Skinner

LAS VEGAS -- A chagrined Mike Skinner accepted the blame for Sunday's only multiple-car crash in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400, which took out four cars, including Winston Cup points leader Kurt Busch.

"I think I just got a little bit loose and hit Rusty (Wallace)," Skinner said. "I really apologize. I hate it. I hate it for all the other contenders who got caught up in it."

Along with Busch, Skinner and Rusty Wallace, the wreck also sent Jeff Gordon to the garage and damaged Todd Bodine's car.

Wallace was the only driver who made the mandatory trip to the infield hospital.

"I hit pretty hard. It caved the top of my helmet in. It did its job," Wallace said after his check-up.

But he had no hard feelings toward Skinner.

"I don't know if I just didn't give him enough room or his front end pushed up or what," Wallace said. He got me in the left rear quarter panel. I know he didn't mean it. It was just one of those racing things, and that was it."

What a start
Car owner Chip Ganassi spent Sunday morning watching his driver Scott Dixon win the IndyCar opener in Homestead, Fla.

He watched the final laps of that race on TV, crouched in the pit box of rookie Casey Mears' Target team.

`C'mon, baby," he said when Dixon started the last lap. "You can do it, Scott."

As the crowd grew silent for the start of the national anthem, Dixon crossed the finish line and Ganassi screamed in excitement. He then stood silently through the anthem, a huge grin on his face. When the song concluded, he screamed again, and said: "Now that's the way to start a day."

From the roof where he was spotting for Mears, team manager Andy Graves radioed the news to the Ganassi teams.

"Dixon just won the IRL race," he said. "Let's go make it 2-for-2."

But the Ganassi cars struggled, except for defending race winner Sterling Marlin, who finished eighth. Mears was 15th and rookie Jamie McMurray was 32nd.

Car equality
Jack Roush, whose car won the race Sunday, still says Fords are at an aerodynamic disadvantage, even though they lead the manufacturer's points standings.

Michael Waltrip, who took over the Winston Cup drivers' points lead, isn't buying it. He finished third in a Chevrolet behind winner Matt Kenseth and Chevy teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"The cars are alike. The cars are even and we can just drive the heck out of them," he said.

"I think it's a great story you all can write, that there's no story," he told a post-race news conference.

Four flips? Rookie crash
Rusty Wallace says his first thought as he drove by teammate Ryan Newman following the No. 12 car's horrific accident at Daytona was relief that Newman was out of the car.

But it didn't take long for the Wallace humor to kick in.

"I told him, 'Newman, you only turned over four times. That's just a little rookie crash.' I've been in two wrecks where I went end over end 25 times."

Newman, last year's top rookie, came back to finish 32nd at Rockingham and qualified third for Sunday's race, where he finished seventh.

Despite the violence of the crash, he said there was no time he felt he was in serious danger.

Wallace agreed it was a dramatic crash. But he said he told Newman: "When you go upside down, the body falls off, the motor falls off and you land up in a helicopter, that's a hell of a wreck right there."

He recalled one of his encounters with Dale Earnhardt.

"When Earnhardt and I got together in '93 in Talledega, the car went sideways and rolled over 25 times and went across the finish line upside down. I finished fifth."

After a multi-car wreck on Sunday, he wound up 40th.