Staff report
A man who has spent most of his life around fast cars and race tracks ended up in the hospital after a wreck on N.C. 152 Sunday evening.
Tony Ralph Eury Sr., an uncle of Dale Earnhardt Jr., is in CMC-NorthEast in good condition.
The driver of the other vehicle, Dorothy Louise Stevens, is also in the Concord Hospital in fair condition. No information was available on her 13-year-old granddaughter who was a passenger.
The accident occurred shortly before 7 p.m. at the intersection of Stirewalt Road and N.C. 152, west of China Grove.
A Landis firefighter pulled Stevens and her granddaughter from their burning car.
Trooper W.M. Vickers of the N.C. Highway Patrol said the accident occurred when the Oldsmobile driven by Stevens failed to stop for a stop sign at the intersection.
She pulled into the path of the 2008 Chevrolet truck driven by Eury, which was going west on N.C. 152.
After the impact, the truck crashed into a China Grove fire hydrant. The trailer and personal watercraft broke lose and went into a yard near the intersection.
The burning Oldsmobile also went into the yard and came to rest within about 15 feet of a house. Firemen initially were concerned the house might catch fire.
Atwell and China Grove firefighters doused the fire with foam.
According to firefighters on the scene, Eury was able to get out of his truck, which was engulfed in smoke.
Eury, who previously worked at DEI, is director of competition for JR Motorsports which fields the No. 88 Brad Keselowski team in the Nationwide series.