"I seen the marks," Green said of his qualifying
run, which took<br> place some 45 minutes after the
accident. "It looks like the<br> throttle hung, to me."
<br><br> Fellow championship contender Todd Bodine
confirmed that<br> speculation. Bodine said he wasn't near
the accident when it<br> occurred, but had spoken
with his Cicci-Welliver Racing teammate,<br> Tim
Fedewa, who was. <br><br> "Timmy was right behind him,"
Bodine said. "He said it looked like<br> the throttle
hung wide open -- who knows why?" <br><br> Fedewa
ironically won the Bud Pole for Saturday's Busch 200,
the<br> 12th race in the 32-event series. <br><br> "If
that really matters," Fedewa said in the
post-qualifying news<br> conference, struggling to contain his
emotions. "Right now my<br> thoughts and prayers are with
the Petty family. This is probably<br> the saddest
day in NASCAR I can remember. <br><br> "I don't
really think any of this stuff even matters. Adam
was<br> about as fine a young man as I've ever met -- a
good Christian. I<br> know he's in heaven and he's
happy. <br><br> "I know his family has strong faith and
we're just praying with<br> them now." <br><br> The
right side of the No. 45 Sprint Chevrolet impacted the
outside<br> wall with about 15 minutes remaining in the
one-hour afternoon<br> practice session preceding Bud Pole
Qualifying for Saturday's<br> event. <br><br> Petty's car
rode the concrete wall in Turns 3 and 4 of the
flat<br> speedway for about 200 yards before coming to a
halt against the<br> wall. A fire briefly broke out
but was quickly extinguished by<br> speedway
personnel. <br><br> The fatality was the first for a stock
car driver in the track's<br> 10-year history in its
current configuration. The former Bryar<br> Motorsports
Park was purchased and rebuilt by owner Bob Bahre
in<br> the late 1980s. <br><br> His parents, Kyle and
Pattie; a brother Austin and sister<br> Montgomery Lee;
his grandparents Richard and Lynda; great<br>
grandmother Elizabeth and a variety of other relatives
survive<br> Adam Petty. <br><br> The team withdrew its entry
from the event. <br><br> The latest family tragedy
comes barely one month after Petty<br> made his NASCAR
Winston Cup Series debut in the DIRECTV 500<br> at Texas
Motor Speedway. Three days later, the family
patriarch,<br> Lee, passed away in a hospital in Greensboro,
N.C., at age 86. <br><br> The elder Petty, Adam's
great-grandfather, was the founder of<br> Petty Enterprises, the
winningest organization in American<br> motorsports, and a
10-time national champion of the NASCAR<br> Winston Cup
Series. <br><br> Petty Enterprises has won 271 races,
including 198 by Richard.<br> Richard's son, Kyle, is an
eight-time winner on the NASCAR<br> Winston Cup Series.
<br><br> Petty, who was competing in his first full NASCAR
Busch Series<br> season, was 20th last year in the
points race and third in the<br> rookie of the year
standings, finishing a career-best fourth in<br> Fontana,
Calif., in May. <br><br> Adam Petty made history in 1998
by competing in his first<br> American Speed
Association race, becoming the first<br> fourth-generation
athlete in all of professional sports. <br><br> Petty
recently signed a new three-year sponsorship agreement<br>
with Sprint, and he planned to move to the NASCAR
Winston Cup<br> Series on a full-time basis in 2001.