Motor Racing Roundup : Wallace, Out of Fuel, Coasts to a Victory in Virginia

Rusty Wallace strengthened his bid for his first Winston Cup stock car championship by coasting to victory in the Miller 400 after running out of gas with one lap left Sunday at Richmond, Va.

Wallace, who began the afternoon 73 points behind leader Dale Earnhardt in the season points battle, narrowed his deficit to 63 points with seven races left in the 29-event schedule.

Wallace averaged 88.380 m.p.h. in guiding his Pontiac Grand Prix to his sixth victory of the season, tops on the Winston Cup circuit. Earnhardt finished second, 8.9 seconds back on Richmond International Raceway’s three-quarter-mile, D-shaped layout.

Geoff Bodine, who gave up second place with a late stop for fuel, wound up third, the only other driver on the lead lap.

The most serious incident occurred on lap 270, when Butch Miller, a Midwestern short track veteran who had started on the outside of the front row in a Chevrolet Lumina, spun in the fourth turn. As Miller’s car slipped down the track, it took a savage hit in the rear by Rick Wilson’s Oldsmobile.

The collision ruptured the fuel cell on Miller’s car, which erupted in a ball of flames that reached 20 feet into the air. Wilson’s car also caught fire briefly, but the flames on each vehicle died out within 15 seconds and both drivers quickly scrambled out, hobbled to the pit wall and jumped over it. Each driver was shaken but otherwise uninjured.

Danny Sullivan darted past an out-of-fuel Michael Andretti two turns from the end and went on to win the Texaco-Havoline 200 Indy-car race at a record speed of 122.215 m.p.h. at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

Second-place finisher Teo Fabi of Italy just made it on fuel, pulling off and stopping about 100 feet after crossing the finish line.

Rick Mears finished third, followed by Arie Luyendyk and Emerson Fittipaldi, the last driver on the lead lap. Andretti wound up sixth, a lap behind.

Geoff Brabham beat Nissan teammate Chip Robinson by .32 seconds to win the IMSA Grand Prix race at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., and move into a tie with Robinson for the point championship with just two events remaining.

Brabham drove his GTP-ZXT prototype to his ninth victory in 13 races and received 20 points for his 75-lap victory. Robinson, in an identical car, entered the race with a five-point lead and got 15 points for finishing second. Each now has 209 points.

Alain Prost of France won the Italian Formula-One Grand Prix race at Monza and boosted his lead over McLaren-Honda teammate Ayrton Senna to 20 points in his bid for a third world title.

Senna, who was leading by 21 seconds, dropped from the race with eight laps to go when he blew his engine and spun in his own oil.

Austria’s Gerhard Berger placed second in a Ferrari and Belgium’s Thierry Boutsen, driving a Williams-Renault, finished third.