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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 28, 1990                   TAG: 9006280389
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MOVIE DOESN'T DEPICT THE REAL NASCAR

While it packs much more horsepower than such ulcerous predecessors as "Stroker Ace" and "Greased Lightning," "Days of Thunder" still finishes a lap down from depicting the real world of NASCAR.

Thanks to the presence of Tom Cruise, Hollywood's latest stab at stock car racing certainly figures to be a big hit at the box office.

OK, it's entertaining and interesting enough that finding time to make pit stops for popcorn is difficult. Still, I can't help believe the real stock car buff will leave the theater feeling like they're running under caution.

To be blunt, "Days of Thunder" is 80 percent Hollywood, 20 percent reality.

The well-trained eye of the NASCAR afficionado will no doubt catch numerous fallacies in the $50 million production.

The most glaring flaw is the actual race footage. In "Days of Thunder," the Daytona 500 appears to have nothing on a Saturday night "Run What You Brung" show at Franklin County Speedway.

If the real NASCAR boys pushed and shoved at Daytona the way they are depicted in the movie, officials at nearby Halifax Medical Center would have to put up a no-vacancy every February.

While NASCAR officials had hoped "Days of Thunder" would show how the sport has cleaned up its act the past 10 years, producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, for reasons unknown, chose a dark, grungy barn as home base for crew chief Harry Hoge's (Robert DuVall) racing stable.

It may have been that way yesterday, but it's certainly not the case now. All of the today's well-heeled Winston Cup teams are based in spacious, state-of-the-art shops with floors clean enough to eat a pile of hominy grits off of.

There are other minor errors that the NASCAR buff is certain to catch.

For example, in one quick action cut-in during a race at Darlington, S.C., the footage is from Atlanta.

And near the end of the movie, Cruise cries out, "[Harry] Gant has spun." The car shown spinning wasn't Gant's No. 33, but the No. 26 car of Brett Bodine.

Still, the average viewer should race right past such miscues.

"Those close to the sport will be able to pick out some flaws," said car owner Rick Hendrick, who served as the movie's main technical adviser.

"I was a little disappointed they didn't show the modern shops we have. But no matter what you do, you can't please everybody."

Most of the script is based on late driver Tim Richmond (Cruise's character), his crew chief Harry Hyde (DuVall's character) and car owner Hendrick (Randy Quaid).

"I thought Cruise did a good job. And Robert DuVall, I thought he was more like Harry Hyde than Harry Hyde himself," Hendrick said.

Overall, I don't think the movie will supply the big national springboard NASCAR had hoped it would. I didn't see anything that would turn the average Joe into a NASCAR crazy overnight.

"Days of Thunder" is by no means a blunder. Still, as I walked to my car, I found myself pondering whether somebody somewhere hadn't missed a gear.