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Sunday, September 02, 2001

By The Associated Press

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Steve Park was cut out of his car and airlifted to the hospital after a wreck under caution yesterday in the South Carolina 200.

Jeff Burton won the Busch Series race by holding off Elton Sawyer over the final 10 laps.

Park was being held last night at Carolina's Hospital System in Florence. He sustained a concussion and might have also a broken collarbone.

His car was running at approximately 45 mph behind the pace car on the backstretch when it veered suddenly to the left just after exiting Turn 2. Park's car cut directly in front of Larry Foyt, who was accelerating to move up to the head of a line of lapped cars on the inside lane for the restart. Foyt's car hit Park's just behind the driver's-side door, sending it spinning into the inside wall.

Park, who drives a Winston Cup car for Dale Earnhardt Inc., had to be cut out of his Chevrolet and was loaded onto a stretcher by emergency workers.

Dale Earnhardt was killed in a crash on the final lap of the Feb. 18 Daytona 500.

Burton, who led 75 of the 147 laps, beat Sawyer to the finish line by about three car lengths to win at Darlington Raceway.

Mike McLaughlin finished third and was followed by pole-sitter Ryan Newman and Bobby Hamilton Jr.

Montoya rebounds

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium -- Juan Montoya rebounded from a bad crash to win the pole po sition for the Belgian Grand Prix today.

Montoya, who wrecked his car during practice Friday, finished just ahead of Williams BMW teammate Ralf Schumacher, whose brother, Michael, will try to become Formula One's winningest driver today.

Michael Schumacher shares the record for most career Grand Prix victories with France's Alain Prost at 51.

Canadians rule at home

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Canadian teammates Alex Tagliani and Patrick Carpentier swept the front row for the Vancouver Molson Indy. It wasn't easy, though, with the times of the top 15 qualifiers for the race Sunday separated by less than one second.

Tagliani got around the 1.781-mile, 12-turn circuit at the edge of downtown Vancouver in 1 minute, 0.872 seconds -- a speed of 105.329 mph. Carpentier was just 0.052 seconds and 0.090 mph slower at 1:00.924 and 105.239.

Gil de Ferran and Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves were close behind, sandwiching current runner-up Kenny Brack.