Rodney Orr, who had never before attempted to qualify for a Winston Cup race, was killed Monday when his family-owned Ford Thunderbird hit the wall on the driver's side as it came out of the second turn during a morning practice session. The crash occurred as many drivers were preparing to leave the track and fly to Hueytown, Ala., to attend funeral services later in the day for veteran driver Neil Bonnett, who was killed a few day earlier in a shockingly similar accident.
Orr appeared to lose control as the car came through Turn 2. The back end came around in a typical spin situation, but when the car dropped down on the apron, Orr apparently attempted to correct the problem. Instead, the car flipped on its side and shot up the embankment into the wall. The initial impact came at the top of the windshield area. Observers said Orr probably was killed instantly, although he was taken to Halifax Medical Center, where he was declared dead at 10:06 a.m. EST. Orr had never driven a Winston Cup car until last month.
After winning the NASCAR Goody's Dash Series for four-cylinder stock cars last year, Orr was attempting to make a big jump into the eight-cylinder Cup cars, by passing the intermediate Busch Grand National class. Goody's Dash cars run at about 155 m.p.h., about 35 to 40 miles slower than the Daytona 500 cars. Orr and his father bought a new Thunderbird in the off-season and had veteran engine builder Ernie Elliott prepare a motor for the car.
Although he was one of only seven drivers to better 190 mp/h during preseason testing at Daytona, he was preparing to take his qualifying run later Monday when he crashed. The deaths of Bonnett and Orr were the first in Winston Cup racing since August of 1991, when J.D. McDuffie died from injuries in a crash at Watkins Glen. The last previous stock car racing fatality on the Daytona track was that of Joe Booher, in 1993. Daytona Dash.
