up just a little bit more he's he's traveling a little farther distance but not losing as many RPMs in the turns and it us gives him a better run off of each turn and down the straightway that green white pole that you saw in the shot there on the backstretch is actually the furong pole for the horse track which is located inside this uh paage specific horses run on the smaller track to the inside now we're watching The Ninth Place kench Raider and 10th Place dve Allison but up front it is still Bill Elliot who is setting the pace of the Delaware 500 he's followed by Mark Martin we'll be back with more of our live coverage on this Sunday afterno from Dober Down's International Speedway live coverage of the Delaware 500 is being brought to you by Budweiser proud sponsor of the 1988 US Olympic team this bud's for you by Ford and your Ford dealer have you driven a Ford lately by Quaker State motor oil the big Q stands for Quality always has and always will and by Dickies their America's favorite work close the top 10 after 20 laps Bill Elliott the leader Mark Martin is second Alan kwii Running third Brett Bodine is fourth and Rusty Wallace is fifth in sixth position is Jeff Bodine seventh is Morgan Shepard eighth is Phil Parsons ninth is Ken Trader and 10th Davey Allison and there you can see that Bill Elliott and Mark Martin have now begun to lap some of the slower traffic already moving to the high side of the Buddy Arrington car number 67 that's being driven this weekend by Brad T boy Elliot and Martin are really setting a fast pace here they have moved away from the third fourth and fifth place cars and uh surprising r that they've been able to do that boy that is a some kind of race you know Mark Martin winning the pole would like to leave some laps he's really pressuring Bill ell he wants to take the lead and just show what he can do um Dave Allison and Kent trer still side by side that is amazing lap after La just racing TI here comes dve on up ahead it looks like he's getting almost a little bit of push from Ricky R well they're Racing for ninth position here Allison is in ninth and then Shader followed by rdd and Michael Walter the average speed 142. 574 in pit Central an update from Larry nber I have checked with both the Daryl Walter crew and Dale erard crew and nothing is wrong as such but yes you guys in the booth are absolutely right they're not on the pace Dale is unhappy with the tire setup uh he's particularly talking about the Stagger the difference between the size and right and left side they're preparing a change right now they're scoring over the tires Daryl says the car is too loose they're not worried about rain coming at least before the first pck stop they both creers say We'll change it the first Pit Stop we'll be better the next time around so we'll continue to watch for the developments regarding those two cars meanwhile on the racetrack in 10th position is Ken Trader and number 25 and 11th spot is uh Ricky rdd and number 26 and then Michael walri in car number 30 is 25 laps have been completed out of 500 Bill Elliot now has a 5-second lead over the third place car which is being shown as Alan kcki look at this racing here Ricky Rudd trying to get around Ken Trader he turned sideways coming off the fourth turn that last boy he's really trying a the hard let's go down to dick bergren in Richard Petty's pit well gar it appears as if Richard Petty is having a tire problem some sort no tire problems of any kind were anticipated today but he's didn't for UNS schedul pit stop for a right front tire he had started to slow down a little bit he was running good and here comes another car that would be Eddie beerall coming into the pits as well but Richard Petty had moved up through the field a little bit and then all of a sudden he started to back tread and then he came into the P so apparently had a tire going down and there is the number 21 car of Kyle Petty making a move on Michael walri in number 30 as the lead is being fought for now Mark Martin is making a bid on Bill Elliot Elliott has led the entire distance so far but here is Mark Martin in the number six car the pole sitter trying to take over that top spot it's the first pole position for the stro crew led by Jack Rous they would like very much to record their first victory in Winston Cup competition now the race settles down just a little bit as Mark has fallen in behind Bill Elliot but certainly these two cars the class of the field in the first 28 laps now Bob I mentioned a moment ago that they were 5 Seconds ahead of Allen kcki I'll have to correct myself that was ahead of Brett Bodine who is running in fourth place Alan pwii is only about a second and a half behind the Front Runners and as a matter of fact he is gaining on them at the moment you can almost feel the determination in these two drivers Bill Elliott wanting to lead the race you know he's been the top four driver for so long and here comes Mark Martin along and wins the pole away from Bill Elliott and several here at do then Bill Elliot charges in front leads the first lap Mark Martin really is determined to show that his car is faster than Bill Elliot Mike Mike Alexander in car number 12 to the inside of Michael walri in car number 30 as Mike Alexander takes that position away Mike has signed a deal with the stola others for full-time employment next year he's moving up through the field he was the second round fastest qualifier he said he he told me this morning he just goofed up a little bit in the first round qualifying and requalified in yesterday afternoon or yesterday morning and got the second round fastest qualifier award so he started 21st but he is really moving up through the field there is shuffling going on all over the racetrack this is amazing 31 laps into the race here at Dober and some more side by side Rusty Wallace is in the pits Rusty Wallace an unscheduled pit stop and so is Daryl walri now Waltrip's car had started going very very high in the turns we noted earlier that he was not handling too good as we watch his side by-side battle between K Petty and keny shraer right side tires for Rusty Wallace and it looks like they're going around to the left side as well so it'll be four tires for Rusty Wallace he'll go at least one lap down and Morgan Shepard coming into the pit something a little unusual here we really didn't expect tires to to be any kind of a problem here today well it looked like a flat right front tire on Russy Wallace's car we know Richard Petty had a flat right front here come the leaders meanwhile out of corner number four as they race down the straightaway and Mark Martin is right there on the back bumper Bill Elliot as both Rusty Wallace who had a blistered right front tire and darl waldrip have completed pit stops and move back out onto the racetrack Morgan Shephard as we watch the action on the track is still in the pit so yeah indeed tires may be a factor here we had not had any evidence that there would be a tire problem in the practice and the qualifying but indeed it could be as the race progresses boy what a surprise you know this is uh all the cars started on Goodyear Tires the Goodyear tires were fast the temp temperatures in practice were way way within the means of what we would think would be safe here's Ricky R apparently another tire problem 34 Laps on the race all of these cars are coming in but this is the first time that they have run this many laps you know during practice run wall Mark Martin is in the wall in turn three and four unfortunate set of circumstances for the pole center of the Delaware 500 Mark Martin has come in contact with the wall in Corners three and four and if we uh have this on replay we perhaps can see what happened but could this have been a tire problem for him I I would guess that it was a tire problem for Mark Martin yeah you know when the leaders start coming in the pits like this you're going to expect Tire problems somebody apparently Mark Martin had some type of Tire problem here's the replay okay he's following Bill Elliott into the turn and just all of a sudden he gets loose it looks like well let's see he's coming out of turn two and we'll follow him up the bat stretch going into turn three it looked like the car was a little Loose as it came out of that turn then all of a sudden it the right front tire must have gone flat because it just veered straight into the wall he had no control over it and of course that's the reason for the caution out Bill Elliot has come into the pits and Jerry punch is there to call the action well a lot of concern out here the tires that came off of Morgan Shephard's car and Daryl W car were blistered the right front tires blistered badly and now Elliot then getting his right side has already got right side tires and as you see they are putting left side rubber on the cor for and dart's also in go to Nick burer dick I'm seeing flister tires as well and as Gary Nelson mentioned everybody had thought this was going to be an easy day we thought there was going to be no tire story at all the tire temperatures were so cool but just about everybody is taking off Goodyear tires that are blistered no one understands why no one knows what's going on we saw no evidence of this in practice but we've sure got it now and it certainly isn't because we have warm temperatures here today as a matter of fact it's very overcast and pretty cool actually as Mark Martin has gotten out of his wrecked race car we again take a look at what happened involving Mark Martin the number six car who was trailing Bill Elliott in second and the cars as he went into turn three just all of a sudden veered to the right and into the wall and apparently a right front Tower went flat and Ken shider has had a problem down in turn one let's see if we can pick up what his problem was just as the caution was coming out here he is coming off of the wall so apparently he had a tire to go down you can see the damage to the right front of the folder Chevrolet and that was just as the caution was coming out on the other end of the racetrack so a significant development is occurring here in this race tires apparently are becoming a major problem there is the Mark Martin wrecked car at the head of the straightaway we'll continue this drama on a Sunday afternoon at Delaware in the Delaware 500 we welcome you back to no Delaware in the first caution flag of today for the accident produced by Mark Martin and the wall here's the problem to everyone's surprised take a look at what's happening a brand new tire and they have had no problem all week in practice here but in the early laps we are seeing severe tire wear this is blistering this is not tire wear I should say this is blistering the tires are blistering and bubbling up chunks of rubber coming off it's a brand new tire this is Bill Elliot's right rear tire a couple more laps on Elliot might have also been in the wall so a break for him and not a break for Mark Martin so Mark Martin's car heavily damaged in turn four we are still under yellow here at do gentlemen boy I can't imagine what all the action we're seeing here today it's just unbelievable the tire problem what a surprise here's Ken Trader boy his car hit the wall hard we didn't even see it right at the beginning of that caution now look at what happens here in the pit Road everybody's in the Pips at once there's tires laying all over they're dodging them there's one up there here's yeah look at there just scraping the wall almost getting hit there's a tire right in front of him he's got a swerve it's unbelievable how Rick Wilson missed all of that still came out without any damage so the Mark Martin Carr is now being lifted from the racetrack as the debris is being cleaned up there in turns three and four and a new windshield is going in the Jeff Bodine car Jerry punch what's going on well Jeff Bodine happened to be in the wrong place at the right time debris came up and literally took his windshield apart they have brought him in here under caution and they are trying to put this windshield back in that's W Wilson the rest of the Levi Garrett crew trying to tape the windshield in they will not have time to bolt it in completely during this lap they will bring him back in and throw a new inshield for Jeff Bine let's go to Larry nber Larry oh Jerry 500 Mi is a common length throw Winston Cup race but this place is not a common race we have the tire problem that we think we're developing here but perhaps the most important member stressed member of this race car at this racetrack is the engine you don't measure really engine stress in terms of miles you measure it in terms of the number of hours and this is a race that could easily go well over 4 hours of speed up and start down the engine May well be the most stressed member of the chassis here at DOA today plus we're modifying that with this tire problem indeed we are and that is the Mark Martin Carr being taken off the racetrack right now he and Ken Trader both come in contact with the walls as several had Tire problems in the early going of this race back in a moment after [Music] this we're back at Dober Downs International Speedway for a Sunday afternoon edition of Speed World and we're yelling for the first time this afternoon because of an accident involving Mark Martin his car coming in contact with the wall in turn number four and there is the Ken shider car that also had contact at the other end of this racetrack the paved racetrack there you can see the horse track facility which is being uh used here one of the landmarks connected with the harness racing facility is located near turn one of the asphalt track here's a quick fact quick facts are brought to you by quicker State motor oil the big Q stands for Quality always has always will one of the unique features here at do Downs is this Sky Box located some 70 ft in the air above turns one and two now this box serves a dual purpose during the harness racing facilities this box is where judges will sit and Overlook the harness racing track now you just Overlook turns one and two of the harness facility determine if there's been an onrack incident or foul during those of Advance now up until 2 years ago this box served as NASCAR control they actually ran the race from inside this Sky Box here over turn one that has since been moved at top the main grandstand area here that is NASCAR control there above the main grandstand area this box here is primarily for people who want to watch the race get a good bird's eye view some spotters for some of the crews and even some safety officials to watch for on track debris and there's a live shot of that facility which is located as we said near turn one one well we're 42 laps in to 500 of the Delaware 500 under caution back after these messages we are back at Dober Downs International Speedway and we are still under caution for the crashes involving Mark Martin and can Trader both drivers okay now these accidents apparently caused by some Tire problems we have seen it uh in the early stages of this race dick bergren has been studying this tire situation and can tell us exactly what it's all about dick well Bob here's what's happening everybody thought no problems with the good years but we're seeing problems why are we seeing problems I just ask one of the goody year engineers and he said I wish I know maybe Richard chis does childis said he thought maybe the problem was due to the fact that rain hard last night we have a green track a lot of the teams however aren't sure they don't know what to do they don't know whether to stick with the good years or switch to the hooers there's a whole trailer full of hoers and before the race Bob Newton who owns the T Hooser Tire company said don't worry about a thing my tires are absolutely reliable even though they're a bit harder and not quite as as fast as the Goodyear tires are well that's what Goodyear thought too it's a big guessing game and part of the guessing game is that the size difference between the hooers and the good years is fairly significant that's going to affect the engines Jerry punch what do you think well that may have a problem may have an effect but it won't have an effect on Mike Walter take a look at his problem the valve cover just came apart on the walri country time eliminate Pontiac he has been in twice and he finally changed the valve cover he is back on the speedway and did not lose the lap we're going green gentlemen and you can see that the number 27 car is the one that will lead them down for the restart that's Rusty Wallace however he is a lap down trying to get his lap back the 26 car of Ricky rud apparently is also a lap down and the leader of this race is the number nine machine driven by Bill Elliott who is actually fourth there in line Ricky rud Richard Petty and Rusty Wallace had all made unscheduled pitch stops they're all ahead of Bill Elliott right now but Elliot's about to put Rusty w ball is that lap down and he does Bill Elliot really has that car hooked up you know Bill Elliott being the point leader Rusty Wallace trying very hard to regain some of the Lost round he lost at wion in The Point Race and Dale erard having problems Bill Elliot just looks like he's just sailing away and Bale ear hard in the number three car is trying to move up through the traffic also behind him is the 17 car of Daryl waldruff there's the 55 of Phil Parsons dve Allison is also back there along with Alexander and the number 11 car the Junior Johnson prepared Budweiser sponsored Chevrolet driven by Terry lonti there they Earnhart faired best perhaps on this pit stop because he was back in the pack running about uh 13th or 14th and he was in the top five in fact in fifth position when he came out of the pits there you can see nhart in fourth darl walri behind him but Walter had made a green flag Pit Stop just before the caution came out boy what a surprise I think for everybody I had a conversation with the head Goodyear engineer the development engineer this morning before the race and he told me that that things looked so good it was almost scary the tire temperatures were all well within limits everything about the tire was it was fast the compound was right all the cars in the race were starting on Good Year and then right away or 30 laps in the race Tire blister so maybe it was that rain that that washed all the rubber off the racetrack maybe this problem will go away as the race goes on well in any case it certainly give us something to think about and to uh look at for the rest of the afternoon here as we are only 50 laps into this race and some major Tire problems have occurred already and we saw those problems occur at about lap number 35 or 40 so we'll watch for the next uh 25 or so laps to see if we might have a reoccurrence of those Tire problems B Allison might have a problem Bob he's slowed a little bit he's back running about the uh 12th position and several cars are moving around him now including Rick Wilson and several others David soter down on the inside of the racetrack that car is definitely not running up to par he he's here's uh Rick Wilson as we look out the rear window of his car and you can see Davey Allison back there that's Lake speed in the purple car right behind Rick Wilson but down on the inside the White Front End is the car of Davey Allison running on the inside of the racetrack at slower speed when they restarted from the caution Davy was up in around fourth or fifth position but he has dropped back significantly now and is continuing to do so as Benny Parsons goes to the outside and now the number 75 car of Neil Bonnet is also passing there is Benny in car number 90 and the number 10 car is driven by R Ken buard that's the car that is right behind Davey Allison now back up front to check on what's going on there and it's still Bill Elliot who is uh showing the way and leading this race that's Richard peny and uh Ricky rud ahead of Bill Elliot but remember those guys are just simply getting their lap back the the car immediately behind Bill Elliot is the second place car that's the 15 driven by Brett Bodine B we see Richard Petty there just ahead of Bill Elliot of course Richard had made an unscheduled pit stop so he's one laap down now in years past that would not have been a problem in fact I think Richard head he was 13 laps down it was a big number of lap down year at Dober one year and came back to win the race but you can't do that now the competition is absolutely too strong too many cars out there that are capable of winning so those days are long G when you can come from that far back and win well you know it's things like that Ned that have earned this track the reputation of being the monster mile it's just so many different things happen here in Dober than anywhere else there's no racetrack quite like Dober it's it just shaped differently it really strains and and puts different amounts of stress on the car in areas that we've never even thought about and the drivers with 500 mil big problem with fatigue late in the race this race is really just a different racetrack we have a report that Dave Allison might have a pushing problem that his car at the back end is too tight so he evidently got a mismatched set of tires and it must be a badly mismatched set of tired and one thing there that he would not want to do is to run the car too hard because when the car is pushing it build heat up in that right front especially after we've seen the problems that we've had here today oh you're right Ned if that car is pushing as badly as it looks like it is that's got to be really overheating that right front tire and you saw the the shot of Mark Martin's Tire when it blew out there was no steering at all that car went straight to the wall and a total loss that car as as narrow as that car was after hit the wall we're lucky Mark Martin wasn't injured and that car was awfully badly Dam baby Allison continues to go to the back as Bill Elliott continues to set the pace and now is within about two car lengths of Elliott those two are first and second the number seven car of Allen kwii is third Mike Alexander shown in fourth position and the 55 of Phil Parsons is fifth after 58 laps back with with more of our live coverage in a moment capacity crowd on hand at do Downs International Speedway in Delaware where we are live for the Delaware 500 Winston Cup race and with 63 laps completed it is Bill Elliot in the number nine Kors Motorcraft board leading Brett Bodine and Alan kwii Mike Alexander and Terry laati now the car ahead of Bill Elliott once again is the 43 car Richard Petty however he is now on the lead lap but essentially a lap down Ricky Rudd is also right there and car number 26 he too has gotten his lap back and let's go to pet Central and Larry nber well Bob remember that Ricky Rd almost won the race a week ago at Richmond and they were lapping this Speedway at about the fastest speed of anybody on the crew watches and the late afternoon practice yesterday afternoon even though he started 19th they had great confidence they did not plan on dropping a lap down here because of Tire problems of course early in the race but here's a team that very much thinks they can win this race and Ricky is now on the lead lap but unfortunately he's the distance of one lap behind he didn't have a particularly good qualifying effort here uh this weekend however uh that really doesn't mean anything it's more where you uh finish the race than where you start the race rud began back in 19th position about 5 mph off the pole speed I'm very impressed with that uh Kenny Bernstein team the team that Ricky Rudd drives for you know they started off this season Ricky Rudd was new to the team and they had other Personnel changes and it looked like they were H really struggling in the early part of the season now it almost looks like they're gaining strength every week they're uh they've been moving up in the points moving up in the finishing here's uh Terry lebani and stle Marlin racing pretty close Leon's car has been smoking a little bit in the turns smoking his tires just slightly so he's going to have to really be careful as we get a little farther into the race to make sure he doesn't have any Tire problems this is fifth and sixth here Terry labat in number 11 and in sixth spot is the number 44 car of Sterling Marlin and while we have the opportunity let us express our condolences to the Sterling Marlin family his mom died this past week Sterling did not qualify this car but has put all that aside and is driving a fine race here at do there's the leader Bill Elliott and right behind him is Brett Bodine there is the number 21 car of Kyle peny and Rusty Wallace and Wallace's car still is just not performing up to Snuff and Barry doson of course is the crew chief on this car he's with Jerry punch with Russy wall Barry what's the problem with the car he said a plug wire came off on the restart he feels like it's what it is it's only turning about 6900 so hopefully we get a caution here in a little bit try to get it back on so they are running with seven ERS in the Rusty Wallace car the car is skipping and missing as it comes by us they're going to try to hang on and get a yellow flag and come in and hopefully it's just a plug wire not an internal engine problem boy that is amazing for him to be running that well on seven cylinders we hope it is just a plug wire where they can stop and put it back on he'll be back up to 8 cylinders but he you know he's not really losing a lot of ground on the racetrack to open the hood and put on a plug wire probably is only another 10 seconds on the pit stop he shouldn't lose any more time on the racetrack he still has that lap to make up remember so he he needs all eight cylinders to get his lap back but he's doing real good holding his own right now Rusty of course was the points leader and has fallen to third as Jeff Bodine in the number five car racing behind now the Hardy Oldsmobile driven by Dale Jared here comes uh Jeff to the inside oh and Kyle Petty has hit the wall Richard Petty Richard Petty boy same type of thing right front he didn't hit it near as hard as U as Mark Martin Oran Trader he's still able to control the car he he I think was a little more prepared for it well the crash comes on lap number 72 and we saw evidence of Tire problems at about lap 35 in the first section of this race who knows maybe this could have been Tire related also will not uh definitely state that but uh only speculate a lot of smoke is coming from that Richard Petty car as he's got it now to the inside of the racetrack in turn number three and our second caution of the afternoon flies on [Music] over we'll take another look at it as Richard Penny had The Misfortune up in the first and second turn areas okay as he goes into the turn taking the normal Groove Bill Elliott down on the inside and all of a sudden just like Mark Martin's car Richard Petty's car veers to the r and he slaps the wall not as hard as Mark Martin hit it as Gary pointed out but still enough to to do quite a bit of damage to the car and here the pit stops coming up Bill Elliott the first car in and the race right now is between Bill Elliott and uh Brett Bodine who's pitted just ahead of Bill Elliott that the pits are really tight right now everybody's going to get four tires here downen Wick getting four tires everybody trying to get four tires look at get another look at those tires let's go down to Jerry punch and Rusty Wall's pits well they raised the hood that's Harold Elliot the engine builder on the right side of the car they look down beneath trying to find that plug wire and they're hoping to find a plug wire that's all Elliot's out Ki is out so is Brett fline but Russy wall FS in the pits with the Kodiak piac they have chained Rod by tires but the primary concern is in the engine compartment remember Rusty currently third in that Winston Cup point range and he is had a couple of weeks hey and it fires off all eight cylinders Rusty gives a big thumbs up and now he pulls down and away let's get in here and get a comment from Harold Elliott as to what the problem actually was Harold was it a plug wire off yeah he points that it was a plug wire off they going to bring Ry back in so it was indeed a plug wire that has come off that car but uh hopefully now Rusty will have all eight cylinders and can make up the ground that he lost but one of the problems you can have with a plug wire as we watch Daryl walri making a pit stop Rusty Wallace is going to be coming in right in front of them a plug wire can get alongside of the header the headers are so hot it can burn through the plug wire and ruin it so they may be thinking about replacing that plug wire these aren't steel plug wires they're made of a carbon material can see some back there in the back end of Davy Allison's car yeah they did this was a break that Davy Allison need because he had really gone back through the field as we see Rusty Wallace back in with the hood up but this was a break for Davy Adon to correct the problem that he had and they did that in Tire stagger and also making an adjustment on the chassis on the car what they are doing now they're going to squirt some silicone around that plug wire as Gary Nelson alluded to they're going to try to insulate that wire from the heat of the valve cover where it runs down along the side of the engine and Barry doson realizes how hot that is he had his hand down against that header pipe and uh got somewhat of a burn on his glove fortunately he had a glove on his hand but he did get quite hot I think Brown reir the car and Rusty is down and the away let's get a comment from Barry doson who's sitting here on the wall Barry I know you got your hand against that P it wasn't was a plug wire off yeah yeah plug wire we're coming back in okay he's talking to the driver right now we'll try to get to is the hand all right Barry is the hand okay it's burned it's burned but he busy right now so we'll let him get to work I don't imagine he feels a bit of pain from that burn because he's most concerned about uh The Rusty Wallace guard dick berren is also on Pit Road well Bob the winningest active driver in Winston Cup racing here at do is in the pits with a torn up right front and I mean torn up big time seven time winner Richard Petty he's got a major problem they just pushed him here with his engine silent there was a record behind him he's not going to win this thing today I am sure but I will tell you there is good news up and down Pit Road the tire situation seem seems to be stabilizing in this last round of pit stops I only saw one blistered tire and it was not badly blistered that is far better than what we saw on the first round of pit stops so maybe Richard Childress is right he's a pretty smart guy and he sure knows his tires maybe when we get a little rubber down in this racetrack we're going to be fine I hope so Richard penny has won this race four times he has won on Dober Downs International Speedway a total of seven right now we are 77 laps into this 500 lap event here at do Downs International Speedway as we bring you live coverage this afternoon of Winston Cup racing and we'll be right back with more in a moment back at Dober Downs International Speedway and we we'll be going green here in just another lap pit Central meanwhile Larry nuber has found Mark Mark well Mark uh you've stepped over here where you have an opportunity to watch some of the race it was a tire blowing like so many people have had the same problems already yes well you know it was just real unfortunate for the stroll like team the car was running super we had a a real good chance to win this race it was real early and we were trying to take care of our stuff but it didn't work out for us Mark I've seen you walking around you must be sorry a car went in a ton but you're not Curt in the classic sense well you know I I feel like I was really lucky the car was safe and I want to tell Arlene and Heather and Rachel and Stacy and Amy and and uh everybody out there that I'm fine and and uh you know we're going to go get them next week well Mark we're just about ready to go back to green you got to be sitting here thinking what would be going through my mind if I earn a race car these guys must not feel comfortable at this point in the race I'm sure that they're thinking that they're going to be taking it easy it looks like they are uh nobody's going to be trying to lead the race uh real hard or or keep the pace up too fast you know it's it's real important right now to not tear a tire up and lose a lap by having to stop and change it or by tearing one up and not being able to feel it have it blow out on you so uh you know I I think that uh I think the RAC track's going to get better as they go all right all right there is Terry lebani in car number 11 and that car simply did not go when the green flag came out he dropped back significantly and now is coming in for a pit stop the Junior Johnson buttweiser car is in with latti he might have a tire going down I don't think it would be related to the problems that we have seen earlier as we he goes into the pit area but they are going to change the right side Apparently one of the right side tires had just leaked down and here's Morgan shefer trying to get his lap back he made an unscheduled green flag pit stop trying to pass Brett Bodine to get back in the lead lap Brett Bodine is the leader of the race in car number 15 Morgan Shepard is a lap down trying to get it back and Bill Elliott is in second position there in the number nine Mark uh there's been a lot of speculation up and down Pit Road we've talked about it here in the booth as to why we saw these uh Tire problems in the first 35 laps can you tell us what your opinion is well I really can't uh we haven't seen the kind of temperature that would cause this I don't know uh we we didn't expect it we didn't feel it and I talked to Kenny shider he said he didn't feel it either we never dreamed of seeing anything like this but we feel sure that the track's going to get easier and uh they're going to have a fine race today and I'm just real sorry that we can't be a part of it uh you know we want to win real bad for for Strite and and uh for Jack Rous and all the guys that have worked so hard to put this deal together and uh I think it's coming but uh you know we're disappointed that we don't have a shot at it today the car was really fast now Mark we're watching here Brett Bodine and B Elliot Elliot of course ran with you when you were in the race does he appear to you to be the strongest man out there Bill uh was really strong early in the race uh as it got going he uh you know he got it looked like his car got tight and it started smoking the right front tire and you know I started thinking about trying to pass him and uh tried to make a couple of moves on him and didn't quite make it my team called uh Steve M called me and said go easy you know just take it easy and I slowed down a couple of laps and then we had the problem uh I think Bill's probably got him covered and he's riding right now uh he was probably as surprised as I as as we were with the you know with what happened I think you're right Mark I think that we're seeing a lot of drivers sort of ride right now as uh they pushed Richard P's car into the pit area apparently that's going to be or into the garage area apparently that'll be all for him today maybe too much damage for him to get back in the race and here's Bill Elliott moving around Morgan shepher the number seven car there of Alan kwii is third so there you have Brett Bodine the leader and then Elliot and Alan kwii look at this Dale Jarrett Jeff Bodine Harry Gant and the 21 car of Kyle Petty involved in a great tussle for position out of turn number four saw a lot of Tire smoke come off the right rear of Jeff Odin's car coming off the turn that time when they have to hold it down on the low groove it really causes you to turn the steering wheel a little harder and there's a good shot of Jeff's car from the inside of Dale Jarrett's car the right rear tire on Jeff's car was smoking quite heavily as he tried to get get under Dale Jared it's he's really trying hard right here he wants to be able to use the whole racetrack you can see him kind of fighting with the steering wheel well that is a that is a great shot that's live coming from the inside of one car to the inside of the other car Jeff on the inside though is about to lose that position to Kyle Penny or at least Kyle is trying to uh take over that spot as they are wheel tohe out there for the moment now Kyle inches ahead just a little bit so it looks like maybe the inside is not necessarily the place to be but Kyle p is going to try the inside on Bale Jerry down the straightaway they come the number 68 car driven by der cope is right ahead of this group uh he is not running with this uh contingent of cars there's Jared down the backstretch Here Comes Kyle Petty and Jeff odod that is some close racing right there that is amazing the camera work that we see these days on the live TV this is this is happening right before our eyes out the window in on the screen it's amazing back to the leaders meanwhile it is still Brett Bodine who is in the lead but look at Bill Elliot as he is closed in now with them in about a car length and a half or two car lengths as they come down to complete lap number 90 and Alan kwii is also not very far behind in third position Sterling Marlin is shown fourth in the seral and fifth is Dale NH hard B we mentioned at the top of the show that Ricky Rudd had won this race two years in a row and he had won it just car number 15 that's leading the race now that belongs to Bud Moore out of sparenberg South Carolina this has been a very good racetrack for Bud Moore he's had wins with Benny Parsons and several other drivers over the years he just simply knows how to set a car up to get around this RAC trck it's got to be the best kept secret in the garage area whatever budmore does at do nobody else seems to be able to figure it out no matter who drives buds car the buds car goes to the front if they been in the winner circle so many times with so many different drivers it's just I think it's one of the best kept secrets in the whole NASCAR history cuz Bud MO is a it's a given you come to Dober Bud Mo car is going to be up front the fastest four qualifiers were in fors and right now the top three are also in fors Bodine Bill Elliott and Alan kwii we'll be back with more live coverage after this from Dober Downs Bob Jenkins Ned J Gary Nelson dick berren Jerry punch and Larry nber back at Dober Downs International Speedway for the Delaware 500 Winston Cup race there are the top three right there running nose to tail it's Brett Bodine leading followed by Bill Elliot and in third position is Alan kwii we're almost a fifth of the way through this race and for the highlights of the first 96 laps here's Larry nber in P Central Bob Dober is always full of surprises but this is one surprise that we had no way of anticipating Tire problems there is second running Mark Martin he loses a right front tire and goes immediately into the wall going into turn number three it was a very hard hit for Mark although he did not sustain any injuries and at the same time at the other end of the racetrack a tire went go right front we assume and Kenny shraer has hit the wall in turn number one both cars obviously eliminated from the event but neither driver suffering injuries as the green flag came back out again Richard Petty was in front of then leader Bill Elliott Petty trying to get his lap back runs into the same exact problem that befell both Mark Martin and Kenny Sher Richard Petty has returned to the race his car was not knocked out of the event inside the first 100 laps of this race here at the monster mile over this 500 lap race is quite a challenge to driver and crew alike out of race Rodney col so far Mark Martin Ken Shader and Richard Petty the following three are the last three of course because of crashes Rodney Coles had dropped out with mechanical difficulties just about 5 minutes before that first crash all right thank you Larry and you can add to that out of race list the number 74 car of Randy lejoy just as you were updating is on the cars that had dropped out he too pulled behind the wall so Randy lejoy and number 74 is also out of the race now we're beginning to see a challenge for second position as Alan kwii is really closing in on Bill Elliott they go to the high side and pass some slower cars a number 80 machine being driven this afternoon by Jimmy Horton that's also the number 67 car coming down the backstretch Elliot in second Alan kwitney is right there though in third in car number seven three Fords still up front you know we've been seeing the front of the field being paced by Fords all along and here it is again even Kyle Petty a Ford running very strong I think that uh maybe there's more than you know we talked about horsepower briefly at the beginning of the show maybe the Fords had a different Power curve a different torque but you know coming off the like you can see here Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett Dale Jarrett's pulling Kyle off the turn so hey you know Dale Jarrett maybe have the momentum maybe the power who knows but in my opinion I think that the Fords have a little bit better downforce the aerodynamics on the the rear of the car is pushing down better on the PS and on the other models this is the battle for E position by the way it is Dale Jarrett and Kyle Petty it seems as if Kyle will lose some on the straightaways but then is able to pull in besides of Jared and the turns I think what Dale is doing is he's trying to conserve his tires as much as he can he's running a little bit higher Groove he's running up second third Groove Kyle's running down on the inside and running a little bit deeper into the turns than is Jared and uh Jared has the momentum as he comes off of the turns and that shoots him down the straightaway a little faster it's quite a ongoing uh argument almost is why the Fords seem to have better tracks than others but I'm I'm leaning more and more towards aerodynamics you can almost see in this this shot here where where uh Kyle Petty can pull up to Dale Jared in the turns but when they get on the straightaway can't quite do anything with him look at how low he went all right down to the line he's getting some traction he's getting some whether it's down forest or just chassis configuration whatever it is the car is sticking better in the turn and I think uh the outside Groove is working better Kyle has dropped back now you see he was trying to pass Bale Jarett there a moment ago and I think he just ties up and said hey I better cool it a little bit meanwhile Harry G is running that same High Line that Dale Jared is and that is traditional for Harry Gant here at the do Downs International Raceway he loves to run up there and is working for him right now you see he's able to move around or move up move around J down and up on Kyle Petty and that's the same uh set of circumstances we saw yesterday then in the grand national race Harry was the first to move up on the High group he really likes to run high and really Gary that took a little less stress on the Towes and the chassis of the car well you're right Ned you're running a bigger racetrack uh especially if your car is loose you you do better up high if the back end's trying to get out from under you when you turn the wheel you know that that's what we call loose if that's happening to your car and you run a little higher on the racetrack you're not turning the wheel as much and the car doesn't tend to get as loose but also on the same token you're running a longer race R it's it's more it's a bigger circumference around the race and now we move inside Rick Wilson's car as he has the 83 winds Kmart Oldsmobile driven by Lake speed right ahead of him as they battle for position some good racing going on in that pack number 31 car is right ahead of Lake speed that's being driven by Jim solder this afternoon the pink slender U mobile and right behind Rick Wilson is the car number 11 of Terry leani leani made that unscheduled hit stop for a change of right side Towers just after the green came out and here's Davey Allison moving up now Davey is running much better than he did a while back so evidently the problem that he had the pushing problem he had that was cured during that pit St but you can imagine Davy was really hoping for a yellow flag he was losing so much ground falling back in the field and we really think Dave's got a competitive car a good chance of being a contender late in this race but with that bad uh Tire problem or whatever it was that was causing his car to push I'm sure he was really hoping for that caution when Richard Petty hit the wall and causing that caution Davey looks like he's got that problem cured now yeah he wasn't too far from being laughed at that particular point but now he's certainly back in The Pick of the battle yes you're right the Junior Johnson number 11 could very well be a Ford in 1989 competition as Junior Johnson apparently is very definitely considering the use of in this series next year you know that that's an interesting comment Bob you know uh there people switch from one make to another make and they they always have a list of reasons why what what what prompted them to do that but when you look at the whole circuit there's better there each track has its favorite model of cars so when you go through the whole the whole season everybody's going to have a good chance all through the field we have completed 110 laps here at do downs and here are the top 15 there you see Brett Bodine Bill Elliott Alan Ki Sterling Marlon and Mike in the wall up in turn four it's Derek cop in the fur later Ford he was running in 13th position he hit hard or a tire BW or something because we could hear the concussion here in the booth and we're well enclosed from the racetrack noise but he made uh pretty good contact with the wall you can see him moving around in there so he apparently is not injured but that car did make heavy contact with the wall in turn number four and it brings out our third caution of the afternoon so it's a tough break for Derek cop who was running in the lead lap he was running in the 13th position we saw several cars passing Dale Jared Harry Gant and Jeff bdan a while back but he was uh In Contention still in the lead lap when he had this Misfortune you can see the uh place where he impacted the wall and now we'll replay it and see what happened okay you can see he has already to spun backwards into the wall it looked like the right rear tire might have blown on the car and spun him around and into the wall backwards so there is Der cop's number 68 pator car as the safety officials arrive at the scene of the crash and here's everybody coming into the pits including Brett Bodine to number 15 Bill ellien to number seven dick bergren is on Pit Road with Alan kwii stop and Alan kwii is in he's only got two full-time crew members this week he lost one during the week most of the other teams have 17 or 18 fulltime crew members but these guys are many of them do not pickup crew members but they work hard at it BR bl9 down Pit Road also in with Jerry punch Jerry well they've already put right side tires on they're working on the left side and it's a race will get off Pit Road first here's Elliot and bod down they almost Collide on Pit Road and Bill Elliott will win that race down Pit Road so bill inde D does get out first there is Brett Bodine falling in right behind him so we're going to have a change of uh leadership here when the green comes back out that is assuming that neither car comes in for another stop meanwhile it's going to take a few minutes here to get the Derek cop car off the racetrack he's had contact with the wall in turn number four we'll take a break and be right back with more from Dober back at do third caution period of the afternoon we're now 113 laps in der cop's car being pulled off of the racetrack in the turn for area he has uh impacted the wall there you can see him uh leaking some fluid down the racetrack so the crew will have to clean that mess up before we go back to racing most everyone has come in for uh some pit stops there you can see a couple of more peeling in the pits including Ken buard in car number 10 and Dave Marcus in car number 71 so the pace of the race is reduced here with Bill Elliot at the uh head of the field you know there are lots of unique aspects about this track they call the monster Mile and Jerry punch reports on one of them in this track [Music] fact track facts are brought to you by the Robert Bosch Corporation makers of Bosch platinum the ultimate spark plug the nickname for this track at Dober Downs is the incredible mile one of the more incredible features about this racetrack is behind me that's an air conditioned Grand stand that actually serves as the main grand stand for the harness racing facility now this track is actually a track inside a racetrack the asphalt track for the stock cars on the outside and the harness facility on the inside another incredible feature is this back straightaway Bank nearly 18° it's almost the same as the banking in the turns the turns are banked roughly 21 or 22° another interesting feature here at Doper is this 6ft concrete wall separates the backstretch from the harness track in fact the back straightaway is below ground level so 6 ft below ground level a very narrow apron separates what is the back straightaway from this concrete wall which of course is the butress for the harness racing facility doesn't leave much room for air here for driver mistake in the backstretch we're glad you could join us on this Sunday afternoon for Winston Cup competition at Dober Downs International Speedway we'll be right back with more coverage we have just gone green to resume the Delaware 500 at Dober downs and the lead is held by Bill Elliot that second car in line there is Morgan Shepard and car number 88 he is not on the lead lap second is Brett Bodine to number 15 the third car in line there running in uh the third position would be Dale nhart fourth is Sterling Marlon and fifth is the number 12 car driven by Mike Alexander in sixth place is Alan kwii Dale Jarry is seventh and in eighth position is Bobby Hillen har D runs nin and in 10th position is the car number 90 I believe of Benny Parson no make that number 83 of Lake speed and then beny Parson the number 11 car there of Terry lebani is also trying to get a lap back he is not on the leader lap running right behind Brett Bodine 121 laps are completed now the race beginning to settle down just a little bit after a very interesting beginning oh definitely you know we a real close race in the pits just before we went to this Comm last commercial break Brett Bodine came into the pits under caution leading the race Bill Elliott was in second place and they were just almost inches apart leaving the pit area but that's the difference right there on the racetrack Bill Elliott now is the leader by with one car between him who was down on the inside on the restart so Brett Bodine lost it in the pits lost the lead in the pits and now he is hanging in there in second and here is the number three car of Dale Hart the 44 of Sterling Marlin and the 12 car of Mike Alexander all of those cars are battling for the third position Marlin right alongside of Mike Alexander who's given that Miller highlight Buick a very good run Mike likes this racetrack he drives it very well he's had some good runs here in busr national competition now having a good run today in the Bobby Allison C and there is Alan kwii who has also joined the fight for this position the average speed of the race has because of the cautions to 106.0 one2 mph now uh Mike Alexander has taken away that position from Sterling Marlin and here comes Alan kwii to also try to get fourth spot make that fifth spot as Alexander is in fourth and now Alan kwii on the inside side by side door handle to door handle with Sterling Marlin and the number 29 car of Dale Jared is right behind this battle for position doesn't look like St Marlins car number 44 the Pont Airlines car is handing quite as good as it was before maybe he got a mismatched set of tires on that exchange during the caution period you can almost see as he makes as sterley Marlin makes Corrections on the steering wheel the car kind of tries to drift out and he pulls it back down right right there you can see as he coming off the turn he's correcting for it he's right on the edge of traction he's trying to hold on to that position and these other cars seem to be just a little bit faster there you see him trying the very low side on the racetrack right against the line drifting out against the wall now he's as he goes into this turn he might try low again might try High he's still searching for whatever he can do to make that car go as fast as he can until he can get us more adjustments spe looks like the car might be a little bit loose and when we use that term that the back end might not be sticking quite as tight when he goes into the turn as he would like for it to yeah you're right n you can see the back end out farther than the front end especially when you can compare it to that white line down on the bottom of the the racetrack along the APR so Allan Ki fifth Sterling Marlin there the blue and white Pont car is in Sixth and Dale Jarrett with whom we are running right now is in seventh position and there is the lead meanwhile still being held by Bill Elliott and Morgan Sheffer has been unable to pass him and get his lap back you know Mark Martin was uh the first car out of the race because of a crash he was the pole sitter only two pole sitters have won the Delaware 500 back in 76 kale Yaro 73 Pearson side by side racing here as Mike Alexander has taken over the third position from Dale nhart or at least he's trying to about a half a car length now going into turn number one nhart is trying to save off the challenge but oh and Alexander gets a little bit sideways enough for Bill brother Dale nhart to get the nose back underneath Mike Alexander a good battle here for third spot as nhart just won't give up well you can imagine Mike Alexander having the thrill of his life he's really enjoying himself here Dale Earnhardt's testing him you know running close to him he he's building up the trust you know Mike Alexander fairly new to Winston Cup racing but not new to stock racing so many years he's driven those uh Grand National cars now here he is passing Dale Earnhardt that's got to be one of his dreams all of this in front of Dale Jared the hardies in now we see nhart losing one more position Alexander has moved to third fourth now as alen kwii at number seven and Sterling Marlin is about to take a position another position away from d nhart so nhart may be having some trouble with that number three car as Morgan Shepard is trying desperately to get his lap back and get around Bill Elliot their door handle to door handle into turn number three and four now Morgan is really having to punish his car the tires owned at least right now but he has no choice but to do that if he's going to get back and have a chance of winning this race he's got to get back in the lead lap and he knows that so he's driving her hard trying to do that but he's really punishing the tires it's almost as if he's bringing gret bod along with him Brett running a little lower right there on the racetrack than Bill Elliott we they have to watch Brett was almost pulling away before the last caution so Bret Bret Bodine and Bill Elliot both look awful strong here I believe Bill Elliot is uh is just running as fast as he feels he needs to at this point of the race I don't think that he's punishing his car or his tires he's just trying to ride it's a long long way to go yet and he knows that that's what you have to do to win here at Dober because he is a past winner here the starting position that has has gotten us the most winners here at Dober Downs International Speedway is the third SP starting spot and Bill Elliot started third in this race the 12 car of Mike Alexander and The Seven car of Alan kwii and the 44 of Sterling Marlin Jerry punch is uh is watching this performance by Mike Alexander well I tell you the stola brothers are really impressed with young Mike Alexander 31-year-old dver from Franklin Tennessee started back in 21st spot he is now running third but you shouldn't be surprised because the cavola car has always run well here at NOA Delaware Bobby Allison has won seven times up here and he has run so well in the past you know last week they announced thater would drive this car next year and they will have a car available for Bobby Allison this recovery continues and hopefully Bobby will be back next year the stas will have Bobby hen Mike Alexander and they will have the car for the leader of the Alabama gang Bobby Allison when he comes back but an impressive forance performance right now running third go Tock well I'm down here I'm down here in the Rick Wilson pit actually Jerry and what I'm watching is Wilson went out with a set of hoo your tires a little while ago but apparently they've decided they're not to their liking they're going to bring Wick Wilson in and they've got a set of Goodyear Tires on the outside of the car Larry nber well Dick Allen is running very competitive ly in the top five you know he almost won the poll here we look at Rick Wilson who has come in for a pit stop perhaps a precautionary tire change and Dick Berman is there we'll go to Dick come back and place my the stop over there well they have changed the outside tires on Wilson's Car they're going to have to change the inside this was a very very costly experiment to try a different set of tires but they really felt that they had to give it a shot they're the only team so far that has done so but apparently it just hasn't worked RI Wilson sitting here in the pit area Wilson's now gone Larry n what's going on at your end honoring the scanner radios down here at our end and we picked up the following facts first of all about the cars that we've been watching Alan kwii is not having the same Tire problems there he is on your screen the xerx number seven is not having the same Tire problems as all the other top teams have been having and thinking back to Watkins Glam when we had another serious Tire problem on ESPN the team that early in the race was not flashing great speed but was commenting that they were not having Tire problems was Ricky Rd he went on to win that race now a couple of other extraneous notes as we look at Alan kwii going underneath of Mike Alexander Sterling Marlin trying to follow through Marlin on the inside there and the be M old whoes under young Mike Alexander the number 67 car buddy eron's car is being driven by Brad teag today they have tried who's your tires and they have radioed back that they are having the same Phenomenon with the hooers at the head of the good years meaning they were expressing concern and from Daryl Walter pit Jeff Hammond is Radio to Jeff or radio to Daryl time to pick it up Daryl so the tire situation certainly is still very much a factor in this race let's take a look at the top 15 as we have them with 140 laps completed it's Eliot Bodine kwii Marlon and Mike Alexander in the top five 6 through 10 nhart Jarrett Hillen speed and Bodine and B 11 through 15 rud Gans saer Allison and Penny back at the Delaware 500 and Morgan Shepard at car number 88 has gotten his lap back he was able to go underneath of Bill Elliot and so we have another car on the lead lap but the lead is held by Bill Elliot and right behind him in second place this but more prepared for Chrisco sponsorship and the driver is Brett Bodine from shimang New York now a whole bunch of racing going on uh in the top 15 that's Jim solder in the number 31 car Jeff Bodine to number five dve Allison in 28 also in the group is the 21 car driven by Kyle Petty as they contest positions and the caution is out yellow out on the racetrack for the fourth time we don't see anybody in uh any trouble anywhere on the track perhaps just some debris or whatever but anyway the caution flag is being displayed by Harold ker by the way we have noticed that Ken Sher in car number 25 who was involved in our first caution of the afternoon he made some contact with the wall up in the first and second turns he is back in the race although the car looks a little bit more like a modify than it does a Winston Cup car so the caution out again we're going to see some wholesale pit stops we believe as here they come Bill Elliott and Brett Bodine Jerry punches in Bill Elliot's pits as he stops for his routine maintenance go ahead Jared we'll watch this race on Ro again remember Bill Elliot won it last time he and Brett Bai they will go to the right side of the car they already have the right side tires off Allan Ki in taking right side tires as well the jack off the right side for Elliot comes around to the left side left side tires now coming off of the B Elliot car and put those tires on now they're going to the left side of the Allen Ki zrex car but Elliot's car off the Jack great pit stop for Bill Elliott he's the first one down Brett Bine leaves and they are still working on Alan car is car getting left side tires still on the jack and now he is down Alex W full back down look like just about identically Ed pit stops there by Bill Elliott and Brett Bodine Elliot got out first Kyle Petty is going back out so is Jeff Bodine so is Ricky rud and that is the group that we were following there as the yellow came out on the RAC trck and the reason for the yellow Bob is that there was a piece of metal on the front straightaway just coming off a turn four so that was the reason for our fourth caution something coming out of Bill Elliot's car it looks like as he comes off of the turn it might have been uh fuel maybe just from the Overflow but there definitely was some fluid coming from the back of the car it looks okay now so we'll check it out after a little bit and so Bill Elliott uh is going to uh see if that uh could be a problem indeed now remember Morgan Shepard had gotten his slap back and the yellow came out of course and he now is position on the back FL and there as I told you a few minutes ago is the number 25 car of Ken Trader that is back on the racetrack despite the fact that it's got some damage on the right side and on the front of the car we'll be right back speed world today at Dober Downs International Speedway in Delaware for the Delaware 500 Winston Cup race being brought to you by goodye Eagle tires good year because there really is a difference buy xerx the antifreeze coolant for extreme conditions buy Purolator the first name in filters for Pure oil now and pure oil later it's pure later and by Wagner hallogen headlights the only headlights with a lifetime warranty the crowd Rises to its feet once again as the green flag is about to come out over over Downs once again to resume our competition Harold ker displays the green and Bill Elliot leads him down for the restart and as they got the green flag malel walri in the Country Time Lemonade car number 30 got the Black Flag so apparently there was a rule violation as far as he was concerned so Michael Walter will have to come in for at least to stop and go penalty looking out the back class of the uh incar camera that we have we're looking from the uh car driven by Rick Wilson another one of those situations where Bill Elliott just barely beats Brett Bodine out of the pitch you know we've been talking about Dale Earnhart pit crew for a couple years now but some of the other very good pit Crews belong to Bill Elliott Brett Bodine and Russy Wallace they they're so close it's almost hard to tell the difference on them but Brett Bodine getting beat out of the pitch just slightly then he gets a lap car in between them and he has a little bit of racing to do the catch back up and nhart crew continues to do good work Gary in the pits he went in running in seventh position came out running third now the number four car of Rick Wilson is not on the leader lap and he is running the high side of the racetrack bred Bine number 15 is second and Terry leonti that you're looking at right now out the back class of the Kodak car is also not on the lead lap and there we can see now the movement Brett Bodine as he tries to move to the inside and pass Rick Wilson but has not been able to do so so far the inside it's tough to pass down there today for some reason the higher Groove just seems to be working better yeah Dale Earnhart moving right in in there too you know NASCAR the way NASCAR restarts the races the cars in the lead lap have to be on the outside and anybody who is at one or more laps down lines up on the inside that kind of bunches things up and it really in a lot of cases gives the leader the guy who comes out of the pits first gives him a break on the start because that lap traffic is trying to get their laps back especially early in the race like this they're going to race trying to to be in a position to gain a lap back if the yellow comes out so that makes it tough for the second third play start to deal with that lap traffic while the leader pulling away with clear sailing Here Comes Taylor Hart moving to the inside of Rick Wilson now Dale is in third position he is actually fourth in line there but he is in third spot and right behind him is Rusty Wallace who is also not on the lead lap speaking of not being on the lead lap Ken Raider as we saw before we went to commercial is back in the race he has a deficit of 110 laps to make up probably will not be a winner here this afternoon Dale nhart the defending Winston Cup champion who has moved to second in Winston Cup points in 1988 running third here this afternoon with 157 laps completed Ned ask him earlier has this been one of your better tracks or do you consider it one of your worst tracks kind a had it I run real good here at times but seem not finish good here uh I think it's my worst race track on the on the schedule right now as far as finishes but uh I enjoy racing here I don't have any problems running here with the car and everything we just uh you know just getting to the end of the race is my biggest problem it's a tough race uh we always seem to have a little problems or TI tires or something so hopefully we got a good combination for this weekend we be okay never finished 500 Miles here at Dober looking to do so for the first time in his career this afternoon Dale nhart from Canapolis North Carolina he he's still struggling to pass Rick Wilson here well you know people talk about different tracks and different things there are so many variables that go into winning nowadays in Winston Cup racing you think about Dale Earnhart he just dominates on some tracks Bristol for example just just goes away and here we have Bill Elliott dominating here at at Dober so far in this race this is really a Bill Elliot track this is a rumor to be I think it's a pretty true rumor to be a Ford track so Bill Elliott has a combination week on this particular racetrack then you know next week we go to Martinville maybe somebody else maybe it's a Dale Earnhart track maybe a Rusty Wallace type track it it just shuffles back and forth that's what makes this competition so interesting throughout the season fellas I think that we're seeing Dale Earnhart drive a different kind of a race here today than we normally see Dale Earnhart Drive I believe that he is absolutely determined to try to finish this race and have his shot to win at the end of the race and this brings up the thing that you talked about in the very beginning Gary and that is saving the engine it uh is measured in terms of minutes and hours and so uh it really doesn't matter how many miles you run it's it's the length of uh the time that's most important you're right Bob you know while we were watching that interview with Dale leard yet you can almost see the gears turning inside of his head while he's thinking about what he's saying you know he said I've never finished the 500 Miles here I always seem to have trouble getting to the end he was thinking about that very thing while he was saying it and I think he's thinking about it right now there's a lot of time involved in this race from start to finish over 4 hours from the time that you start your engine to the time you shut it off at the end of the race and you've completed 500 mil there's a lot of tracks where you complete 500 mil in in 3 or 3 and a half hours so there's a lot more stress for a lot longer time on the engines here at do so Dale Earnhart is entrenched in third position at the moment and what was a very cloudy overcast and gray day is suddenly becoming a very pleasant afternoon as the skies are beginning to clear off and the Sun is beginning to poke its head through these clouds here in Delaware Bob let me give a call to number two son Dale Jared he's uh he came out of the pits running in sixth position he's moved around Mike Alexander now taking over fifth he just moved around Sterling Marlin and is taking over fourth Bale is having absolutely the best run of his winon cup career that car does look good going through the turns there Ned you know he is running a pretty smooth line he's running a little higher than most of the others but he's running an awful smooth line and I I think that that well right now as I said he runs down on the bottom but he as we watched him earlier in the race he was running a little higher and that's kind of a a more conservative let's wait around to the Finish type attitude I think that he's approaching this race R there's the number three car right ahead of him but now uh we see out back of the Kodak car and that is Daryl Jared right behind the Rick Wilson car so indeed Jared in a fine run here running fourth with 165 laps complete we'll be back in just a moment after this we're back at the Delaware 500 where Bill Elliott continues to lead this race with Brett Bodine in second position there is Elliot crossing the stri and completing lap number 169 Brett Bodine is not too far behind in fact is staying right up there with Bill Elliot there he is Bodine car number 15 Brand's running a very good smart race here today he's been in the top five most of the afternoon kept himself in contention led the race for a while doing what he needs to do and looks like he's slowing down right now as we talk about him pulls to the inside of the racetrack evidently lost a cylinder or something too bad for Brett Bodine as we were just talking about what a good run he was having he was headed for the pitch he he was turning towards the pits and he turned out like um maybe there's something on maybe there's some reason Bud told him to do something turn one one of the switches try a few other things before come actually coming into the pit but he he is slowing down Elliot now has a little bit of a break but we'll have to see what Brett bodine's problem is because he still could come back now it's a tough break as you can see everybody passing him and Brett limping to the pit area Jerry punch is in his pit and can tell us what's going on Jerry well we are told they have broken an axle and may have broken an axle they are is making his way down Pit Road and he continues on by and he will make his way to the garage area we have Greg Moore with us here Greg what seems to be the problem uh J it seemed that we broke axle or something in the rear end this one wheel only one wheel pulling we don't really know we're going to go here and that's Greg Moore who's the son of budmore they will go in and try to work with the car and Dury Elliot comes over and talks to Greg Moore and wish them well and they will go in and try to get the car fixed and get Brett Bine back on the street tough break common problem Gary broken axle no not Comon at all and I I'm really kind of doubt if it is a broken axle I don't you know the way the car acted uh I've seen cars with broken axles run a lot faster than Brett was running uh he he does have a serious problem obviously but uh we'll have to watch and see what they what they discover B Elliot now with about a 4sec lead over Dale nhart who is running in second place Dale Jared is now moving up uh on Dale ear hard about four or five cars behind him Rick Wilson is also slowing down he's got his hand in the air signaling to the drivers behind him so the Kodak car is also also in trouble here and dropping to the apron now entering the pit area Rick Wilson is in for an unscheduled pit stop let's see what this is all about whether it just a tire or whether they're going to raise the hood on the car he slows it down gets it stopped they go to work on the right side changing the rubber over there no indication that there's a problem within the engine compartment Jerry punch can tell us perhaps well Tony Glover and the rest of the Kodak crew are changing right side TIR apparently they were looking at the car and it must have been a right side Tire we have car down the way and will head back on the speedway let's go to Dick Beren dick well Jerry I'm in the garage area with Brett Bine Brett you just stood on the gas hard your mechanics watched and only the right rear tire left a tire mark what does that mean well it looks like we broke an axle dick yeah I just can't believe it I really thought today was going to be our day you know as good as the car was running and Bill and I just pulling away from everybody it was a two-car race and I just hate it for everybody I don't I know what I got to do to win a race but we'll going to win one before the years over you are looking at the face of bitter disappointment Brett Bine had his hands in his face just a few moments ago he absolutely couldn't believe he was out of it he was running so well and our hats off to him but it's just one of those unfortunate set of circumstances that occur during the heat of battle so Bill Elliot now has a little bit of breathing room he is uh definitely in the lead and Dale nhart now is second now if we continue to see a repeat of what we have have seen so far will be looking for pit stops and perhaps drivers running into some Tire problems within about five laps so when we return we'll develop that story for you from the Delaware 500 B Elliott continues to lead the Delaware 500 in second position however we have a change of position there as Dale Jared has moved around Dale nhart and I don't know whether there is exuberance within the Dale Jared car but there certainly is on half of father in the booth well it's good to see him running as well as he is today and particularly up towards the front and moving around a driver such as Dale Earnhart so Dale Jarrett takes the measure of nhart coming off of turn two down the backstretch just moves right on in turn three and moves around and on the racetrack there is Dale Jared and it has been a steady progression from his uh starting position to his current second place status he started the race in 17th at the end of 50 laps he was 13th moved up to 12th at the end of 75 at the end of 150 laps he was Sixth and now with 183 laps completed Dale Jared is running in second position the number 26 car is in the pit area that's Ricky Rudd he is in and out of the pits by the way we're beginning to see some stops as we predicted as Terry leani is also in for a pit stop and further up hit throw toward turn number four Brad ninger is in and the number 98 sonoko sponsored car we had word that Ricky rud might have had a tire problem now remember early in the race he was one of the first ones that had blistered a tire and he came in and we hear that maybe he might have had a similar situation now the sun is shining here at do this after now it was overcast when we first started this race but the sun is out now and Gary that could make a difference in the tire temperature situation but you sure are right you know uh with the the cool temperatures the overcast Skies that we started the race with we have only one problem to worry about and that was the rain that had washed the rubber off the track causing the tires to overheat that started correcting itself and getting better and better as we went now the sun's coming out the track temperature is going to be much higher D hard is pitting under green as Bill Elliot continues to lead and there is the Richard childis Kirk sheline crew changing rubber on the right side of that car Jerry punch can call the stop well the goodwi C changing L on the right side of the Chevrolet P of Jack dard down and Away in 11.7 seconds that is a quick gentlemen that's the kind of performance that's made him a champion for the last couple of years very strong performance by that pit crew as nhart begins to pick up speed there is the leader Bill Elliot staying out there and not choosing to come in for another pit stop at the moment Benny Parson's made a pit stop also in Bullseye Barbecue s forward we haven't heard much of Benny has run a good race today good steady race he was in the lead lap before he made this green flag pit stop that will put him a lap down but others will have to come back and make pit stop before two long Earnhart went a lap down too well you know we were talking about the track temperature rising especially as the sun's coming out here recently what that does it changes the handling on the car uh a car that was running say neutral before the sun came out and the temperature started coming up is now going to find itself a little looser so these guys are going to have to adjust as it as the they come into the pits and make their pit stops for the changing track conditions all along more and more rubbers going down on the racetrack and that's also changing the track all of these cars are going to be shuffling back and forth for the next 100 or 200 laps trying to hit on that magic setup and trying to predict what the conditions are going to be at the end everything working well for Bill Elliot there is Dale Jared in second in the 29 car Sterling Marlin is at the moment in third position there's the interval between first and second you can see that Dale has quite a bit of distance between himself and the leader Bill Elliott as Elliot comes off of corner number four and completes lap number 192 he's running about 7 Seconds ahead of Bale Jarrett at the moment another of the Front Runners Lake speed is just completing a pit stop to change right side tires on his Kmart wi special and heads him back out car number 98 we saw him go by they've been pushing that car down Pit Road apparently headed toward the garage area Brad offing the driver one of the r contenders on the western cup circuit this year Jerry punch is in Ricky rud's pit Jerry another tire problem for Rick well we're seeing more and more problems Bob in fact they pit stop the really unscheduled stops for the majority of these guys this is the right front tire off Ricky runs Quaker St Buck you see where my ink pan this is all canvas the rubber is completely gone just disintegrated as Larry McGriddle said did our right foont tower just blew apart take a look at it boy did we ever had a lot of crei said come over here looked at this tire and they shook their head and said hey what are we going to do now so a lot of unscheduled pit stops and a lot of concern primarily because the sun came out and it's heating up here at no as we can see by this tire gentlemen so we did uh anticipate a tire problem uh a few laps ago and indeed it is occurring at least on the number 26 car driven by Ricky Rudd but no problems at the moment for the number nine car of Bill Elliott but Harry Gan is coming in for a pit stop as the Travis Carter crew goes to work on it changing the rubber on the right side D was running in the 11th position before he came into the pelds the number 17 car of Daryl walri also in all of this occurring under green flag conditions as quickit STS as possible back out and alen Ki comes in Alan Ki was running in the fifth position before he came in P let's go to Dick Berman in his pit and every up and down Pit Road is ready to do a pit stop kwii is and everybody's pretty much doing the same thing taking on right side tires I've seen a few blistered tires but I've seen more that are not blistered than our unfortunately ki's right front is one that's got a huge Blister in it got 3 in in diameter so perhaps we're not seeing as much of a tire problem but there is still evidence of that as Alan kwii and Ricky Rudd we know of have had blistered tires here in just the last few laps boy so close to the edge you know a little bit of rain or the well it was pretty a pretty hard rain last night affected the early stages of the race then things started getting better now the sun's affecting it again and really these crew chiefs are really aware of what's going on the drivers are aware of it they know that you can make a pit stop early in the race like this or or even before the middle stages of the race and get that ground back but you can't get the ground back if your car runs into the wall so they are going to be a lot more conservative in this stage of the race here's a good battle for the third position that Sterling Marlin about to be pass by the car number 12 of Mike Alexander but Alexander couldn't make the pass that time so Sterling Marlin and car number 44 and Mike Alexander battle it out for third spot here down the backstretch Marlon holding on to third as Mike Alexander is trying to take over that position Bobby Allison has got to have a smile on his face as he recuperates in Alabama from his Pocono injury seeing a fine performance in his car by Mike Alexander Bob car number 31 Jim solder is being given the Black Flag at the moment he might have some leaking fluid from that car and NASCAR is trying to get him in tips as Phil Parsons comes in full Crown Classic o mobile Phil was running in the seventh position you know Bob you were talking about Bobby Allison and uh you know the time I spent with Bobby Allison we won three races here at Dober and if there was ever a track suited to a driver this do track was suited to Bobby Allison style he would just Cruise along a lot like what Bill Elliott's doing now lead the race maybe run second maybe run third but he was always so confident when we came here over we really miss you Bobby we hope we hope you come back soon seconded by everybody on the ESPN staff there is Elliot and he is just uh running away with things at the moment is going to need a pit stop before too long what do you think guys well he he has not abused his Towers he has run a good line he has run fast but still he has not had to abuse his tires has been running out front there picking his way around the traffic and uh don't think that he'd have to stop for a while yet of course fuel is concerned so he might be able to go another 15 or 20 laps yeah I would think so Ned Bill Elliott is really he really has a good feel for the car he knows when he's abusing his tires he's been taken pretty easy and still being able to maintain that pace that nobody else seems to be able to keep up with so Bill Elliott's car is obviously working better um I think Bill Elliott is is really in a comfortable position here's that battle for third once again it is a good one as Marlon and Mike Alexander go at a tooth and nail Alexander moving to the inside in corner number four they come off the straightaway side by side at the line Mike Alexander has a nose ahead of Marlon but as they go into the corner yes it is Mike Alexander who is able to pass Sterling Marlin and Alexander goes to third those are Tennessee neighbors Mike Alexander from Franklin Tennessee and subur of Nashville and Sterling Marlin from Columbia Tennessee also a suburb of Nashville well Jerry punches down in the pit area and Jerry was it indeed a broken axle that has caused Brett Bodine to go behind the wall no no doubt about it Bob take a look this is what's left of the axle the rear actual in a Brett B Chrisco for and I tell you the guys up in the booth Gary have you ever seen one shwed up this bad I mean what a break for budmore and the Brett bonai crew they had a car running so well and this is what put them out rear action oh we have a spin in turn number four on the inside of the track well almost a spin a half spin at least as Davey Allison got sideways he'll drive it uh back onto the racetrack however and I don't think we're going to have a yellow because Davey got the car headed in the right direction and everything is okay but a close moment now the yellow does come out from Harold Kender well Dale Jared had just come into the pits and his pit crew said go on back out because the yellow flag is coming out and so he gets out just in front of Bill Elliott so apparently he'll stay in the lead left and here it is again Ned well I saw I saw when Davey pulled out of it his right rear tire was flat I don't know if that caused it or not probably did it looked like that the back end just spun around on him there's Jim solder right behind him Davy does a good job of handling the car down on the flat surface of the track he actually gets down on the grass and as Dad said Dale was in the pits when that incident occurred but drove right on through knowing that the yellow was going to come out of course he did want to get caught in the pits and lose a lap so here come the leaders now as the caution is out and Bill Elliott is the first to come in Jerry punch will call this stop in Bill's pit well Bill Elliot brings the cor forward to a Hal and they will go to work on the right side of the car we would expect to see a four tire changes they will look closely at this TIR is coming off the Elliot car and they were contemplating about bringing him in in about four or five laps anyway take a look at the tire they were concerned after watching some of the other Crews unscheduled stop left side tires now going on as Ernie Elliot climbs over and makes a major chassis adjustment Elliot's car down and the Away Great Pit Stop he's the first car back on the speedway Davey Allison is in likewise getting TI jam on the havin Ford here is M Alexander number of cars everyone on Pit Road for four TI gentl watching the Davy Allison pit stop as they continue to work on that count now there he goes away so uh we see him getting away so is Alan kwii Dale Jared is still in the pit as they changing left side rubber on his G there is DAV Allison rather who was responsible for this caution period our fifth of the afternoon when he did a half spin on the inside of the racetrack in corner number four we'll be back with more right after this as you can see the skies have begin begun to part and we can see some blue now as earlier today we had heavy overcast and overnight some heavy rain but things are looking very very well here here as we are nearing the halfway point of this Delaware 500 and Larry nuber is in pit Central Martin who has led had run second in this race to Bill Elliott for the first few laps of this race was the first one to crashed at the very same time as Mark was crashing at the North End of the racetrack this was taking place at the south in the racetrack Believe It or Not Kenny shaders crew got this car prepared repaired and they are back out onto the ground now since that time the tire problems have lessened but we haven't had nearly the problems that we had in the early stages the sun has come out as you can see the King Richard Petty was the next one to be involved in one of these crashes caused by a right front tire blowing here's another angle the shot from the incar camera Derek cop was another victim of the tire problems as he too crashed at the fourth turn of the Northern end of the racetrack and then there was the DAV Allison situation yet to get a confirmation on what caused this particular spin we speculate a right rear tire as heavy smoke barrels out from underneath the 28 car so the tire situation perhaps is stabilized certainly is not as severe as it was in the early stages here at Dober 500 laps as you can see we've only completed two fists of this race 200 down track is still under caution as 21 laps have been completed uh there you can see Harold Kender still displaying the yellow now here's a situation from inside Dale Jared's car as he was coming in for a pit stop Ned and he had the right rear tire going down on that car but you can see the crew moved say go on go on that was at the same time that Davey Allison was about to spin between turn three and four so they said go on out they anticipated a caution send him back out fortunately for him he did stay in the lead lap yes he was able to stay on the lead lap and he is in fourth position but as I indicated the yellow flag is still out on Dober down so we'll take another break and be right back in just a moment back under green at Dober Downs International Speedway where Bill Elliot has opened up quite a lead now second place is Mike Alexander and car number 12 both the number three car of Dale nhart and the 27 car of Rusty Wallace are not on the lead lap but there is Mike trying to move to the inside of Rusty Wallace Mike is in second position there may have been some contact there and in third spot is the yellow and white car number five driven by Jeff Bodine so he moves up now to try to challenge Mike Alexander for a second running in fourth position is stman Marlin fifth is Dale Jared sixth is Kyle Petty and in seventh position is Davey Allison and although he had that half spin down there in turn number four he did not lose a lap and is shown in seven spot right now and those are the only seven cars that we're showing on the lead lap Dale Earnhart Rusty Wallace and several others have made green flag pit stops so they are at least one lap down in fact Rusty Wallace should be two laps down because he's made two green flag pit stops yeah we lost a lot of cars off the Le lap that last segment there under green just before Davy spin a lot of cars had made their pit stops that were in the lead lap and then they were unfortunate enough when Davies pun the yellow came out they lost that down Mike Alexander in just a little bit of trouble here as he has lost second now to Jeff Bodine and is about to lose third to the 44 carb Sterling Marlin Marlin to the inside of Mike Alexander coming out of corner number two down the backstretch doesn't look like there be a challenge for that position right now as Marlin begins to drop back just a little bit as he is challenged by the number 55 car but the 55 car Parsons Phil Parson's not on the same lap as Sterling is fail had made a green flag pit stop not too long before the caution came out I wanted to talk about the broken axle on Brett bodin's car that Jerry showed us a few minutes ago we didn't get a chance to talk about it Gary that is not a common thing and this is not a rough racetrack how do you explain what happened but when I saw the axle on the uh when the man was holding it on the screen there it was a hollow axle that was a gun gun drilled axle you know they came out with those in about 1982 or 83 and they did it to make them lighter but the Winston Cup cars had failures when they first came out with them and just about everybody that I know of had quit running the hollow axle I was really surprised to see that Bud Moore had was still trying to use it because the weight savings is so little compared to the the the risk of it breaking so now I've never seen a solid actual break but I've seen plenty of the hollow ones in Winston Cup competition break that surprised me too Gary I had never seen I had no idea that they ever ran a hola axle in a race car it's gun drilled what it is is like U the size of a musk ball I think it was 80 caliber they actually rifle drill those axles to make them lighter it works really well on the short track cards the lighter cars uh dirt track cards but these Winston Cup cards just put so much power down that they've broken those tremendous battle here for second place Je Bine holds on to it but now Mike Alexander trying to move back in to Second as he moves up on the inside of Jeff Bodine this is a great battle for that second position Bill Elliot is the leader but then Jeff Bodine and car number five and Mike Alexander and number 12 are slugging it out out there now you can see how as we mentioned earlier the groove is moving up on the racetrack Bodine and Phil Parsons both way up in the high Groove especially through turns number one and two you can see that at Phil almost gets the right side of the tires up into the gray area and now Mike Alexander is losing just a little bit as he drops back behind Bill Parsons it looks like Jeff Bodine he he's still feeling his way around he started off just after this caution period when we went to Green running right up on the edge of that Gray Line right where that goes where the rubber you can see right into the turn where it turns kind of gray Jeff was right on the edge of that now he's moved down just a few feet and Bill Parsons is trying to get up a little higher so these guys are still trying to find the most comfortable place to run and still run fast Jerry has that axle on the Brett Bodine car uh Jerry show it to us again if you would please well gentlemen you see we're talking about it's a hollow axle I think it actually split linkwise it off take a look inside look the end of a rle barrel there an opening in the end here nice stick my ink pant down inside completely Hollow a completely Hollow Tu and of course it is rifle on the end an axle and it split link wise and then sheer it off a casualty for Brett modai boy what a tough break you know uh that like we said a minute ago that had come out several years ago I'm very surprised Bud Mo still runs it of course Brett Bodine is back out on the racetrack now they have put another axle in it he's back out there but mini laps down he was running in second position had a good run going he started the race from fourth but that uh broken axle did put him in the pit area and behind the wall for quite some time now here's a battle shaping up between the number 44 car of Sterling Marlin and Dale Jared and this would be for fourth position and you can say Mike Alexander in the 12th car the gold car just ahead of him he's running in third place and just at the left of your screen is the yellow car of Jeff Bodine he is running in second place so second through fifth very tight battle indeed it is but for the moment Bill Elliott is is streaking away from everybody as he has now almost a full straightaway lead on everybody else that's uh running behind him Jeff Bodine in second place well we' mentioned how you've got to be conservative on the engine and it doesn't make any difference how many miles but rather the time that you put on the engine is perhaps Bill Elliot's uh putting a little bit too much uh on that engine at least at this point of the race well you know at the end of the race if Bill Elliot still running we can say he very smart race but if something happens to him obviously we can say you didn't need that big of a lead before even the halfway point of the race I think Bill Elliot has really become a very smart driver he is the leader in the points and he got that lead by being consistent and not only just consistent but consistently fast so he's he's comfortable right now I feel pretty happy with what he's doing yeah I don't think he's abusing the car right now he's working so well just running so fast and really the the lamp time he just turned to 2615 in seconds the other cars back there running about 16 20 2625 so he's only gaining about a tenth of a second the lapse but that is about a half a second slower than he was running earlier in the race so we're 19 laps now from the halfway point of this Delaware 500 and Bill Elliott is in the lead as a huge crowd looks on here in Delaware Bill Elliot's crew looks on as he leads this Delaware 500 Fords have won the last four races in a row here at do and Fords have won the last five of eight events on the 1988 Winston Cup schedule well is Bill Elliott uh being conservative or is he going for all it's worth we ask him are you more conscious of the point battle now that it has tightened up so much in Winston Cup competition you know the thing out it is we really are not that concerned with what's happening later on down the road we just try to get racing at a time you know we've been running good everywh we've been so far but yet you know anything can happen this is what happened to Rusty last week at Richmond you know you get in a bad situation or circumstance happen that that catches you down you know they can knock you out the points race but still you know we're going to try to run the best we can that's all we're going to do Bill Elliot who is indeed the Winston Cup points leader and looking for his first Winston Cup Championship despite his tremendous season back in 1985 he did not win the championship but this year because of consistency Bill Elliot is is indeed in the points lead by 117 over Dale nhart Rusty Wallace is third in points 119 laps rather points behind Terry lebani and Ken shider are fourth and fifth in the points back well the points are going to get shuffled again after today you know with Ken Trader dropping back and Rusty Wallace hit hit and missed you know he was on seven cylinders had a couple Tire problems really he needs to be consistent and hopefully hope for a top five finish at the end of the day definitely had his trouble Dale Earnhart kind of struggling also uh it's going to shuffle the point system that's for sure we're beginning to see a few more pit stops made now as we concentrate on the activity on the racetrack as Bill Elliott encircles this one mile track as uh both Rick Wilson and Eddie bewell are in the pits meanwhile back in the pack the better battles are of course going on behind Bill Elliott and there is the number five car of Jeff Bodine the number 44 car of Sterling Marlon and the 29 of Dale Jarrett and the number 12 car of Mike Alexander is in second so we have second third fourth and fifth right here separated by just a little bit and we'll try to give you an indication of how far they are behind uh it is a pretty substantial lead though for Bill Elliott at the moment about 6 and a half seconds above as Morgan Sheard brings the Red Baron Pizza Mobile buy for an unscheduled H stop work his way A fou back back into the lead lap and B made another green flag uh pit stop and got a lap down again and here he is having a tire problem again changing the right side tires on his car so that'll put him at this one more Buddy Baker is already announced that his driver for 1989 fulltime will be Greg Sachs with Buddy driving an occasional race if he feels like it you can see when they changed the right side tires on that car of Morgan shefer that the tires they put on had stickers on them they were brand new tires now when you're having Tire problems blister problems at a racetrack you look for scuffed tires the tires that have been scuffed have cured just a little bit and it'll be just a little bit harder so I I would think that all of the crews are running up and down Pit Road trying to find some tires that have been scuffed and hopefully that will help solve the tire problem I think most of them have only scuffed perhaps five or six sets of tires not anticipating the tire problems that they had early in the race here today and so I'm sure that many of them are down too what stickers brand new tires that have not been run again we're watching third fourth and fifth here Mike Alexander is in second but now third is Jeff Bodine in the number five then Sterling Marlin in 44 and Dale Jared in number 29 saw some smoke from the Jared car I think was only Tire smoke I think it was Tire smoke it was coming from the car we'll keep an eye on it but it seems like those four drivers are pretty well content with the positions that they're running in they they are not making any attempt to pass each other now they're just riding along just trying to keep a good Pace going there and not abuse those Towers but you know this racetrack it it definitely does not reward somebody who tries hard the harder you try it at do the more problems you seem to have here comes Ricky rud into the pits rud last year's winner in fact the guy who is won the last two Delaware 500s is in and dick bergren is right there well Bob jins we've seen a lot of people come into Pit Road and I'm going to tell you what this deal is separating the brave from the abnormally Brave a number of crew chiefs who said their drivers have come in they changed tires when there's nothing wrong but a bunch of guys have changed tires when there are things that are drastically wrong with them and one of the things we need to bear in mind is that these cars have power steering that makes it very difficult to feel a tire going down may even make it difficult to feel a tire that is beginning to blister the result Ultra tension on Pit Road the crews are very very worried about the safety security of their drivers and their cars as well and certainly Ricky Rd has experienced probably the most Tire problems of the entire afternoon now there is Dale Jared in car number 29 battling with Sterling Marlin in car number 44 just a few moments ago these positions shuffled and this is how it happened Sterling Marlin went on the inside of Jeff Bodine Jeff Bodine driving the car number five you see how close these three cars are running and Dale Jarrett took advantage of the fact that Marlon had Bodine a little bit high in the turn so Jarrett moved on the inside and took over the fourth position so Sterling Marlin is in third position now and the the number 29 of Jared is in fourth and that drops Jeet Jeet Bine back to fifth now we can see Dale Jared here mov to third position side by side with Sterling uh he has to get out of the accelerator and move high on the track because Bobby Hillen Jr is right there but he stays side by side with Sterling Marlin as they come down the straightaway Marlin holds him off though but a good battle Jared's taking that inside route which is a little more abusive to the tires but Sterling using the outside Groove and they bumped just a little bit and and Sterling has to back off and I don't blame him a bit in the world and Jarett takes the position well that was quite a move there but you know it looked like Dale had just kind of sat back he had that flat tire just before the caution just slowly moving up back up towards the the front now he's setting his sights on Mike Alexander for second place well they do seem to have the second fastest car in the field to Bill Elliott as Harry Gant comes into the PS4 green plag pit stop and uh that right rear tire going flat just as he came in the pits and the C came at the same time had to get him concerned a little bit they're getting the halfway mark so this is an official race regardless of what happens although we haven't had any immediate threat of rain here recently but uh Jarrett now beginning to feel comfortable again I guess starting to move I don't think we're going to have an interruption by rain this thing is going to go the whole way I think and we are exactly halfway through the Delaware 500 Bill Elliott leads Alexander is second followed by Jared Marlin and Bodine back at do down International Speedway and we have reached the halfway mark in fact we are three laps over the halfway point and our Nappa mid-race recap now will show you what has occurred here in the first part of this event the leader at the halfway point was Bill Elliott he started third has led 2011 of the 250 laps the average speed of the race 113.27520 and 209 five caution periods for a total of 37 laps we have had five different leaders and nine lead changes 35 of the 40 cars are still remaining and seven are on the lead lap those cars that have dropped out of the race include Rodney Coles our poll cter Mark Martin Richard Petty Randy lejoy and Derek cope because of an accident now we'll recap for you the video highlights of the first half of this race it got off to a very precarious start as the pole sitter Mark Martin running second to Bill Elliott visits the wall in turn number three a hard hit because of a tire problem and at the other end of the racetrack it was an also a similar problem for Ken Shader as he got into the wall and made heavy contact with the right side of the car tires were a definite story in the early part of this race it settled down for a little bit but then it was Richard Petty who also had a problem with the car as he went into Corner number one drifting high on the racetrack and just brushing the wall Richard Petty and car number 43 however remains in this race another incident of wall contact involved der cop as he lost control and hit the fourth turn wall and we saw it from our incar camera dve Allison had a near miss the car got sideways with him coming down off of Turn number three he got the car corrected however and continued into the pit area he did not lose a lap because of that and is still one of those cars in the lead lap Bill Elliot is the leader however Sterling Marlon has has been in for a pit stop Jerry why was the reason for the Stop well take a look Bob Sterling was in this is the right front tire off the T Airlines under o mobile he came in for an unscheduled stop after running only about 50 laps from the previous stop Mike Alexander likewise just did a minute ago his right front tire on the Miller Buick looks the same so the second and fourth place cars that both put in just a minut ago unscheduled Fit Stop for why well blistered tires big holes and chunks of rubber coming out of the TIR so certainly the tire situation has not been resolved by any means and that is one of the stories that is a real factor in the first part of this race we'll be back in just a moment just as you rejoin us the yellow flag comes out for the sixth time this afternoon and it's because of the Number 96 car driven by Dana Patton of infield New Hampshire and there is the race back to the caution flag and Bill Elliott of course will maintain the lead but Dana Patton has definitely L come in contact with something he ran in the back of the eight Car Bobby Hillen had some kind of a problem slowed down AO all of a sudden and Dana ran right into the back of it so they raised the hood on the Number 96 car and see if they can uh straighten that car out and get it back into the race Dana Patton in the US Chrome Corporation Buick started this event in 38th position he might have an engine problem there too or maybe a broken oil line or something of that nature and this be a break for those who had not made green flag pit stops including Bill Elliott Dale Jarrett Jeff Bodine and Davey Allison none of those drivers had come in while Sterling Marlin and M Alexander had been in F let's go to Jerry punching well again the race on Pit Road Bill Elliot brings the cores Motorcraft for to a halt the crew go to work Dan Elliott Ernie Elliott and the crew down to the right side of the car they have the car on the right side Jack they already had the right side Jack down what great Pit workk by the Coors crew here they had the left side tires going on what's happening in Dale Jared's pit Nick well you guys are ahead of us they're just getting ready to do the left side tires on Dale Jared's car all the way through this Pit Stop you have been ahead I imagine he will Elliot's on his way out he's got Jared beat by a mile DS doesn't even have the left side tires on now he's got him down and Dale's gone Alan kwii remains in the pits as does Dave Allison now Allan begins to move away as we watch Mike Alexander go also back on the track there you can see all of the scurrying that's going on in the pit area Davey Allison car is still being worked on there you can see that the shito car of the number 21 of Kyle Petty going out and there now is damy Allison finally getting out of Pit Road Michael Waltrip is still in now he begins to move away as does Lake speed so pit stops are being completed once again as we are under the caution flag because of the Dana Patton incident down the backstretch when he had contact with the Bobby Hillen Jr car two 65 laps have been completed we've been televising races from here at Dober for quite a while and it certainly was an interesting race here just last year 1987 here is our puralator replay Winston Cup replays are brought to you by purer the first name in filters for Pure oil now and pure oil later it's puralator last year in the Delaware 500 D Earnhart was driving to his first win on the monster mile but it wasn't to be this would be the first race of the Season that Dale would not finish because of mechanical problems he did however go on to win the Winston Cup Championship Ricky Rudd went on to win his second straight Delaware 500 and goes today for an unprecedented third he has definitely had some problems though in that quest for the third Victory as he has been been in numerous times because of Tire problems we'll be back with more after these messages it's turned into a very pleasant afternoon here in Delaware as we televis the Delaware 500 Winston Cup race for you later tonight here on ESPN we'll discuss uh the activity of the National Football League at 7:15 tonight eastern time that's NFL Prime Time with Chris Burman John Saunders Pete Axel and Tom Jackson now a little bit later at 12:25 a.m. eastern time on Friday the 23rd Australian Rules Football football the 1988 Grand Finale this is really Australian rail Rules Football a combination of rugby and football and soccer it is a rough sport but you'll be want to be with us at 12:25 on the 23rd for the 88 Grand finals all right the number eight car of Bobby Hillen Jr is in the pit area and let's go to Larry nuber in pit Central who has been assessing and trying to uh find out what's going on with the tire situation oh Bob during the last p stop I took the opportunity to go out on Pit Road see what was going on and I saw first of all Dale nhart crew uh get him out in front of Bill Elliot once again for another time but we were also talking uh with Richard chis about the tire situation and on the situation he is saying that the problem is with the shoulders on the tires they're getting good Tire temperature right off the center of the tread but on the shoulders the the right side and the left side is temperature they're staying about as high as 260° you're watching by the way on the racetrack right now darl Waltrip who is out on the racetrack driving in a very unusual configuration getting back to the tire situation the wear is doing much better now all the drivers are sensitive to what's going on and as Richard agreed with me the track is treating the tires a little better but they're still getting those big 250 260° temperature readings on the shoulders of the tires and by the way down here in the children's pit it's almost like a tire store believe it or not there are about 60 yes 60 tires stacked down here I've seen tires with numbers three on them and tires with number 48 as well as uh a couple of other teams the r and there you can see the work on the darl walp situation he was uh he drove at least two laps I think around the track with his hood up and completely blocking his view what could have caused that gentlemen they they're working somewhere else there a couple guys working on the hood there but some one of the men was working on some of the chassis part of the chassis he they apparently had the hood up working on it and send Daryl out of the pit without any Hood pins in all right so the green comes back out now and racing resumes at lap number 270 and Dale nhart and Sterling Marlin are just ahead of Bill Elliot they're on the tail end of the lead lap now Elliot trying to move on the inside of Sterling Marlin to put him a lap down but he can't quite do it going in turn three now he moves up beside other well they have been among his strongest Challengers this afternoon both both erard and especially Sterling Marlin and Bill would like very much to pass Sterling Marlin here and indeed put him a complete lap down on the field and he has so Elliot now drops Sterling Marlin back one full lap a little wobble there on the part of Sterling Marlin he G gathers it in though but as you can see is continuing to lose positions yeah his car is uh apparently the tire is not feeling too well for him here as the green flag came back out Dale Jarrett's in second place he got caught back in traffic and in third play to Jeff Bodine he's not too far behind Jerry fourth unofficially is Kyle Petty in car number 21 and Davy Allison is in fifth position so some positions really changed there because at that caution because some have already come in and therefore lost to lap yeah there only six cars on the lead lap right now Dale Earnhart is running at the tail end of the lead lap there are five four cars behind Bill Elliot and then Dale Earhart right in front of them boy heavy traffic right there you can imagine Dale Earhart's cre knowing that they're in the Le lap that's going to have a tough time holding that that edge on Bill Elliot unless something happens and the yellow comes out you know they're looking at that heavy trop of traffic and saying any spin or anything like this that could happen right in this back would cause Dale Earnhart to beat Bill Elliott to the line and regain his position back in lead La two and three of breast racing going on here and the pack seems to be holding to Bill Elliot as he is not putting much separation between himself and everybody else there comes the group and they really have not seen the rear end of Elliott's car for a long long time but now they can yeah he's been so far out in cuton most of the time he had about a 7 and 1/2 second lead before this caution and it but you know these cars can go somewhere around 90 to maybe 100 laps before they need to stop to get fuel but every caution is coming somewhere around the 50 lap area so B Elliot really hasn't been able to lap anybody that's running e just a little bit slower on the racetrack the only chance they get to see him is during the cautions let's go down to Jerry punch and see what's wrong with Daryl Walter well there wter came in and they had changed the right front string on the car and they were in a hurry to get the hood down and get him out without losing the lap and they put the hood down and they turned to put the hood pins in Daryl took off so Daryl went back on the racetrack the hood blew up and it cracked the windshield they came in they beat the hood back down but the problem is well you see a brand new windshield here about ready to go in the tide car NASCAR said you got to bring him in and wind was cracked too badly it'll be dangerous if it comes in in Daryl's darl W making his way back to Road for a brand new wind another tough break for the three-time Western Cup champion indeed Jerry the black flag has been given to H darl walri and he will be coming in now for that new windshield so wal trip will may be making a pit stop as a matter of fact here he comes down Pit Road right now as the leader is Bill Elliot and let's go back down to Jerry who can call this replacement the windshield that windshield is really busted up is it lar Jerry it it is really crunched in there and Daryl could barely see out of it what a break I mean that it's a wonder it didn't come in they use this shatterproof glass another safety feature here in NASCAR that's what kep the windshield from coming in on Daryl's lap and now Jeff Hammond the crew they go to work on the car Sandy Jones there on the left side Jeff Hammond's on the right side your picture and they are trying to get the windchill unbuckled it will pull The Brak from the truck away now what left of that one slides out new wind will go back in and Daryl sitting very patiently in the car but losing a lot of valuable time here at DOA but you can see the braces those three little braces in the middle of the car they're F back that's what holds the windshield up this new windshield will break again if they don't fix those braces they're going to have more problem they're having a tough day all the way around you can imagine they were trying to change the front spring to help the handle and then all these problems started it just seems to compound and compound here at do the harder you try the more trouble you seem to have Daryl Waltrip's season has not been a especially good one for him he tells us that uh he's very much looking forward however to next year walri is eighth in the point standings and here now is the battle for second position Dale Jared in car number 29 and Jeff Bodine in car number five and Daryl Waltrip has made his way back out onto the racetrack there he goes as the uh Second Place cars of Jared and Jeff Bodine pass him on the high side of the racetrack and there is the leader meanwhile Bill Elliott and Dale erard is still on the lead lap but almost a full lap behind well there again Elliott is not trying to punish his car too much to pass Dale Earnhardt and put him a out down he would like to do it because he knows anytime Earhart's in the lead left that he's a threet to win the race but he also knows that his car is faster than heart or has been all day at least and he wouldn't be quite as concerned he'd rather not punish his car right now rather than punish it to get around him he'll just sit there and ride behind him and maybe Dale's Tires will start to go away in a little bit and he can make an easier pass so Elliot now with the lead Dale Jared second Jeff Bodine third Davey Allison fourth and Kyle Petty fifth at the end of 282 laps you're watching ESPN Speed World live coverage of the Delaware 500 from Dober Downs International Speedway being brought to you by Pronto featuring Quality Auto Parts at lower prices by Budweiser proud sponsor of the 1988 US Olympic team this buds for you and by unical NASCAR drivers count on unical gasolines go with the Spirit of 76 and with 28 seven laps now completed is still Bill Elliott showing the way in Delaware 500 Dale Earnhart is right ahead of him but Dale is uh almost a lap down to the field running in second place with Dale Jarrett third is car number five Jeff Bodine Kyle pett is running fourth Davey Allison Fifth and Dale Earnhart six those are the six cars that are in the lead lap one lap down is the car number 12 of Mike Alexander he's running seventh Sterling Marlon is eighth Phil Parson's ninth alen KCK 10th Benny Parsons 11th and Neil Bonnet is in 12th Place they're all one just made a b stop for a change of right side Towes and it looks like he might be bringing him back in again Allan kwii is the car right behind Bill Elliott but uh Allen is also off the pace and not on the lead lap after starting this race in second spot actually he's one lap down so he has moved around Mike Alexander so he would be the driver running in seventh position at the moment you know Alan kcki really would like to get his line back just the same as Dale leard it's almost appears that Bill Elliott has really kind of settled back for a while the number five car and the 28 car are battling for position here Jeff Bodine and uh Bob rather Davey Allison this is for the third spot as Bodine tries to stay off a challenge of Allison the number 83 car of Lake speed is right ahead of Jeff D you can see the high Groove the Jeff is continuing to run we've been seeing that for almost the entire race well you're right Bob Jeff he still feels his way around he now he's really running higher than ever he's actually getting his right side tires up into the gray part of the racet track and making it making his own Groove up there he seems to be more and more successful up there so he's up to third position maybe that's been working pretty well for him Ford against Chevy here for of Davy Allison in the Chevrolet Jeff Bodine a lot of speculation as to what Jeff Bodine may be doing in the 1989 season now Davy Allison is alongside him down the straightaway Bodine still though with about a half AAR length advantage on him and Allison is having all kinds of trouble taking that spot away from Jeff bodai now he pulls ahead by almost to full car length and there he has him Davy Allison moves to third spot that was a good move on Davey's part Jeff was trying so hard you can tell he had to almost get out of the gas coming off the turn Alan kwii just passed Bill Elliott and so now Alan kwii is on the lead lap I agree with you Gary I think Bill Elliott is sort of cooling it right now I don't think he's running that car as hard as it could possibly go and the fact that he's got two drivers like Dale nhart and Alan kcki up there who have gotten their laps back they have to run hard they have no choice but to run hard at this point and try to get their lap back which they have done at this point point and Elliot would have to run just as hard and abuse his car as much as they're abusing Theirs to stay up there and he just doesn't want to do that with some 205 laps to go you know it's decision time all through the race especially for the leader like Bill Elliott in that kind of position Elliot has won five times this year in Winston Cup competition at Bristol at do at Pocono at Daytona and at Darlington so his wins this year are certainly not to the super Speedways as they wore basically in 1985 he has one on the half mile at Bristol he has one here on the one mile track at Dober downs and we have a crash up in turn number three k Trader it appears I can't yes it is for the second time this afternoon Ken Shader is into the wall and he takes even more off the right side of that car you can see him uh unbuckling the uh safety netting on the left side of the car and is unstrapping now and climbing out and I would guess the Traer would probably say okay you win I quit Ken Trader's going to walk into the pits and he's going to tell Harry Hyde look if we go back out there again I may not have anything left but a motorcycle he has really nared the front end of that car down but this is the break that Allan Ki and Dale Earnhart were looking for it has put them back in contention we'll have seven cars on the lead lap everybody will be coming into the pits as we see keny Sher walk back through the pits Bill Elliot drives down pit ready and so you can see how you can get a lap back rather easily here at do as both nhart and Alan kwii will do so now during this series of pit stops in Bill Elliots pit cherry punch well they've already they've already put right side tires on Bill Elliot course Motorcraft Fort Elliot's on top Dale Jared on the bottom and watch these two Gladiators battle it out on pin Road and now they're going to the left side oh and Dale Jared is down now coming down Pit Road so almost hit Allan kcki belliot down away Dale Jarrett will not get out in front of Elliot it'll be Elliot and Jarrett the first two off Pit Road that was a close call though there for daleo as he almost clipped the Allan kwiki car that was stopping in front of him that was two tires on Dale Jarrett's car four tires on Bill Elliott's car I think if he hadn't had that collision with alen Ki he may have been able to take the lead and beat Bill Elliott out of the pit I agree but that's the way they line up on the racetrack and there you can see the work continues on Alan ki's car on the left side now the Jacks are down and Wiki moves back out on to the racetrack and all of this is happening at lap 297 so we're almost 3 fifths of the way through this event here this afternoon and we'll take another break and be right back with more live coverage of the Delaware 500 the green flag has just come out and we are back to racing that is Rusty Wallace leading Bill Elliot down the backstretch uh bill is the leader of the race and Rusty trying to get the lap back again and as we mentioned Rusty just doing everything he can to gain one more Winston Cup point because it could be very important at the end of the season but we saw Dale Earnhardt get his lap back just on that last caution now Dale's back in the pack trying to move on up in Via Contender for the uh win later on Rusty Wallace seeing that knows he's losing points to both Bill Elliot and Dale Earnhardt he's trying as hard as he can right now to get back in contention there's the 88 car of Morgan Shepard and the 11 car of Terry labat close together out there on the racetrack and Jeff Bodine has just moved around Dale Jarrett he moved around Dave Allison a couple of laps ago Jarrett only took on left side right side tires and I believe that was a mistake on his crew I believe they should have put on four tires because the car is not going through the corners like it was earlier no indeed as Davey Allison here comes on the inside and we are hearing that there is Tire rub on the right side you can see it very evident Ned evidently he touched alen kwii when he started out of the pits there earlier during the C flag Pit Stop they should have come back in and checked that but now it's going to cost them because they probably going to have to make a green flag pck stop well that's an unfortunate situation because Dale was certainly doing his job keeping that car well in the top five and in second place for a while but now he may be dropping back just a little bit because of this problem at the right front of the race car the incar camera though rides with Dale Jer but there you can see Davey Allison on the right the extreme left side that's the number three car I should say of Dale Earnhart yeah Dale Earnhart moving up fast he he knows now he's got a little spark him incursion back in the lead lap ready to go tough break for Dale Jarrett to bump Alan kwii as he was trying to leave the pits and have that tire rub I don't know how much longer that's going to last there goes Ricky Rd to the inside of Dale Jared and here comes uh Phil Parsons next and that is seems to me like developing into a rather serious situation here yes it is it's a it's a big risk that he's taking staying out there especially with the right front rubbing because it don't take long there's not much rubber on the side of those tires and if it's rubbing it can rub through in a hurry well you just want to stay out there though as long as you can knowing that the car is is uh handling so well and you just hope for a caution but boy Dale it seems is taking a real chance because that tire could go at any moment and put him into the wall well the risk is is it rubbing on the uh the tread of the tire the shoulder of the tire or actually on the sidewall where there is very little rubber if it's rubbing on the sidewall it can't last over just a few laps if it's rubbing on the top or the thread of the tire or the surface of the tire it could last a little bit longer and maybe to the next potion there goes Kyle penny in car number 21 to the inside of Jared but you know the crew chief on the Dale Jared car has to be thinking right now what do we do if we stop we know we we're going to lose at least a lap fixing it we're already half a lap down to the leader what can we do we keep losing positions eventually either we're going to hit the wall or it's going to get better we don't know where it's rubbing on the tire it may or may not fail there's so many decisions going on right now that's probably more why Dale Jared's falling back in the pack because they're trying to decide what to do and while they're trying to decide he doesn't want to be right on the Ragged Edge just in case it will blow out and Gary it might be that they don't realize that the tire is rubbing it might be that they thinking that he's dropping back because he didn't take on left side tires well I don't know um Ned you know they're pitted right across from our booth here and I can see the NASCAR official talking to the crew chief on Dale Jared's car so I think that Nascar has warn has at least indicated that they have a problem well let's go to Dick berren who maybe can fill us in on all these questions dick well they're sort of trying to figure out down here what the problem is Nascar has just told Elmo Langley the crew chief bring the car in Elmo has signal to the team yep let's bring man it was a surprisingly hard hit here in the pits what had happened was kwii tried to get into his pit while Jarett was trying to get out of his it was a right foot contact the thing that worries me is you can see smoke not only outside the right side of the car but you can see some of it underneath and that may not be an indication of a tire maybe something else but they are ready to change tires I hope that's all it is but I really would hope that they would just pull the fender away from the tire and send him out maybe a three or 4 second pit stop that's all they can hope for right now if they have to change tires they're going to lose that lap and and really have a tough time getting it back let's see exactly what they do we're inside the Dale Jared car as he stops at his pit to uh try to get an assertation of what's going on Dick bergren tell us what's going on Bob what's going on is the right front fender has bent far enough in and could have actually not just got the outside of the tire but even the better of the tire oh they've come off the Jack bad break for Jarrett he has come off the Jack that's going to take them still more time here in the p right front Defender is pretty well toring up just sits so far hasn't gone down La they don't get him out of here soon he will yeah he's gone down left up no he's down he's down tough break for Dale jar yeah he went down one lap and now he's going to have to hustle to stay as Bill Elliot comes off a turn four down the front straightaway he's almost two laps down Jared gets back out on the track he's just about a second and a half ahead of Bill Elliot the Jackman left his position to assist the uh situ in the right front and the Jack fell before they got the front tire on so that's what took up a valuable time in the pits for Dale Jared boy what a series of events that happen you know they they changed two tires to hopefully get the lead and then the reason they the fact that they changed two tires caused them to have that collision with a car that was just coming in not expecting them to be going out then the tire rubbing NASCAR made the decision for them and black flagged them causing them to have the pit then there the problems they had on the pit stop and so Dale Jer [Applause] has not had a good afternoon here in the last few laps a very disappointing situation for Dale there you can see the damage in the right front of the race car I think they have successfully pulled it away from the tire but you can also see that he is almost two laps down as right there is Bill Elliot in the number nine car and right on his back bumper is Morgan Shepard who's trying to get one of the left back that he had lost on a green flag Pit Stop Rusty Wallace is still just ahead of Bill Elliot so is back has gotten back one of the laps that he was back down at 300 lap Mark uh Bob bill ellot of course was leading Dale Jarrett was second at the time of course that is Davey Allison has moved up to second he was third fourth Jeff Bine fifth KY Petty they earn Heart Six M kcki seven those seven cars were in the lead lap one lap down in eighth place was Phil Parsons Mike Alexander in 10th Place Sterling Marlin in 11th the car number 75 of Neil Bonnie in 12th Place two two laps down Rusty Wallace 13th Terry leani who was two laps down Morgan Shephard who's trying to get one of those laps back was 14th Dave Marcus 15th 16th Michael walri 17th Ricky rud 18th Lake speed 19th J paron and in 20th Place the car number two of Ernie Irving so there you have the rund down as uh far as we can go with seven cars on the lead lap and that was at the end of 300 laps and we are now on 318 and the only significant change there has been the development with the Dale Jared Carr the number three car the number seven car race close together out there as does the 12 car of Mike Alexander and nhart is indeed not out of the woods by any means in winning this race well he's had a a long day so far and there's a long way to go still but Dale Earnhardt and both Alan kcki that you see running together there just got back in the lead lap they're working their when you when you onlap yourself like that you really and when yellow comes out you have to go an extra lap to catch up to the pace car so when the race restarted Alan kcki and Dale erard were both just about dead last in the traffic they've been passing car after car now they're really getting the leader with ins sight so they they they put stayed together through the traffic and now they're moving on up in the in really into the contention there's the number five car of Bodine it's right ahead of uh Dale nhart and Bodine would be in third nhart in fourth and kwii in fifth at this point and here comes Dale to challenge Jeff Bodine they pass Ricky rud Bodine going to the high side and Dale Earnhardt to the inside of rud and now we'll see if Dale can close in on the third place car of Jeff Bodine they come off the corner and herart uh seem he's backed off just a little bit Yeah the car looks so much better Dale Earnhardt's car looks so much better than it did early in the race I'm sure they've been adjusting on every pit stop and they're getting it closer and closer and I think a little more of the same and Dale Earnhardt's going to be right up in there with B Elliot we're seeing Ricky rud there who has won the last two Delaware 500s but will probably not win it today and you know it seems that wins of the Delaware 500 has come in pairs rud did it an 86 and 87 Gant wanted an 84 and 85 Petty and 74 and 75 Pearson 71- 72 and Petty again in 69 and 70 back to the leader meanwhile it's Bill Elliot and Jerry punch has a story from Pit Road well gentlemen maybe Gary can comment on some of the strategy being used down here in fact the reason we have not seen any more from Bill Elliott is that Bill Elliott has got a teammate Brad PE who's driving the Buddy Arrington Ford scuffing tires for Bill Elliot now Bill Elliott is giving Brad te new tires Brad te is running him a few laps bringing him back up here to belliot and bellot is putting on scuffed tires and Gary maybe that's a strategy that some of the other teams should employ having someone else scuffed tires for them well you know we talked about uh we saw somebody putting on sticker tires under a green flag pit stop I believe it was Morgan Shepard and we we were talking about how a scuff tire has a lot less chance of blistering so that is a great move on on Ernie from Bill Bill Elliot's pit Ernie Elliott or whoever it was in charge of that that sent the tires down had scuff brought him back put him on Bill's Car that's a good move and I think a lot of the other teams are looking around for partners we have seen scruffing of tires happen occasionally on the Winston Cup tour this year you remember at Watkins Glen we had a tire problem throughout that race and we had some teams oh we have a crash we have a crash in turn number two it's Alan kwii who's in the wall and it uh is once again uh possible that uh a tire went down on that car he is continuing to roll down the backstretch can see fluid leaking out of that car and tremendous damage on the left side of the xerx Ford that's on the right side right front of it is what hit the wall above and yes there is a lot of damage now the car does come to a stop well that's a hard hit very familiar looking so far today with Mark Martin starting it off now Alan ki's accident although it was in turn one and two looked just the same let's take a look at it on our replay as we watch uh what happens at the top of the screen as a comes into the picture you can see he's coming off of the it looked like he turned Crossways well no he had already hit the wall at that point and then came back down on the racetrack and went back up into the wall again he is driving the car right there steing so you can you know he hit the wall very hard but he still has the present of mind to get it out of the traffic and here it is once again contact has already been made with the wall the car continuing to slide up the banking and Allen scraping along the the wall from turn number two all the way down to the halfway point of the backstretch where the car sits right now Bill Elliot returns to the race after having made a pit stop most of the others in uh the top seven the cars on the lead lap are also in for some pit stops and there is Dale Jared the work continuing on that car as they change rubber on the right side of the car somewhat of a break for him Bob he came out in front of Bill Elliott had moved away from Elliott a little bit and so now he's only one lap down and Morgan Shephard and Rusty Wallace was out in front of Bill Elliot when this caution came out so they got one of their laps back as well let's go down to Dick Beren quickly well then it does in fact appear that the only problem with Dale Jared's car came from the right front tire which was produced by the fenders sticking into it because after they changed it we've seen no more smoke when they took the tire off it was badly damaged it's a tough break because he did lose those laps but at least he proved he can definitely run in the front in this league if he can run in the front here at over he can run in the front R it anywhere well you're right despite the fact of where he finishes today it will be a very good day for Dale Jared we'll watch some action as the cars came out of the pits area from uh that most recent time Davy Allison and Jeff Bodine and this occurred after they had come out of the pits I was watching this as the cars uh actually left their pit down Pit Road and there was a little bit of contact between the two cars on Pit Road and then when they got out on the the track they had some more contact so we're under caution once again at Dober Downs International Speedway for the 8 time this afternoon on lap 329 we have 169 laps to go in the Delaware 500 Bill Elliot is the leader dard second Jeff bdy third Dave Allis in fourth and Kyle peny is in fifth Delaware 500 live this afternoon on ESPN from Dober Downs International Speedway in Delaware next weekend we begin some Sports activity for you on Friday night at 9:00 eastern time the 10 round featherweight bout on Top Rank boxing involving myON Taylor and Alberto mercardo that's next Friday the 23rd at 9:00 eastern time and then next Sunday we'll all be at Martinsville Virginia for the goodies 500 Winston Cup race the defending Champion is darl Waltrip and uh Believe It or Not Bill Elliott has never won a race at Martinsville D erard and rosty Wallace both have won at that location it's the first time we've been at Martinsville for several years we did a race there I think back in 1981 maybe but we'll return there for the goodies 500 next Sunday afternoon live at 12:30 eastern time and we hope that you will be with us and boy that is always a lot of good close you talk about contact yeah we'll see if this is a contact sport when we get to Martinsville next week yeah I guess uh you can hardly tell one car from the other everybody that starts out with a red car or a blue car uh certainly doesn't have all the colors when that uh race is over at Martinsville there's a look at Rick Wilson as he gets set to uh stand on the throttle and get back into race competition looked like he was just looking over to the driver beside him and sort of grin and said I'm going to get you when we take off all right so the field coming off of corner number four now you can see Rick getting ready to ship gears and stand on the accelerator the green flag is displayed and we are back to racing and Bill OT has the lead now kale erard is in second position with Jeff Bodine third navey Allison fourth and the 21 car of Kyle Petty running in fifth position number 44 car of Sterling Marlin you can see there ahead of Dale Jared separating first from second he is not on the lead lap but Dale erard will try to pass him here and have clear sailing between himself and the leader Bill Elliot you know we saw DAV and Allison and Jeff Bodine pull out of the pits together and they were really Racing for position but then Davy seemed to have fallen back just a little on the restart there's Jeff right behind Dale Earnhart Davey should have should be right in the middle of this race with the Dale Earnhardt and Sterling Marlin and Jeff Bine but he seems to have falling back a little he may have hurt his alignment a little bit when he bumped Jeff Bodine under the caution it appeared to us as if Bodine might have suffered the most serious damage because there is a huge tire mark on the right side of bodine's car but instead it looks like they Allison may have suffered the greatest damage in that little incident with Jeff oine as Jeff tried to pull alongside Sterling Marlin there unable to do so now here comes Jeff back on the low side of the racetrack I've noticed excuse me uh after each restart that Jeff foot iron's car has been strong for 68 or 10 laps and then it starts to go high as we saw it earlier course I'm sure that they've been making adjustments on that car during each caution period pit stop so maybe he won't have that problem this time but he's always fast from the green flag start the race you know that contact we saw or the Collision really on the backstretch during the caution flag with Davey Allison and Jeff Bodine well the Davey's left front tire bumped up against Jeff's right rear tire well the rear suspension on these cars is a lot stronger than the front suspension the the rear axle housing is a real it's like a beam axle the front suspension is a lot more fragile Davy could be suffering from a tow out or some kind of front suspension alignment problem now we see is Jeff's Car beginning to go high in the turns again as we noted just a moment ago first few laps with new tires on he can stay down on the inside of the racetrack and he made severable passes but as we see him going in the turn he's right back up in that high Groove again of course it seems to be working pretty good for him but he doesn't run quite as fast up there as he did when he had the brand new tires Zone was running lower and a little bit of Tire smoke evident from that car on occasion there's the interval between first and second position Dale Earnhart of course went a lap down early in the race a little smoke that's Tire smoke coming from his car he went in that corner pretty hard and as he started off turn two you saw that tire smoke coming from his car that's something he doesn't want to do because uh they he'll heat those tires up too much if he abuses them too much and gets too much smoke coming from them Dale nhart second in Winston Cup points is it the same running for the point points lead as it is say running for fifth or 10th H it is really you just go to each race trying to win races and uh you win in races and points is going to come so that's the basic thing we've done uh for the last two years is go try to win every race we went to and uh finish the best we can so you in points is going to come along with it you think seven races is a short distance to go and you look at the points and say well it's got a Bill's got a pretty good lead but that could change in One race it's like didal with Rusty and Richmond so you know you can't never count Jens for that well it is interesting that the leader in Winston Cup points is leading this race and second in Winston Cup points is second in the race unfortunately the third place uh individual in the Winston Cup points Rusty Wallace has had U not a very good race and will certainly lose more in his quest for the Winston Cup title the resty has run good here today Bob but he's had some unscheduled pit stops green flag pit stops which cost him a lap each time and it's he's just been playing yeah he's in 12 position right now only a lap down but uh Rusty does have a long way to go spin two car down to the inside of the race track we can't see there it is Eddie bewell in car number 23 has spun to the uh inside of the racetrack in corner number two and it'll bring out our ninth caution of the afternoon Eddie moving around looked like he was trying to get the car going but it you can see his left arm forward on the switches that's a starter Button he's trying to get the engine to start up again I don't think he hit anything we'll see if we can tell well he's down on the inside it looks like of Dave Marcus's car and the back end just Breaks Loose as he comes around and there's the Brad TIG car number 67 going by him and he almost gets it straightened out and then it goes down on the inside he has the wheels locked and just pulls are right down there in the dirt so a little bit contact there with a Dave Marcus car here come several in for pit stops including Dale nhart dick Berwin can report on this they're going to put some scuffed tires on Dale erhard's car they've got nobody down here that's running tires in for them as is the case with Phil Elliott but they got a pit full of scuffed tires anyway hard to say where they've come from they're not going to exactly say herard has the front pit that is the advantage as the best possible place to fit but Jeff Bine is going to beat him out herard is going to follow and many pars is in the middle nhart moving back out several others remain on Pit Road however Daryl Walter is still in so is the 21 car of Kyle Petty and the 28 car of Dave Allison but there is Jeff Bodine who did pick up a spot in this uh Shuffle out of the pit area Bill Elliott chose not to come in that time let's see if he does this time doubt if he will we're seeing three different strategies by the first three cars the leader did not pit at all the second place car Dale ear got four tires on the pit stop and the third place car at Jeff Bine got two tires on a pit stop so that shuffled everything around that's going to make it interesting on down the line into the race we'll see who has the advantage in all of that when we come back in just a moment to our live coverage of the Delaware 500 347 laps are completed and we'll be right back Bob Jenkins Ned Jarrett Gary Nelson Larry nber Jerry punch and Dick Beren back at Dober Downs International Speedway as we go back to green in the Delaware 500 349 laps completed Bill Elliot and number nine leads the race and Jeff Bodine and number five is in second position now Dale nhart came in for a little bit of a Splash and Go that has put him in the tail end of the field he's trying to move up through the traffic and get back in a competitive position but it is Elliot and Bodine now that are very close and again the strategy Elliott did not choose to come in that time time Jeff took in took on uh two new tires but I can imagine what was going on in the pitch you know Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Bodine racing close on the racetrack and then Dale Earnhardt's crew seeing Jeff Bine leaving the pits and saying wait a minute nobody beats us out of the pits they apparently dropped the Jack too soon before all the lug nuts were tight Dale erard had to come back in the pitch while it was still under caution that put him way back in the pack he has however gotten back up to third position and baby out there and car number 28 is in fourth the fifth held by Kyle Petty sixth is Marlin seventh is Mike Alexander eighth is Phil Parsons ninth is J Dale Jared 10th is uh Neil Bonnet in 11th position is Morgan Shepard and in 12th position is Rusty Wallace those drivers are one lap down well toward the end of the race we're going to be announcing the Goodyear Eagle driver of the race and Goodyear will be giving $1,000 Winston Cup wives Association in that driver's name and we will be announcing that in just a few moments just out of the hospital is Alan kwii who had uh a problem up in turn number two in the number 67 car driven by Brad Teague has apparently suffered a blown engine and is low on the racetrack down the backstretch let's go to Larry nber who is with Allen kwii as the yellow flag comes out Allan another yellow flag where yet to find out exactly the reason for this one you took a hard hit first of all are you okay yeah I'm fine you really had an opportunity to win this race today didn't you well Bill Elliott was pretty tough you know but we were just catching up trying to make up our lap from when we had blistered a tie earlier we made up our lap we were in contention we were you know I was having a pretty good race with erard there I think we were as good as anyone except maybe Elliott you know and who knows what would have happened but the xer Amo for Thunderbird was running great and we were just one of about 10 people at Blue today and ended up in the wall alen unlike many of the drivers you are also a car owner your feelings and your Reflections on so many tires being blown it's pretty hard to take you know I mean you know not only did it cost us a chance for a win or good finish in this race but we wrecked a race car in the process and it's not like this is the second week in a row it's been happening it's been happening all year long really a little bit disappointed that the tire companies can't get this solved by now that people are still crashing cars like this you know fortunately the cars are pretty safe and no one got hurt well all the leaders are taking this opportunity to duck into Pit Road indeed they are Larry there goes Bill Elliott out of the pits Davey Allison comes out so does Jeff Bine ahead of Davey Allison and others who are uh in the top 10 are also moving back out onto the racetrack we're going to try to contact Davey Allison here on the on the radio Davey this Bob Jenkins up at ESPN you got a copy yes M go ahead Davey last time in the pit stops there was some contact between you and Jeff on Pit Road and also on the racetrack first of all why and secondly uh we noticed your car dropping back after that did you have some damage to the car no Bob uh as I was leaving the pitch Jeff pulled out in front of me and I was going too fast to stop and we hit on Pit Road so I pulled back up beside him to say something to him about it you know just to ask him to give me a little little room and as I did I think he was going to warm up his tires and we hit down there in the first turn but uh you know it wasn't anything intentional and the only think the only reason the car has been dropping back has been because the tires just haven't been working out right for us in the last couple sets but we think we got a good set on us H Thunderbird now and we want to go out here and try to get back up closer to the front can you beat Bill Elliott he's certainly been the fastest car all day have you been able to ascertain just how strong he is well as of this point we've been running some lap times at certain times during the race that were equal to his best lap so we don't know if we can beat him or not right now but we're going to sure give it a try all right Davey thank you we'll let you go back to work good luck the rest of the race well thank you Bob and I'd like to say hello to my dad and my mom back home and all the family and tell them we'll be there to see them tomorrow all right and we say hello to your family also in Alabama as they are watching this race I'm sure on ESPN and seeing Davy still very much in the thick of things right right now shown in fifth position less than 150 laps to go in this afternoon of Winston Cup racing from do Delaware still under caution at do and a very relaxed Dale Jared is uh trying to uh stretch the muscles and relax just a little bit before we go back to green and Rick Wilson is also uh relaxing here as we are still under our 10th caution period of the day Davy Allison has come in again and we talked to him just a few minutes ago and he said there was no problems with the car but indeed the crew is working on the left side of that car to possibly Bend out the sheet metal you know they said that uh they didn't have a problem or Davey did but I bet you after that four tire stop they just made they probably saw a real shiny area on one of the tires that means the tire was rubbing but not enough to smoke so they it looked to me like they were hammering on the left front fender trying to just get a little more Assurance yeah be S rather be safe than stop sorry especially after what we've seen so far today well there are only five cars in the lead lap and he certainly will stay in the lead lap Dale nhart is leading the race for the first time today I believe very important situation for him because it gives him five Winston Cup bonus points sure is nice to see Harold Kinder back in the starter stand as he gives them the one more lap to go signal Harold of course missed some races uh during the year because of some surgery on his finger but he's back in the starter stand and it's good to see him once again there and Bob speaking of surgery let's say hello to shorty Edwards in catala North Carolina who's the tire expert on the Junior Johnson Budweiser team shorty has had a tough time the last month or so he had back surgery about a month ago and then week before last he had to have back surgery again and uh he been uh been down so sure to get well quick let's go to Jerry punon the pits where're with Tony Price Tony why the extra stop a minute ago why'd you bring Davey back J uh he had a little contact with the five car on Pit Road earlier and it it pushed the uh Fender in on the tire and we could see with the tire we took off that it was cutting the fender was cutting the tire so we decided to bring him back in Beat the fender out and he should be in good shape Gary Nelson you should have been a doctor you diagnosed it perfectly going back to green and that was not a Southern accent from Tony Price way down south that's a New Zealand accent man okay he comes a field off the fourth Corner Harold Kinder waves the green we're back to racing Dale Earhart leads the Delaware five 100 now he's got a couple of cars ahead of him as they try to get some laps back including the uh number 27 car of Rusty Wallace and I believe that will put Rusty back in the lead lap won't it yes if he can get back in uh around Dale erard it would fit him back in the lead lap he was two laps down and he got by Bill Elliott earlier and the caution came out so he was able to get around Dale erard here so that's put him back in contention and the number 55 car Phil Parsons is also back on the lead lap wouldn't that be a feat if Rusty Wallace could catch a caution right now get back in the lead lap set up a finish with Dale Earnhart Bill Elliot and Rusty Wallace you know you can't count them out here at Dober so many things can happen you're absolutely right that would be quite a story we'll see if that does happen there is Elliot trying to move back up to the inside of Terry lebani and car number 11 and right behind him is the five car of Jeff Bodine Kyle Petty means while is right ahead of Bill Elliott there he is the number 21 wood brother sit go Ford he is in second this is the first time today that Bill Elliott really has been caught in traffic on the restart he's been up front all the time so he's having to to battle through there but didn't take him long to move around Kyle Petty did he well you know the pit stops got shuffled with those three quick cautions right in a row that we had and Bill Elliott finally said well maybe there won't be many more caution they can't keep up so let me come in and get four tires while Dale nhart stayed on the track that time that was the re ver of what we saw just at the beginning of that round of pit stops so I think that Bill Elliott is setting his sights on Dale Earnhart now but the reason he is back there is because of the the shake up on the the out of sync pit stops and Elliot is really closing in on dayart now right behind him in the battle for the lead there are the first four cars now we focus in on the battle for the lead Elliot moves to the inside of herard down the backstretch they go side by side into three bill has a lead again boy does he show his strength now he this is the first time today that he's had to pass any of the front running cars he's been out in front and uh few few cars have passed him and got their laps back but when the time came that he needed to go he did it you know back a while ago when Bill Elliott let it almost appeared that he let Bale erard get his lap back I was questioning the uh that move should he have really raced him and kept nhart a lap down now I can see the confidence that Bill Elliott has in his car he he just took the wind out of these guys sails as he went by them all you know they they were all getting a spark of encouragement Here Comes Bill Elliott and just blows them away Kyle peny is dropping back a little bit as a number five car of Jeff Bine has moved to third now and the 21 car of Kyle Penny drops back just a little bit certainly Jeff Bodine is not out of the uh out of the race by any means you know there's two cars we haven't talked much about today that is Jeff Bine and Kyle Petty they're both been right there but they haven't been leaders they've just been inside of the leader now later and later in the race we're seeing more and more of those two cars so they may be contenders here on into the race well jary punch has talked to Ernie Elliott who's Bill ellot Crew Chief and uh Gary what kind of confidence do they have down well D they're pretty confident here in the C pit in fact Ernie sitting here watching his brother Bill clocking him lap by lap they come by and when you consider how dominant bill is has been here you remember they destroyed their good car here early in the week let's ask Ernie a little bit about what's going on and Ernie you got to feel pretty good the car seem to be running so well you're pretty confident about what's going on today well you know you can't ever be too confident here I mean that yeah know cars a One race this year from 10 laps down with just a few laps to go so you know you just got to run the race not worry about it hope you make it Elliot Rusty Wallace come sliding by and Rusty Wallace will make an unscheduled stop let's go have to Nick B Nick well jerz is off in the case here today unscheduled stop due to tires they're going to change the tires on the right side of Rusty Wallace car hope that's going to help him run a little bit better well on the last couple of races if Rusty Wallace had uh bad luck that he has experienced last week with the crash and today just as he was back on the lead lap the car developed a tire problem and there you can see Bill Elliot going around him and putting him two laps down now so Rusty Wallace has just had one problem after another here this afternoon there is Elliot the leader Dale Earnhart runs second Jeff Bodine is third Kyle Petty fourth and Davey Allison fifth those five cars are still on the lead lap back at do where pit stops are being made again because we are in another caution period the 11th of the afternoon we'll show you why in just a moment let's right now show you Bill Elliott's Pit Stop they're changing four tires on that car he's on the top dard is on the bottom of the Richard children's crew also changing four tires on the dayer heart machine there goes Bill Elliot pulling away as they continue to work on Dale nhart and he now moves away from Pit Road and here is the reason for the yellow it is Morgan sheeper in car number 88 a big puff of smoke from that car I don't think he hit the wall but he uh something happened mechanically with that car evident the engine let go you can see a lot of smoke from the car and he just drove it high up out of the racing Groove up next to the wall a very cool and smart move by Morgan Shepard to move up on the outside of the racetrack and you can see the smoke continued to Bell from the car so apparently the engine did let go on the Red Baron pizza o mobile Morgan Shepard did not lead a lap today but he has led for five different car owners this year Tom Winkle himself the uh 33 car also is's LED in the 75 raymok car and he has led races in this particular car that's owned by Buddy Baker so his car is being pulled off of the RAC track and now we'll take another break and be right back for more in a moment 125 laps to go the field down the backstretch uh under caution but we will be going green this next time around as the field begins toh get into its restart formation and Bob again a caution has been to the benefit of one driver fil Parsons in this case he was in front of Bill Elliott when the caution came out so that has put him back in the lead lap we now have six drivers in the lead lap Bill Elliott the leader second place is Dale Earnhart Jeff Bine is third 28th car Davey Allison is fourth Kyle peddy and mfi Carsons and they come down for the green flag that's Sterling Marlin ahead of Bill Elliot on the racetrack in the high Groove however Sterling is uh also not on the same lap as Bill Elliot Elliott leads that's Jeff Bodine in the yellow car in second position and Dale nhart is in second now and car number three boy as he tries to get the lead away from Bill Elliot heavy traffic here in the third and fourth turns three of bre racing and by [ __ ] D erard comes out in the lead I'll tell you if you don't believe that fell has all kind of guts I mean you just put him in a race car and drop a green flag and he'll go what a look look at the second place battle Jeff Bodine and Bill Elliot and Bodine has second now as Elliot is caught behind by Mike Alexander Here Comes Bodine to the inside and Elliot looking here's a car spinning down on the inside let's see if that's Davey Allison it looks like another car into the wall up on the outside that's Phil Parsons who has cracked the wall coming out of turn number four believe jarett's in in that as well I think it was Dave Allison that got sideways on the low part of the racetrack yeah Dale Jared is also involved in the crash he's moving down the straightaway as Phil Parsons moves through the p pit area here it is from Dale's incar camell watch ahead okay there's Terry lebani slowing down and Dale might have touched him just a little bit and here is Phil Parson hitting Dale Jarrett and Phil spinning around in front of Dale Jarrett and Jarrett runs into him and down on the inside Davey Allison was Crossways I guess just trying to get by all of them lot of cars involved in that a lot more than it looked like just from the first View and here it is from the outside of our in our [Music] camera watch behind Bill Elliot there it is as dve Allison you see he lost it down on the inside of the the racetrack and I guess other cars slowed down behind them and that's what started Phil Parson spinning around and then Dale Jared hitting him and there you can see Dale who is uh unstrapping himself and getting out of that car a tough break you can see the uh smoke and the oil on the windshield of that car as Dale climbs out of his car well it's been a very good afternoon despite the way it ends it's been a good day for Dale Jared dick let's talk with him well climbing out of the smoke and steam Dale Jared until just a few moments ago it looked like you might have been the winter yeah I tell you this Hardy zo mobile really ran good today give a lot of credit to my crew Elmo Langley and the guys had me a good race car uh we got a little fender Banger there with in the pits with Allen Cole Wicked got us a lap down but we still had a good car and we started getting an overheating problem now I was just having to take it easy and and somebody got into Dave Allison up there and I went high and then somebody hit me and knocked me into the wall so what we thought might be a good day turned out not so good it's giving out to the driver too he's done a great job today Bob yes he has indeed but it appears to be all over now for Dale Jared now let's watch it again from the incar camera and listen to the noise we'll just uh be silent here as you watch and listen [Music] you can almost feel it Ned yeah you really can now you can see Dave Allison's car spinning sideways up ahead of Dale and then uh of course uh he he tapped the car number 11 of Terry labani but that didn't do any damage to either of them then Phil Parsons came on the inside of him and as they had slowed down Phil came on the inside and hit Dale and spun in front of him and around they went and into each other and into the wall so no injury there to Dale Jarrett but he sure was bounced around in that car a lot as he got into the wall as did Phil Parsons but both of at least Parsons is still in this race we'll be right back still under caution at Dober Downs our 12th caution period of the afternoon let's take a look at the top 10 as we have them right now the the leader is Dale nhart Jeff Bodine is second Bill Elliot third then Davey Allison and Kyle peny in sixth position is Sterling Marlin in seventh is Phil Parsons now Marlon is back on the lead lap Mike Alexander is eighth Neil Bonnet is ninth and Rusty Wallace is in 10th position well okay we've got uh let's see7 laps to go Ned who is going to win the Delaware five the world yeah I noticed that uh and how can you go against anybody but Bill Elliott as dominant as that car has been here today so he's he's my pick all right Gary well Ned since you took Bill Elliott I'm GNA have to go with Dale Earnhart I think Dale Earnhart has shown a lot of potential he's getting his car better and better let's go to Jerry punch and see what he has to pick well with six of the last seven races here being won by a Ford I'll pick a Ford just three the top five for Fords right now but I'll go with Bill Elliot I'm also going to go on that shortly I'm Elliot my P okay uh the green comes back out but uh we will uh watch the restart dick bergren JS I'll tell you how I can pick the winner I'm standing in Earnhardt's pit and nobody in their right mind would argue with these guys if you're standing here I'm going to go with Dale erard Larry Newber who do you think's going to win oh dick I think that Dale erard has been holding back something all day long I think there's more left he's very tenacious he wants to win here where he's never won before well it's seems like uh that uh we have a split opinion between Bill Elliott and Dale nhart what did you say oh we're waiting Bob uh Bill Elliot although I I don't count Jeff Bodine out of this thing completely he's been up there all afternoon I'm going to say Elliot but my second pick would be Jeff Bodine here comes a f off the fourth quter and Bill and rather Dale herard is the leader at the moment with with Bodine in second position Mike Alexander is third in line and fourth in line there is the number 83 car of lakes speed well let me clear this up Bob now you no no no no no no Bill Elliot is going to win okay but I like je but okay we'll watch and see it's going to be very interesting I tell you yeah it is Benny Parsons is in the pits with the hood up on his car Denny's been having a pretty good run here today but apparently something going wrong with his car here comes Bill Elliot now he doesn't seem to be moving moving through the traffic quite as fast as he has in uh previous times I believe he's just biing his time he's not going to to rush through that traffic he has already passed every car on the racetrack at least one time and uh he says uh I'll just take it s e here not taking any unnecessary chances he's got one more pit stop to make if this thing goes green the rest of the way he's going to have to stop one more time so will everybody else and so he's not going to abuse that car too much at this point that's Davey Allison by the way on the far right side of your screen there behind and Ricky Rudd in number 26 but you know just when that caution came out with Davey Allison spun and by the way dve Alison is right back in the thick of it again but just before that caution came out we saw some real jocking for some position really hard racing going on and I think everybody said all the crew chiefs have probably talked to these drivers and said look it's not over yet you guys are trying way too hard you know just kind of fall into a position that's comfortable and let's start racing with about maybe 50 laps to go instead of 120 laps to go now there is Rusty Wallace in Number 27 he has gotten one lap back he is still one laap down he is shown however in eighth position it's been an uphill struggle all afternoon for Rusty Wallace that's for sure well he had gotten two laps down once before had just got back in the lead lap then had to make another unscheduled Pit Stop went two laps down then the caution came out that he got back in front of the leader once again picked up one of those laps so boy he has really been battling and that's the characteristics of of Rusty Wallace he's a hustler what an uphill struggle for not only for Russy he's I'm sure going to be very tired at the end of the day the crew too they're hustling you we saw Barry doson burning his hand trying to put the SP spark plug wire back on all the problems they've had it really takes a toll on everybody you know fatigue is one of the biggest things we think about in the pit area late in the race the drivers aren't near as sharp as they were at the beginning of the race everybody's tired we're trying to find stuff tires to put on the car everybody's ready running around trying to make sure your C stays in contention getting B laps back it's a struggle all day and everybody is going to be completely worn out at the finish here Rusty Wallace has won twice this year in Winston Cup competition there is Davey Allison who has won one time this year just last week in Richmond the lead up front is held by Dale nhart in number three there's Jeff Bodine in the yellow and white number five Levi Garrett Chevrolet in second position but there is Bill Elliott and he has moved through that traffic now and is closing in on Jeff Bodine that's the number 12 car of Mike Alexander that is between Bodine and Elliot Here Comes Elliot though as he moves to the high side of Alexander in the thir third turn and Alexander isn't giving that position away from Jeff bod no his car is uh working good right now bod's car seems to still have a tendency to go up a little bit and Bob you said that dve had won One race let's gave him the race at Michigan a little bit earlier too he has two to his credit so far this year all right and there is Elliot now who has gone in the second position passing Jeff Bodine and so now there is a car between first and second Mike Alexander however Elliott is beginning to close in once again on Dale nhart Elliot has just sort of bited his time coming up through that traffic not taking any unnecessary chances whatsoever we're putting the clock on Bill Elliot to see how fast he is running as he's running in traffic pulling up on Mike Alexander there now but he's not pushing that car to its full ability at all timing to lap to get an idea of how fast the pace is at this point crosses the line stops the clock in 25.3 seconds now if you clock him the next time around he'll be going faster because he has moved around mik Alexander who was holding him up a little bit and now clear sailing between Elliot and D Earnhart that really was a good lap time this late in the race I was really surprised I think more and more rubbers going down into the racing surface and causing the cars run faster and faster that that was a good lap time for this l in the race now we're timing Dale erard to see how his lap Compares with that of Bill Elliot now I got my stopwatch going on Bill Elliot so we'll see just how they do compare on this same as they circle around the racetrack nhart running a good line now in off the fourth corner nhart will stop the clock in 25.9 seconds what' you getting in 2587 so not too much difference in the speed of the two cars yep just about the same well dick bergren is down in the pit area with a guy who's had another very good race he had an extremely strong race in Darlington had a good one here today Benny Parsons yeah it's been a while since he's won but Benny Parsons is still one of the most popular drivers in the spe field Benny what happened which put you out something happened to the clutch did I they had a restart I shifted a third gear and there wasn't anything there uh I dropped in high and it would accelerate a little bit but the but the uh thing would P would slip I just had to stop what do you think about the leaders Benny who looks best to you I never saw them all day who is the leader I mean I was back there in a race with five or six cars all day that's all I ever saw I would make a pitch stump and I'd come out right with him again as Betty Parson's in the garage area he's going to watch the race along with the rest of us and find out for sure who's going to win this thing all right and at the moment Dale nhart is the leader with Bill Elliott in second position and there are exactly 100 laps to go 400 are complete in the 500 lap 500 Mile Delaware 500 we'll be back to resume our live coverage right after these messages the crowd is on its feet watching this tremendous battle for third position between Jeff Bodine in car number five and Davey Allison in number 28 Davey has made a real bid for this third spot here he's been underneath jeff9 for the last few laps Jeff is holding him off but I tell you Davey is right there and looking for that third spot and so it's Sterling Marlin who has gotten back into thick of they got back in the lead lap and so he's right there in the thick of that battle but meanwhile Bill Elliott has caught Dale Earhart yeah Bill Elliott closing in on Dale Earnhart you know the last time we saw Elliot go around Dale erard he just kind of blew by him this time it looks like he's taking a lot more time with him maybe this set of tires isn't quite as good on Elliot's car and maybe this set of tires is a lot better on Dale Earnhardt's car here we go again three car battle for third spot odine Davey Allison and Sterling Marlin in car number 4 four Davey Allison might have him this time yes indeed Davey has third position now Bodine back to Fourth Here Comes Sterling Marlo we have a crash Eddie beerall on the backstretch car number 23 he may have had some contact with the wall or another car because the right side of that car is a damage now they'll race back to the yellow Bodine pulls ahead of dve Allison now let's see who wins the battle for the top spot nhart retains it but we don't have a yellow evidently uh there's was able to get down out of the traffic and so we had no yellow that time so they just continued to race all right Pier whale is at the bottom of the racetrack making his way toward Pit Road he's out of uh the danger of anybody else on the track so no yellow and Allison has dropped two positions in that little exchange there well you almost saw Davey let off the gas when his crew said the yellow's going to be out there the wreck Davey let off the gas uh Jeff Bine and Shirley Morin shot right back by him now Marlon and Bodine are going at it we're trying to keep track of all the battles on the racetrack Marlin now to the inside of Bodine in turn number two and Sterling Marlin moves to third place here comes Davey though as you indicated Gary I think he just backed off because he thought there was going to be a yellow but now he says okay it's still green and here we go now the lead is being contested as Elliot is trying to take over the top spot from Dale erard where do you look on this face track there's action everywhere Bo there certainly is and Bill Elliot now has decided to make that move Earnhardt's car slipping a little high in the turns and Elliot taking advantage of it oh but he doesn't get the lead just yet as nhart battles right back on the outside here they come off with the fourth corner there door handle to door handle nhart does lead this lap which is lap 4009 and Elliot now decides to fall back into second position look at this though it's the 5 and 28 battle that's going on for fourth spot now as Sterling Marlon has nailed down third Davy Allison on the bottom of the race tracking Jeff Bodine high in this contest for fourth py now has just moved up right behind them so he's in the thick of that battle as well I can't believe the racing this late in the this is not over to see this kind of racing this way this is really I think it's it's you know so many cautions we've had today it's hard to imagine these guys this close this late in the race there is a fan in this entire facility that is not standing watching the battles on the racetrack here is Allison passing Jeff Bodine and Dave all Alison now goes to Fourth Allison has uh fought quite a bit of adversity here today himself we've seen him in two near spins but he didn't go around either time coming off of fourth turn he had a right rear tire go flat one time and got bumped one time and managed to hold on to the car without spinning completely around and they've continued to work on that halene Star Ford Thunderbird and got him in back in the thick of the battle now Kyle Petty trying to move on the inside of Lake speed lake is at least one lap down maybe a couple but Kyle running in the sixth position Jeff bodon running in fifth at the moment Kyle wants to get up there and get back on the leaderboard what what do you guys think Dave Allison's had two half spins today should we credit him with a one full spin or just yeah I guess you could yeah one two 9s equal one or whatever now we see uh Kyle Penny right behind Jeff Bodine uh Benny are you with us down in pit Central yes yes Bob Jenkins I'm here watching uh I've got about 100 yards I can see well I tell you we've seen some great racing out there now we've had apparently another incident as the yellow may come out again it's down the backstretch and the yellow flag is out we don't know who's involved at the moment there it is it's the number 10 car of Ken buard who has crashed and uh is against the inside wall on the backstretch you see him moving around in the cockpit apparently he's okay he's hanging up the goggles on the rearview mirror so apparently can't is okay but it does bring out another caution period our 13th of the afternoon we're 75 laps from the end I guess guys this could be considered the final fuel stop if we can go the rest of the way now on fuel yeah I think we're 85 laps from the from the end of the race right and we've completed 415 and yes they should be able to go the rest of the way as far as fuel is concerned there's The Bard Carr he was running in uh what 17th position when when he had this Misfortune where he's the top rookie Contender on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit this year he was having a good run it moved into the top 20 and had hung in there all day until he had this problem you know if I were the crew chief on any one of these contenders I would consider this I would treat this as if it were the last caution of the day I would put my best set of tires on the car right now and fill it up with gas let's go to Jerry punch in the pits Bill Elliot brings the course for down Pit Road Elliot on the top Dale erard on the bottom right side tires on the Dale erard car likewise same on the B Elliot car now the Elliot crew going to the left side ard's crew already on the left side of the car it'll be a race out of the pits this may be the final Pit Stop of the day left side tires already on the good R Chevrolet erard is down and Away Elliot car now off the Jackson erard will win the racing the pit and M Alexander will be the third car down Pit Road Here Comes D Allison out of the pits Jeff Bodine also leaving the pit area as what could be the last series of pit stops has occurred the record speed in this race is 12476 and before we had this most recent caution the average speed of this race 108. 601 it's a slow race and it's even slower now because of this 14th make that 13th caution period of the [Music] afternoon still under caution because of the Kim buard crash on the backstretch let's try to talk to Rusty Wallace here uh Rusty this Bob jcin you got a copy go ahead Rusty you have had uh adversity after adversity but on the other hand you have battled and scraped your way back uh how do you assess what's going on right now do you have a chance I got a chance we got a lot of laps left you know it's only lap 418 uh one lap down I'm sitting in a good position right now whenever he start a race I'll be in the inside Lane up front on Fresh tires and uh that's the way I got both mother laps back her H's pretty strong right now so I'll see what happen if I get this lap back this six time it might be looking pretty good let's hope have most of your problems involved the tires situation yeah really I've had a couple flat tires uh had a blister Tire the first of the race probably didn't have the car set just right you know and uh was pushing a lot but other than that yeah it's been TI related but I don't know if it's been good Year's fault or not okay Rusty uh back to work and we'll talk to you later hopefully and uh best of luck the rest of the way all right thank you very much let's try to talk to Mike Alexander Mike this is Bob Jenkins at ESPN you got a copy on me all right we'll try it again Mike Alexander this Bob Jenkins you copy me well apparently we can't get through to him but uh some good comments from uh Rusty Wallace there maybe we can uh we can contact Davey Allison Davey this Bob Jenkins again you copy yes Bob go ahead all right uh you're I assume set for the finish of the race providing we go the rest of the way on green uh can you win it well we feel like we've got a real good shot at it every time we get on a good set of tires caution comes out right away and we don't get to make any progress so uh you know right now we're on another good set of tires that we stay from the first of the race and we feel like we're in good shape for the end but there's a couple of guys up there that's pretty tough you know Dale Earnhart Bill Elliot both are real tough competitors and also Rusty Wallace and Jeff Bo on Davey this has been a Ford racetrack in previous years uh would you think that Elliot or nhart uh are the strongest at the moment well uh I think it's pretty even between all five of the top five cars right now and I it'd be kind of hard to pick a favorite for the end all right we'll let you go and wish you the rest of luck the rest of the way yellow is still out with 70 make that 80 laps to go as 420 have been completed here at Dober once again the green flag has just gone out and racing is resuming the field moving through the first and second Corners as down the backstretch we see that Rusty Wallace is at the moment on the lead lap and he's still trying to hang on to that but Dale Earnhart with would like to put him a full lap down but Rusty stays right in there and stays for the moment on the lead lap Sterling Marlin has been black FL let's go to Dick Beren well apparent Sterling Marlin was brought into the pit area here they had black flagged him for a penalty boy I'll tell you talk about a erors they really had problems they had come in earlier on the caution flag for tires they didn't have any went out inherited the lead then they were looking for their tires then he changed the tires it could have been his race not today Bob all right three cars battling for the lead here two especially Earnhart and Elliot Elliot has the lead on the outside of the racetrack second is nhart and third is Jeff Bodine Mike Alexander is also in the thick of things in car number 12 okay he looked awfully strong just before that last caution came out when nhart and Bill Elliot were battling for the league Mike Alexander was right there trying to get his lap back now he is one lap down but he has really been strong here in the last 100 miles and so Benny Parsons has dropped out of the race he's joined us though in pit Central Benny this is not a typical DOA race as we've talked about first of all we had the early Tire problems that no one anticipated and to see the action between these guys this late in the race is really unusual for this place this is unbelievable I tell you I've never seen a Dober like this and I don't care where you're talking about you're talking about first or for the race for 10th it seems like they're all running absolutely the same speed yeah we had a great battle going on for the lead about uh 15 or 20 laps ago there was also a great battle going on for third position but right now Bill Elliott is showing the way and I'll tell you it' be awful hard to choose against him we asked everybody on the broadcast team a little while ago who they thought were going to win now that you've had a chance to uh watch a little bit of the race who do you think has got the strongest car out there it looks like right now Bill Elliott but listen Rusty Wallace has made up you told me a moment ago three laps today so if he can make up three laps he is a car to be reckoned with we're watching uh Rick Wilson from the Inc car camera go behind the wall because of apparently an overheating problem they've been trying to cool off the engine of that car for quite some time but he apparently has given up and is back in the garage area so the Kodak number four C given by Rick Wilson is out of the race yes Bob Jenkins the car was running as he went by me but there was water coming out the Overflow it was an overheating problem here comes the number three car of nhart battling with Mike Alexander not for position though Dale is just simply trying to uh put Alexander behind him so that he'll have clear sailing between himself and the leader Phil Elliot but now nhart slipped just a little bit and Alexander pulls away just a little let's go to Larry nber quickly for some comments on this almost a question for Benny Benny I've heard from three car owners in the last 15 minutes who said we are only comfortable going 35 or 40 Laps on a set of tires now everybody has enough fuel to go the distance but do you suppose if we stay green that everybody will go to the end on the set of tires they have right now they will try it now whether or not they can make it or not that's another thing but they will try it uh the question I've got for you guys has Bill Elliot had any tire trouble today uh no as a matter of fact I nothing major early in the race he he had uh some blisters on the outside in fact the first set of tires that he took off of the car but since then we have not seen any kind of Tire problems on this car did you Benny have Tire problems during your race yes I did I had um I blistered uh one time I stopped in both right sides were blistered the right front and the right rear so uh you know when you have a situation like that there's not too much you can adjust you just put another set on and hope that you can feel it when it happens and fortunately the the two times I did have a problem with tires today I failed and made a pitch down now we see Jeff Bodine in car number five and Davy Allison in car number 28 they're separated by a little bit of racetrack but uh they are running in third and fourth position and those Tire problems Benny were a surprise to us were they a surprise to you we didn't see evidence of a tire problem during practice or qualifying you're right there was never any uh for warning that we was going to have Tire problems the temperature was cool the wear was good I really don't know exactly what happened but but I don't know if you guys G if ESPN gives award for uh the greatest driving job or whatever but I was behind Dave Allison about 50 laps ago and Let Me Tell You Folks I don't if you got to see it on the screen or not but he had the little fell about 90° sideways and saved it unbelievable yeah we do give an award for driver of the race so we'll consider that as your candidate for such an honor thank you well Benny this is Gary Nelson in the booth you know this week you and I were had a chance to test a vibration tester down in Atlanta while we were doing some testing and I think this would be a really good place to to have one of those don't you oh it'd be terrific especially you know you feel a problem and you don't know exactly what it is and you know when you know there's Tire problems going on you're an idiot to stay out there but yet when you stop and there's nothing wrong the crew says you're an idiot so you've really got a problem and when you you don't know if the vibration is severe enough to come in that indicator that you had would have told me hey I do have some chunks out of this right front it is it's vibrating bad enough to set off this machine that means I got to go in the pitch Gary is this something that NASCAR is looking at as we look at the leader Bill Elliott well we're just developing it this was our first real test with it in Atlanta what it is is four little red lights each one is marked for a different tire on the car right front right rear left rear and left front and when the rubber starts chunking off a tire or it equalizes it will turn on that light just from the extra vibration the driver may feel a slight vibration like Benny's saying and not be sure this light would tell you if you did have a problem very interesting there's second place Dale nhart and the leader Bill Elliot there you can uh see an indication of uh how much space separates the two Elliot moving to the outside and putting in lap on Sterling Marlin taking his lap back but Rusty Wallace is still ahead of Bill Elliott and therefore technically on the lead lap as there you can see Rusty coming out of corner number four ahead of Elliot now Elliot is gaining a little bit on Rusty but not a great deal Rusty is running his heart out right now hoping for a caution flag so that he can get back in the thck of this battle Elliot has driven away from Dale Earnhart who is running in second place but has not been able to catch up to Rusty and put him a lap down so Rusty would certainly like to see a piece of debris on the racetrack that would necessitate a caution that would allow him to iner ccle the entire Racetrack and be right up there for the win at the moment though it's Bill Elliot as we have completed 439 laps and we'll be right back there's a leader of the Delaware 500 Bill Elliott as he has a couple of second lead over Dale nhart third is Jeff Bodine fourth is Davey Allison and fifth is Kyle Petty and Jeff Bodine who was running in third place has dropped back DAV Alon has now moved into third bodine's car has slowed down and Gary it looks like he might have lost a cylinder or something it appears that it's something in the engine you know we don't see Tire smoke we don't really see anything but it is visibly running slower than it has been so I would say he's lost the cylinder he's not coming to the fence so he hasn't come to the pit so far so maybe Jerry punch in Jeff Bodine pits can update us well we're standing beside W Wilson and W the car seems to be smoking a little bit slowing down what's the problem we just went on seven cylinders you know we had tried to keep the car in the elad lap all day and tried to keep the BL cars and it's always in good shape but now we on seven cylinders so you know it's just a bad way to end the day you can hear it in white down Wilson boys the car 7 Z they tried all day to stay in the lead lap and now it's not going to not going to work that way for him these final few laps je beginning to drop back now as Elliot continues to run very very strong in that Kors Motorcraft Ford and he is now 55 laps away from the Checker FL Rusty Wallace right ahead of him trying vainly to stay in the lead lap and has done a good job of it so far he just needs a caution boy what muscle brusy really is showing some muscle today making up on lap with all the problems he now he is holding off Bill Elliott Elliott you know obviously not trying as hard as as it would be for the win right now but Elliot still isn't putting Rusty away like you would think he has let's go down to Jerry punch with a comment with a comment on the Russy Wallace you know I talked to Russy Wallace earlier in the week he said you know said we're in sort of a gunfight here this last few races on the point battle and so I've got to bring the best best race car I've got so basically what happened was we brought a cannon to a gun fight today this car won at Michigan 52nd at Darlington 52nd at Michigan and 52nd at Charlotte it has a win and three seconds it has not finished any worse than second this this year so we need to finish second or better here today well it's time of the year that you got to put your best foot forward no question about it I'm sure that they would like to have saved that car for the Oakwood Homes 500 Char North Carolina in a couple of weeks but uh now that he got in the point situation losing points last week at Richmond Virginia they just had to put their best shot out there well I'll tell you what there are so many drivers out on the racetrack that could win our driver of the race award let me mention just a few Rusty Wallace from battling back from many adversities Davey Allison who had a couple of near spins had the car completely sideways once and saved it you also got to think of Dale erard who didn't have a particularly good qualifying but he's in second position you got to also think of maybe Kyle Petty or Jeff odine but in our opinion the Goodyear Eagle driver of the race is Bill Elliott so good year will we sending a check for $1,000 in his name it will be from a very good driver to a very good cause and the reason that we've got to choose Bill Elliott he has just been in total command of this race really from the drop of the green play oh you're right Ned Bill Elliott you know there are a lot of candidates for that award it would be a tough decision it but Bill Elliott has dominated 100% almost of this race Bill Elliott has been a factor or been in the lead so yeah I AG and there is nhart who once again is side by side with Mike Alexander and he Mike Alexander just won't give up I mean he is hanging right in there there goes erard to the inside and and passing but there's another possible candidate for driver of the race Mike Alexander who's had a very strong performance yeah he's running in seventh position right now he that down as a result of a green flag Pit Stop about 200 miles or so ago and just hasn't been able to to make that lamp up but he has raced with the leaders since then doing a great job in filling the big shoes of Bobby Allison and I don't mean that Bobby Allison has big feet I mean that he is such a great race driver and those are big shoes to F yeah you know I think this stola brothers made a very very good choice in choosing Mike Alexander to fill Bobby shoes while he is away hopefully temporarily from the Winston Cup scene now we'll review the top 10 for you here with uh just about 50 laps to go in this one and we'll be back in just a moment closing laps of the Delaware 500 with Bill Elliott in the lead the number 27 carve Rusty Wallace is in sixth position on the lead lap but uh just by barely so Elliott is in the lead we're going to pan back here and give you an idea of who is still on the racetrack and hopefully tell you what position they are in behind Bill Elliot on the track as he goes into Corner number for one let's find out who is the next car behind him dard who's running in second place second position Dale erard and behind him is Mike Alexander and he currently is running in the seventh position although he is a lap down there's nhart there's still six cars on the lead lap Sterling Marlin now is coming into the pits with smoke coming from the pedmont airlines o mobile and behind the car number 12 is the 28 car of dve Allison who is currently running in the the third position so those three guys are running right together on the racetrack in contention for the second and third positions now behind Davy Allison is the number 83 car of Lake speed and lake is running in the top 10 in fact I think he's being shown in ninth position at the moment Phil Parsons has had contact with the wall up in quarter number four during the course of the afternoon but is still very much in the thick of things the number 11 car of Terry labat has not really been in contention for most of the afternoon but Terry is still out there on the racetrack behind him we have one of those running in the top five that is Kyle Petty who is currently in fourth position and next in line will be and it looks like Michael Walter has a problem up on turn four Ricky rud would be the next car in line out on the track we don't see a caution coming as Michael Walter dramatically slowed as he came off of turn four and here's Daryl walri he's had a lot of problems today but he's still out there in the ring including a badly cracked windshield and a couple of laps with the hood up on the car that he couldn't see anything and Terry Leon is in the wall down in turn one so Terry lebani brings out another caution period Here Comes Rusty Wallace down the straightway no yell yet Rusty was hoping for it and now the caution is out but Rusty is going to have to run hard all the way around because it the caution came out behind him yep now we don't know if there's any debris over there on the racetrack where he had his problems or not Terry leavon is down on the inside of the racetrack out of the way so Terry Rusty Wallace running hard to the start Finish Line he has really got the the pedal to the metal here he comes off the fourth corner I think he's going to beat Bill the flag yes indeed Rusty Wallace now is on the lead lap and Bill Elliot blew a tower just as he went across the start Finish Line he hit something and blew a tower on the C forward he didn't spin or anything like that but just as he went across the start Finish Line there was some metal there and he ran over it and blew a tower sounded like a cannon went off I mean that thing really exploded and so Elliott is slow on the racetrack but he'll be able to get back into the pit area and probably not lose a lap because of this but boy that could have been a very disastrous situation for Bill boy it should certainly could have been and he had to his heart had to be up in his throat about that time let's see what happens here Elliot obviously is going to come in for a pit stop to change that tire there it is the right rear here it is once again Ned okay as they race down the start finish with Rusty Wallace crosses and Bill Elliot cross just gets across the start Finish Line and runs across something and Wham that tire blows out on him he gets it down to the IDE of the racetrack and let's go to Jerry punch and his pits well they have to forcibly pick up the right side of the car and the right rear tires just absolutely shredded they roll it away and they have already changed the right side tires they're trying to pull that right rear fender away because along with cutting the to down it has fit the fender in somewhat T Ard is also in Elliot down four T chain and ard's car now at the Jack down Elliot will beat erard out and then of course the rest of the field moving back to turn one well we wonder about that move had only changing two tires doing heavy body repairs to that right rear quarter panel where the the fender had been pushed in maybe he'll come back in this time for left sides and more body work it looks like it might have just blown that Fender away there you can see the debris that he apparently ran over and caused that tire to blow so so real developments here it certainly isn't over until it's over we'll take a look at it once again Rusty wins the race to the stripe and just after he crossed the line Elliott runs over the met there you can see the metal that he actually ran over and the tire go and that spelled some problems for uh Elliot let's go to Jerry punch well this is Bill Elliot's right rear tire take a look at the damage here I mean a tremendous amount of damage but the Goodyear inliner this in inside tire is still is still pumped up and that's what allowed ot to come back around with minimal damage on the car a shredded right rear tire but Elliot fortunate enough to have the interliner he made it back to Pit Road let's go to Dick burer Jerry watch Dale Earnhart run faster right now he has just changed the right front right rear tires look at the right front it had a blister on it in fact there were several of them he ought to go a lot better now once the green flag comes out all right well we have seen Tire problems occur within about 30 laps and we have got 34 laps to go in this race we are under caution and we'll be right back to Dober the Delaware 500 from Dober Downs International Speedway being brought to you by Gates a trusted name in Automotive Products for over 75 years by Pontiac grandf free the 1988 Motor Trend Car of the Year and by Quaker State motor oil the big Q stands for Quality always has always will caution remains out as they continue to clean up the racetrack and there is the number five car we're not sure who's leading this race at the moment uh the scoreboard is showing Jeff Bodine as the leader in Bill Elliot second and that's what you think Ned well that's what I thought Bob because uh now that Jeff has pulled the inside I thought that he had stayed in the lead lap we had documented the fact that he had slowed down when he lost a cylinder but I thought he still he was just about to be laped by Bill Elliott before this caution came out but apparently he had been left one time before because he has pulled down to inside of the racetrack and Jeff Bine would not have pulled down to the inside had he not been La down let's go to the pits quickly for with Jerry punch well we are told that Jeff Bine is indeed the leader but the the chors crew has already come up talk to W Wilson said hey you guys are on seven cylinders so when the green comes out please pull down and let us come by and they said no no doubt about it we'll be down out of the way when the green comes out and Bill Elliot will take the green and we'll head back for it all right so a sportsman like gesture on the part of the Jeff Bodine team as he does indeed have a tough time getting up to speed as now now we watch up front and the battle for the lead now Bill Elliott is the leader with Dale Earnhart running in second then comes by dve Allison fourth place belongs to Kyle Penny and in fifth is Rusty Wallace and here they all come off the fourth corner I don't think you can count Rusty Wallace out of this race huh guys oh no no not at all the way he has fought his way back he's made up four laps so far here today and look at Kyle Petty move on the inside of Davey Allison taking over the third position yeah but Rusty Wallace is the one on the Move look at him go under dve he's already passed about four cars in the first lap since the restart yep back in the lead lap after all of this uphill climb all day he's back in the lead Lap In Contention Bill Elliot just turned that last lap at 25 and 31 seconds which is pretty quick as after 471 miles and that's about the same uh time that he registered what about 100 laps ago when we uh we timed it at that time also Rusty w now is in fourth position and uh dve Allison is back to fifth what do you think about Rusty's chances Benny he pretty impressive isn't he he has been very impressive Bob the only negative that I got to say about it in making the four laps up he was able to pull down on that inside Lane and pull up alongside the leader and it made it a little bit easier to pass right now Rusty Wallace has got to pass a lot of cars including nhart and Elliot he he's not going to pass him on the caution flag he has literally got to drive by him that's going to be tough yeah it certainly is but uh as you can see he's closing in now on Kyle Penny I think maybe Mike Alexander ran into a problem over there in the second Corner that car dropped low on the racetrack Maybe not maybe it was Bobby hillan Jr well Bobby Hillen Jr has had a lot of problems today he's been in and out with this he stayed out there but uh he has had a lot of problems now Bill Elliott has picked the pace up he turned the last lap in 25 and 810 seconds and pulling away 2585 this last time around Jerry that's moving around here this late in the race late in the race I think you know the thing about Elliot is he had a flat right rear tire just when he took the caution by but they only changed two tires Dale leard behind him and really falling back has four new tires so we're seeing a lot of muscle from Bill Elliott with two fresh tires and two hotter tires on the left side well apparently he has the left side of set of tires on there that he wants you made the comment when they petted at about 8 five laps to go that you would put on your best set of tires now assuming that the race would go the the balance of the way well probably Bill Elliot crew did put on their best set of tires and at least they left the left side on there and uh then the right side of course had to be changed when he blew out the yeah I think you're right about that Ned Elliot's crew has to have an awful lot of confidence in the left side tires there's what 24 laps to go but he's pulling away from Dale erard uh Kyle Petty is almost gaining a little little bit on Dale leard and he's bringing Russy Wallace along with him well Gary let's correct ourselves we have a report from jary Elliot did put on four made that tire change they worked a little while there on the right rear pulling that Fender away but they did go over and change the left side tires too so so all of what we were saying went out the window four new time they come down the straight there's first there's second D Earnhardt there's the interval between the two then back to Kyle Petty Rusty Wallace and Davey Allison those five very much in the race again we'll show you the separation between first and second Elliot pulling away just a little bit from Dale nhart as uh as both Kyle Petty and Rusty Wallace begin to close in on Dale you know the the funny thing or not really funny but the thing that really amazes me about that flat tire that Bill Elliott had was nobody saw the debris on the track it it just got there and once he ran over it it was obviously a big piece of metal maybe that had something to do with Terry laban's problem going into turn one maybe that came loose from his car and just started running down the racetrack and and Elliot didn't have a chance to see it order to make a correction let's go to Jerry punch one more time we mentioned that Bill Elliot came in and did make a four tire change the concern in the Elliot pit is this early in the race Bill Elliott was running sticker tires brand new tires that's when he had his only Tire problem the day when a right rear tire blistered theyve been running scuff tires for most of the afternoon when they made this final Pit Stop they had to go back and put on four brand new sticker tiles they are concerned because they remember 35 left in the race early on they blistered a s tire and they realize also that erhart put on S TI herard should be okay but they are quite a bit concerned here in the Kors pit well of course they had 35 laps to go when the green flag came back out actually a little less than that uh there was 3 six laps too when the caution came out so uh maybe he can stretch it that far now here are both Kyle Penny and Rusty Wallace catching Dale Earnhart this is second third and fourth right here nhart definitely losing ground to both Penny and Rusty Wallace and we may have a battle shaping up here momentarily for that second position Benny these guys have got to be wore out after uh almost 500 laps uh was it really straining on you out there it was Bob because the tires are sticking so well the cars are adherent to the racetrack so well that your neck and your back is taking uh a tremendous amount of punishment we were talking about Jerry punch made the report that Bill Elliot changed four tires and he's concerned I think n i you can see from up on top better than I but he's driving like he's concerned he squired out to a lead and he's not trying to pull away right now as a matter of fact I think ER he's letting nhart gain on him right now yeah I think you're right Benny he he pulled out there got himself a good lead and now he has slowed down about 4/10 of a second over what he was running when he was pulling away and just s are sitting there riding and I'm sure that he's watching his rearview mirror and also his crew is keeping up with what's going on telling him what's going on back there as far as the speed that those cars are running we'll get the interval This Time by as nhart comes along he's a second and a half behind Bill Elliot and he is actually gaining because he was a little over two seconds ahead just a few moments ago but I believe it is because that Elliot has slowed down not that erard has picked up well if you were thinking about going to the refrigerator for a call drink please delay that movement because you may miss a pass for the lead here Elliot definitely losing ground here and D ear Hart is closing in let's see if that it's about the same maybe just a tick of the watch uh more of an interval but nevertheless Dale nhart Kyle Petty and Rusty Wallace are definitely making a race out of it with Bill Elliott who has pretty much dominated this race from the drop of the green flag we'll be right back there are 12 laps to go in the Delaware 500 Bill Elliot is the leader Dale Earnhart is running second Kyle pedy is third Rusty Wallace fourth and Davey Allison is in fifth position coming up right after our live telecast of this race the Maryland million the day's the richest day on the racing calendar with a million dollars in purses and awards that will be be right after our uh coverage of this Indie this uh Winston Cup Race 10 laps to go next time and this has pretty much settled down now into uh a single file formation here as nobody is willing at the moment or perhaps unable to make a pass there's Rusty Wallace moving to the high side of Kyle peny in turn number four Rusty will indeed go into third place so maybe Rusty says I'm going to let it all hang out here and try to move up as quickly as possible now the first three on the racetrack are the first three in Winston Cup points boy that is amazing not especially Russy Wallace look at what he's gone through today now he's moved himself right into third place you're you're right Bob the three three point leaders are run run one two and three on the RAC trck evidently Kyle Petty has found felt a little bit of a vibration something he's slowed a little bit from what he was running he was challenging nhart there not to many laps ago for second place and now he's ready to dropping back to that he feels the tower sort of going away on him Davey Allison moves to Fourth and Kyle goes back to fifth there's the leader and there is the second group led by Dale nhart but the laps are clicking off Kyle peny is making a pit stop we understand a tough break for Kyle who ran so strong all day for the Wood Brothers but just here in the last five laps things go wrong with that sit go Ford and he comes in for a pit stop that is uh really going to spill disaster for him well they're going to the right side to change tires on the sitco Ford and so he must have had a tire that he felt was going down or either blistering or something in fact there was a good bit of heat on the right front of the tire as they took it off seven laps to go there is erard and Rusty Wallace and Davey Allison and there is Bill Elliott On The backstretch Well Elliott just after when he took the lead or after he was moving away from Earnhart he was turning about 24 and 8/10 seconds he slowed down to about 26 and 210 seconds now after he got out there in front slowed down by about 14 of a second conserving those tires if B Elliott wins it'll be his sixth victory of the year it will be his 29th career victory in Winston Cup competition boy this is really a Bill Elliot track I got to I got to think that you know it's a Ford track it's a Bill Elliott style RAC track uh he's he's been thinking all day pretty much stayed out of trouble that one slap uh all the other problems happening all around him but he's kept his uh car out of trouble he really looks like he's just kind of cruising right now with five laps to go I tell you we got to give another call to Jeff Bodine who is still in the lead lap he's in fifth place now after only thead lap running on seven cylinders here for about the last 75 or 80 miles he has kept that car in the lead lap and he's going to get a good finish out of it today four more laps to go one forther 496 have been completed Bill Elliot threatens to lengthen his lead in Winston Cup competition second place nhart is second and Rusty Wallace third place in Winston Cup is running third right now Elliot once again off the fourth quarter to complete lap 4973 to go if it winds up this way the way they're running Bob uh B Elliot would win would earn 10 more points than Dale Earnhart second place is 170 points first place is 175 but Bill has led the most laps so that would give him fiveo bonus as well so he got the same bonus to Leading that Elliot did but going into this race Elliot had a 117 point lead so he may be moving it up to 127 here they are side by side for third position as dve Allison is now making a challenge on Rusty Wallace and Rusty certainly doesn't want to lose that third position because it means valuable Winston Cup points Davy just a little bit squirly on the bottom side of the racetrack and has to give up that position once again to Rusty but Davy is certainly showing some strength here in the closing stages this time around it'll be the White Flag for Bill Elliott Harold Kinder displays it there it is the white flag one more lap to go for Bill Elliott and he'll have his sixth win of the 1988 season he moves through Corner number two and goes down the back back stret now for the final time he won here in the spring at do and is threatening to make it a clean sweep for 1988 Bill Elliott through Corner number three now Corner number four he's on to the main straightaway and Bill Elliott from Dawsonville Georgia wins the Delaware 500 second goes to nhart third was Rusty Wallace and fourth Davey Allison and Jeff Bodine will come home in fifth place in the lead left boy what a race Bill Elliott kept his cool all day long Dale Earnhardt really a lot of determination from his part because of all the aders adversary he face trying to regain those lost laps Amazing Race today and now Fords have won the last five races in a row here at Dober Downs International Speedway well it's been a long afternoon of racing and certainly Bill Elliott is going to be a very tired race driver when he comes to Victory Lane but will'll be there to talk with him in just a moment Elliot wins the Delaware 500 we'll be back to talk with him in just a moment we are back at over and there you can see Bill Elliott in Victory Lane as he unstraps the helmet and uh will now be getting out the earplugs he can hear Jerry punch who's right there with him Jerry what a day bill says to me as he takes the helmet off outstanding day Bill congratulations on a great run could you get much luckier than when the colle come out and the right rear blows out I couldn't man that's something else right there your heart had to skip a beat I mean did you did you feel the vibration in the car at all no the the car ran good all day long we didn't have that much Tire problems and you know that really surprised me I didn't know what the problem was but just as I cross the the start Finish Line there when the caution was out the right rear just blew out Welly that was luck cuz you know that put us totally out of the race if that happened during the race when you took the green on the final restart you pulled away to about 15 18 car then you began to sit there for a while and nhart was catching you were you just biing your time or was he actually running you down well I was letting him use his stuff up and I was just biing my time because I knew I had a good lead and there was no need of abusing it you know the car got just a little bit loose there at end but still the car ran good all day long I had you know other than that problem there with the right rear cut down you know the the mailing crew did a fantastic job getting me in and out of the pits and you know I got to thank Coors and Motorcraft and Ford for their involvement cuz without him I wouldn't be right here that's for sure Bill Elliott came to this track at 6:00 this morning and he told me he said I'm controlling my own destiny the decision I make this morning will determine what happens to me today and in the championship he made the right decision in Victory Lane against B Elliot and our goodye Winner Circle interview has been brought to you by goodye Eagle Tires good year because there really is a difference let's take a look at the top 10 finishers here this afternoon the winner was Bill Elliott finishing in second position was Dale Earnhart Rusty Wallace came home third Davey Allison fourth and Jeff Bodine finished in fifth position finishing in the sixth through 10th positions Kyle Petty was sixth Mike Alexander a strong show all day in seventh Neil bondet eighth Lakes speed ninth and Ricky Rudd was in 10th position now let's take a look at the unofficial point standings Elliot with 3548 Dale nhart with 3421 and Rusty Wallace at 349 so still we have a great battle as we head for Martinville next weekend and coming up next here on ESPN the Maryland million that will be live from Baltimore as our Budweiser racing Across America continues as we said next week we'll be in Martinsville Virginia for the goodies 500 Winston Cup race we hope you'll be with us and we also invite you to join us for Speed week this coming Thursday night at 7:30 where we'll wrap up all the racing activity from this previous week my thanks to Larry nuber Jerry punch dick Beren in the pit area Ned Jared in the booth and Gary Nelson in the booth and also Benny Parsons we'll see you later this is Bob Jenkins for now so long everyone