The most spectacular wreck of the race involved #46-Carl Long, one of the four “field-fillers” in the event, who walked away unhurt after flipping his car almost six times down the backstretch. Long was bumped from behind by #01-Joe Nemechek on lap 263 and the contact sent him into the wall along the backstretch. His car turned on its side as it skidded along the track, then barrel-rolled several times before finally coming to a stop. Long quickly emerged unhurt from the only race car he owns. “We were racing along and someone must have got into me, because next thing I knew, I seen the people up there in the back straightaway in the bleachers up there eating chicken,” Long said. “You can’t pay $2 at the state fair to ride something like that.” There had been concern about the field-fillers, who made the race because of a shortage of full-time competitors. Long, #09-Joe Ruttman, #72-Kirk Shelmerdine and #80-Andy Hillenburg were all well off the pace the entire weekend and clearly not capable of being competitive. NASCAR ordered Ruttman off the track one lap into the race when they saw he had no pit crew set up. Shelmerdine was called off shortly after – he had been lapped eight minutes in – because he wasn’t up to the minimum speed requirement. Still, Ruttman earned $54,196 for his last-place finish and Shelmerdine got $54,895 for coming in 42nd. Hillenburg finished in 34th place, 17 laps down, and picked up $55,425. Long, too, had been lapped several times, but was running a clean race before the wreck. He finished 38th and earned $55,135. “We made the highlight reel, but it won’t do much for me racing,” said Long, who has made spot starts in NASCAR’s top series the past several years. “Without any sponsor and without any deal, that’s not the way I wanted to finish today. I don’t have another car, so I guess it will be some time before I get out there again – unless someone wants me to put their car on the highlight reel like that.”(ThatsRacin.com/AP and see a column at NASCAR.com: Long loses car, but not sense of humor)(2-22-2004)
