ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606030033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Racing
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: CHAD WILLIS STAFF WRITER
Independence Day celebrations at the New River Valley Speedway are still five weeks away, but Late Model Stock drivers Jeff Agnew and Tony McGuire have already started the fireworks.
In last week's Budweiser 200, front-runners Agnew and McGuire were involved in an incident during a lap 198 restart that left Agnew's car in the turn 4 wall and resulted in a black flag for McGuire.
It marked the second time this season the two have had their problems with restarts. Four weeks ago in the Wilco 200, McGuire rear-ended Agnew on a green flag situation and had to withdraw from the race with water spilling from his vehicle.
What started out as a minor dispute between the drivers has escalated into an all-out war of wills and words, a situation speedway owner Ronnie Snoddy hopes will play itself out in a peaceful manner. Unfortunately for track officials, last week's incident might just be one of the opening salvos between two of the division's most competitive drivers.
"There certainly isn't any love lost between the two ... there's always been a history of bad blood between Jeff and Tony," Snoddy said. "Hopefully they can just let it go and get back to racing."
The aftermath: Snoddy said the speedway will institute a new restart policy at today's Jordan Oil/Clouds Clothing 100. In contrast to the previous rule that left the start of the race up to the race leader, the new rule mandates a location the leader must resume racing.
In the past, two white lines between turns 3 and 4 have been used as a zone where the front-runner could start between. Now, a single white line marks the legal restart area.
"When they get to the line this week, the leader had better be in the gas," Snoddy said. "If he's not, we'll black flag him and send him to the rear. Hopefully this will stop all the games people are playing on the restarts."
Snoddy added that NRV Speedway Chief Steward Lynn Carroll has already discussed the change with several drivers and the response has been positive.
Catching up: The beneficiary of the Agnew-McGuire collision was Rodney Cundiff, who picked up his second win of the season. Even more important to Cundiff in the long run will be the points he made up on track leader Agnew. Cundiff placed 13 spots better than Agnew, who watched the end of the race from the pits, finishing eight laps off the pace.
Cundiff now trails Agnew by just 28 points in the season standings. Three weeks ago, he was 50 points off the pace. Phillip Morris is third with 312 points, 56 off the pace. Chad Harris (308) is fourth with Clay Highberger (296) fifth. McGuire sits in sixth, 74 points off the pace as a result of sitting out the May 11 X-Press Markets/Valley Rich 100.
This week: The Allison Legacy Cars will make a stop at the NRV Speedway, part of a 26-race touring season. The cars are a downsized version of today's Winston Cup cars and are driven by a B2200 Mazda engine.
With speeds reported in the 80 mph range during testing at the .526-mile Martinsville Speedway, the Legacy Cars should provide spectators with some competitive racing.
"They should be a big hit with the fans because most of the cars are painted up just like the cars on the Winston Cup circuit," Snoddy said. "We're supposed to have about 25 of them here. From a distance, you have a hard time telling them apart from the real Winston Cup cars."
The Legacy Cars were designed and are produced exclusively by Donald, Kenny and Ronald Allison, the sons of NASCAR legend Donnie Allison.
Wallace at NRVS: Winston Cup driver Mike Wallace will be at the Radford track June 8, displaying his No. 90 stock car and signing autographs for those in attendance. The autograph session runs 5-6:30 p.m.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Alan Kim. Practice laps. There's plenty of action beforeby CNBthe races as fans take their places in the stands and on the hill
during warmup for Late Model racers last Saturday afternoon. color. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING