Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 2, 1994                   TAG: 9412020062
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

EARNHARDT, CREW TO RECEIVE 7TH WINSTON CUP CROWN

Earnhardt will be formally crowned as the 1994 Winston Cup champion tonight during the annual NASCAR Winston Cup banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The banquet starts and 7 p.m. and ESPN will provide live coverage beginning at 9 p.m. Earnhardt's season winnings of $3,400,733 includes a $1.25 million bonus from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. for winning the title - his seventh.

Bill Elliott was named the most popular driver for the ninth time Thursday during a pre-banquet press conference, while Ricky Rudd's crew chief, Bill Ingle, was named the winner of the $50,000 UAW Teamwork Award on behalf of the crew. Rudd's team was selected by a secret panel as having shown the most outstanding teamwork and leadership during the season.

And Todd Bodine was selected as the wild-card pick to win a starting spot in the 1995 Busch Clash on Feb.12 at Daytona International Speedway.

The 1995 schedule was released, with no significant changes from 1994.

WHAT OFF-SEASON?: The latest proof that there really is no NASCAR off-season was provided by Dale Jarrett and the Robert Yates Racing team.

They've been busy the past two weeks testing tires for Goodyear at Richmond International Raceway.

The tire test, which was scheduled several months ago, before Hoosier's announcement that it would not return in 1995, started on Nov.16. But the next two days were rained out, so Jarrett returned with the No.28 Ford Thunderbird on Nov.28, 29 and 30. Rain also washed out the Nov.28 session.

The Yates team, meanwhile, lost a veteran member when Joey Knuckles announced he was leaving to become Jeremy Mayfield's crew chief on Cale Yarborough's No.98 Ford Thunderbird.

AUSSIE RACE: Jimmy Hensley is one of four drivers headed to Australia for the USA vs. Australia NASCAR 200 race under the lights on Dec.10 at the 1.1-mile Calder Park Thunderdome Raceway.

``I'm really looking forward to it because we've never been out of the country before and have heard a lot of good things about Australia,'' Hensley said in a news release. ``I hear the track is kind of rough and we certainly have some tracks in this country like that. We'll just try to get the car handling as well as we can on rough pavement.''

Hensley will drive for Australian car owner Denzel Mead.

Joining Hensley will be Morgan Shepherd, Tracy Leslie and Brad Noffsinger. Shepherd, who ran in a 1998 Australian stock car race, said on that trip he ``learned things I had never thought about,'' such as the fact that water swirls to the left in an Aussie sink.