Friday, March 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
As far as accidents go, Steve Grissom's horrific crash-and-burn during Sunday's Winston Cup Primestar 500 at Atlanta was as bad as it gets.
The only thing more stunning was the report from the infield hospital, which was as good as it gets, given the nature of the incident. Grissom escaped the fiery, upside-down wreck with nothing more than a scratch on his ankle.
He could have gotten that while climbing out of the smoldering remains of his Kodiak Chevrolet, which looked like a mangled can of sardines -- minus the sardines.
Had Grissom been carrying sardines, they would have been scattered across the track, along with the rear half of his car. The fuel cell was torn away and ignited, after Grissom slammed into the inside wall backward upon being tapped by Mike Skinner during a chain-reaction melee.
It was the third frightening crash of the four-race-old Winston Cup season, Robert Pressley and seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt having walked away from wild, cartwheeling wrecks at the Daytona 500.
"(The cars) are safer now than they were two years ago, and two years ago they were safer than they were two years before that," said Winston Cup contender Bobby Labonte about the cars' ability to withstand a big impact.
"There's always going to be 100 things you can do to make it better. Every time somebody has a wreck like Steve Grissom did you think 'we can do this to be (safer).' There always can be improvements. Some of 'em are so far out there you can't do, and some are good ideas that you try."
Labonte, speaking Thursday during a break in practice for Sunday's Busch Grand National Las Vegas 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, said he wasn't surprised Grissom wasn't hurt, the severity of the impact notwithstanding.
"If you hit the right way, the car can be disintegrated and you can walk away," said Labonte, who will drive the No. 44 Shell Oil Pontiac in Sunday's race. "Had he hit head-on or had he hit sideways, it might have been different.
"Sometimes you see little wrecks, and people are hurt a lot worse than in spectacular wrecks like last week."
As safe as the cars are, luck also plays a part. Curiously, given the Busch cars are nearly as fast as -- and on restrictor plate tracks such as Daytona, even faster than -- the Winston Cup machines, nobody roaming the pit lane Thursday could recall a Busch driver having a wreck the magnitude of the recent ones in Winston Cup.
Highlight reel films aside, that's the way everybody likes it.
Backmarkers
Bruton Smith continues to tap dance around rumors that he is interested in adding Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway to his collection of major league race tracks. "I know these people, and I don't want to say anything that will adversely effect them," Smith told the Dallas Morning News, referring to LVMS president Richie Clyne and PIR owner Buddy Jobe. Clyne recently told the SUN that LVMS is not and will not be put up for sale. ... One of the proudest names in auto racing history is planning a return to the sport, as Duesenberg Racing has revealed plans to contest the 1998 Indianapolis 500. Duesenbergs won the 500 four times during the World War I era. ... Shell Oil has announced a new three-year contract extension with CART's Team Rahal. Bryan Herta is in his second season as driver of the Shell Reynard-Ford. ... CART champion Jimmy Vasser of Las Vegas, upon pulling 7.6 Gs during his flight with the Navy's Blue Angels last weekend: "It's hard to put into words, but it's definitely the most phenomenal experience I've ever had in my life." Vasser said the most Gs he has pulled in his Target/Chip Ganassi race car is four. ... Tony Stewart and John Paul Jr. posted testing speeds of 216.080 and 214.485 mph, respectively, at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week. Those speeds, attained in the new Indy Racing League cars, are about 25 mph off last year's Indy 500 pole-winning speed. ...
Robbie Buhl will drive the second Team Menard entry on this year's IRL circuit, replacing Mark Dismore. ... Twenty-two car-driver combinations are on the entry list for next weekend's IRL Phoenix 200. ... All seven 1997 SCORE International off-road events will be televised by Fox Sports West in a magazine-style format called "SCORE News." The show will air the third Sunday of each month at 8:30 a.m. ... ESPN's first Winston Cup telecast of the year, the March 2 Pontiac Excitement from Richmond, was watched in 3,752,000 households, an all-time record for an ESPN auto racing telecast, according to the A.C. Nielsen Co. ... With his victory at Tucson, Ariz., two weeks ago, Ron Hornaday Jr. became the first driver to win in each of the three NASCAR Craftsman Truck seasons. The NCTS has drawn a whopping 57.5 entrant average for its four most recent races, one of which was last year's season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
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