ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607290041
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
The hottest design trick in the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup series is the commemorative car.
Teams have built special cars to honor the Olympics, sponsor anniversaries and celebrate Terry Labonte's consecutive race streak, among other reasons.
This weekend, the Joe Gibbs Racing team and driver Bobby Labonte arrived at Talladega Superspeedway with a Chevrolet Monte Carlo decked out in the burgundy and gold colors of the Washington Redskins.
The car honors Gibbs's induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame tonight in Canton, Ohio. Gibbs won three Super Bowls as the Redskins coach.
A large Hall of Fame decal adorns the front hood of the Chevy. Just above the back bumper, a decal reads, "Way To Go, Joe.''
After the induction ceremony, Gibbs will be flying to Alabama. "Joe will be here Sunday,'' crew chief Jimmy Makar said.
Besides painting race cars, the Gibbs team has been busy in recent weeks building and testing a special Pontiac Grand Prix. Labonte and the team tested the car at Pocono last Monday, the day after the Miller 500.
"They built it for themselves to see if they want to switch,'' said Pontiac spokesman Brian Hoagland.
"We just wanted to evaluate the Pontiac for General Motors,'' said Makar. ``Plus, you always want to see what somebody else has got. That's a freebie there.''
"We built the car in our shop,'' Makar said, adding that the team is ``not really'' considering a switch. ``We haven't seen anything yet that says there's a reason to switch right now,'' he said.
ALSO AT POCONO: Pontiac driver Bobby Hamilton also stayed at Pocono to test, but it had nothing to do with Labonte's Pontiac test, team manager Dale Inman said.
``We wouldn't have stayed over unless we had to,'' Inman said. ``But we wrecked our Indy car testing at Indy and then we wrecked our Indy backup at Pocono. So we stayed up there to shake down a third car.''
UNEMPLOYED DRIVER: Steve Grissom, who lost his job driving for Gary Bechtel's team, says that even if a one-race deal came up, he can't take it because of his contract.
``I have talked to some people and there's a race here and a race there, but the problem is Diamond Ridge [Bechtel's company] won't release me from my contract, so I can't drive. It's kind of like - well, here we are, just hanging out at the race track.''
Team spokesman Keith Parsons said Bechtel can't fire Grissom under the terms of his contract, but can replace him as driver. And Grissom has not asked for his release from the contract to drive in a race, Parsons said.
BUSCH SECOND ROUND: Only two races ago, Buckshot Jones won his first Busch Grand National event after a final lap shootout with Mike McLaughlin. But there will be no shootout at all for Jones this weekend. He failed to make the 42-car field for today's Humminbird 100K in Friday's second round of time trials.
Randy LaJoie, a three-time winner this year in the Busch series, was fastest in the second round with a lap of 187.309 mph in a Chevrolet.
On Thursday, Joe Nemechek won the pole for the race with a lap of 192.878 mph, which was significantly faster than any other qualifying lap here so far, Busch series or Winston Cup.
Nemechek's lap was more than two miles per hour faster than that of outside pole sitter Phil Parsons and about a half-mile an hour faster than the lap of Winston Cup pole winner Jeremy Mayfield. On the stopwatch, Nemechek was almost sixth-tenths of a second quicker.
The provisional starting spots for today's race went to Jason Keller, Mike Wallace, Bobby Dotter and Tim Fedewa.
Besides Jones, others who failed to make the race were Randy Porter, Peter Gibbons, Dennis Setzer, Ron Barfield, Tommy Houston and Kevin Ray.
SINCE APRIL: Two of the big stories here in April were Ricky Craven's big crash in the Winston 500 and the pre-race fiasco in which NASCAR damaged the engine that Ernie Irvan used to win the pole.
Craven says the only aches and pains he still feels from his huge crash are at night when he's trying to sleep. Other than that, he's fine. And he couldn't forget about the first turn tumble if he wanted to. ``You guys won't let me,'' he told a reporter.
Irvan, who finished 31st in April's race after being involved in the same crash, said he thinks the engine in his Ford Thunderbird this weekend may be even more powerful than the one NASCAR damaged in post-qualifying testing here.
``I think the engine is better,'' Irvan said, ``but everybody else has caught up.''
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Jeremy Mayfield adjusts his hat after winning theby CNBpole position for Sunday's Diehard 500.|