THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9410020183
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
The 1994 Winston Cup season seems to be winding down quietly enough, with Dale Earnhardt solidly in command of the championship race.
But there's an undercurrent of concern in the NASCAR garage.
After today's Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, three of the final four races are on high-speed, high-banked tracks. And two of those tracks - Charlotte Motor Speedway and North Carolina Motor Speedway - have been repaved, making them even faster.
Eight cars crashed during a two-night test at Charlotte about two weeks ago.
Immediately afterwards, Mark Martin went out and doubled his disability insurance.
``I expect someone to get hurt real bad,'' Martin said. And if it's him, he wants his personal bases covered.
``The policy I had was sufficient for a 1990 lifestyle,'' he said. ``It was OK given the amount of risk involved before the tire war.''
But with the tire war and the repaved tracks, he decided he needed more insurance.
It's not that the speeds are higher,'' Martin said. ``We're not scared of the speeds. But we're very scared that we have no control if a tire blows out.''
For Martin and many other Goodyear drivers, the culprit is, and has been, the competition that developed when Hoosier reentered the Winston Cup series this year.
For both companies, the quest to win has led to thinner, softer tires - tires with a smaller margin of safety.
``If Goodyear engineers had to ride with us, we'd have a different tire,'' Martin said.
But there's concern about the upcoming big-track races even from drivers who don't blame the tire war.
Geoff Bodine, a Hoosier driver and one of those who crashed in practice at Charlotte, has repeated: ``Don't blame it on the tires.''
But at North Wilkesboro on Friday, he also said: ``We've got a problem at Charlotte, we've got a problem at Rockingham and we will have a problem at Atlanta. And I don't like it.''
As Bodine sees it, the problem is not only faster tires, but more horsepower in the engines, better chassis setups and the repaved tracks, among other things.
``At Charlotte next week, qualifying isn't going to be where the big difference is,'' he said. ``It's going to be in the race. Race speeds are not going to fall off.''
The repaving job at Charlotte is good because it will give the cars more grip, Bodine said. ``But it's bad because it makes you go faster. It's tough to build a tire to withstand that. I mean, how fast can you go?
``But if you slow me down 20 miles per hour, I'm going to be slower going in the corners and slower coming off. I can't make up for a lack of horsepower.''
Whether it's because of the tires or due to a combination of factors, track records have been set at 15 of 29 events so far this year. At Darlington, Richmond and Dover, the record was broken in both races. And in both Dover races, there were tire failures which led to bad crashes.
``We've got a legitimate concern,'' Ricky Rudd said. ``The speeds are very fast. And at Charlotte, the corners are very fast because of the new grip. It's like sandpaper.''
There may be no consensus on how to respond - no one is suggesting greater use of carburetor restrictor plates.
But more and more drivers and team members are openly saying that something needs to be done.
When car owner Robert Yates was asked on Friday about the rumors that he might field a two-car team next year, he said, ``I'm more concerned right now with the tire situation than I am with a two-car team. We need some safety margin in the tires.''
While no one has come out and blamed the tire war for the Aug. 20 crash at Michigan International Speedway that almost killed Yates' driver, Ernie Irvan, it was a tire failure that sent his Ford into the second-turn wall.
``We didn't have those very often two years ago, when Goodyear introduced the radials,'' Martin said. ``We have a lot more cut-down tires now than we did one or two years ago.''
The way Martin sees it, it will take something even worse than that to happen before NASCAR acts.
``They're just waiting until something really bad happens to do something about it,'' he said. by CNB