Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 3, 1991 TAG: 9103030181
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Long
While a tank of fuel should carry the cars 90 laps or more in the 492-lap race, drivers and crew chiefs were predicting Saturday that the radial tires probably will become ineffective much sooner, perhaps after 50 or 60 laps.
"It looks like there's going to be a bunch of slippin' and slidin'," driver Sterling Marlin said. "This track has always been hard on tires, and it looks like after 50 or 60 laps on a set of tires, you don't get to pushing or get loose, you just sort of do a four-wheel drift up the [banks]."
Although the drivers can push their tires further than 50 or 60 laps, the price they will pay in slower speeds could be great. It may or may not be worth it, depending on whom you talk to.
With NASCAR's new pit rules, which penalize tire changes under yellow flags, most teams have all but ignored the opportunity to pit for fuel during caution periods. Instead, they are making pit stops when they need tires.
"Each car is going to be different," said Daytona 500 champion Ernie Irvan, who will start 15th today. "If you're in the lead and you're the fastest car, you may run [the tires] further."
Tire wear at North Carolina Motor Speedway is a matter of degree, defending champion Kyle Petty explained.
"It's not that they really wear, it's just that they lose their grip," said Petty, who is the pole sitter and the favorite. "The track doesn't have a lot of grip to it and tires don't have enough grip to overcome it." And if Goodyear were to manufacture a tire with more grip, "then you tear up the tires."
Petty is unsure whether his team will design its pit-stop strategy around fuel needs or tire needs.
"If a guy has a car working on radials and it's working good, he's going to stay out a little bit longer," Petty said. "But if your car is not working right . . . you've got to come in and get them off and make some changes."
Rick Mast, the Rockbridge Baths, Va., driver, said, "You could run on fuel here about 95 laps and your tires are shot in about 75 laps.
"If you could run all day without any cautions, you could win the race, I think, by stopping every 70th or 75th lap instead of waiting until 95 laps to stop for fuel. Some engineer figures that out for us a little while ago - figuring how much you slow down."
Mark Martin's team, on the other hand, has figured that if Martin can run 60 or 70 laps before the tires go, why not stretch it to 82 laps, a strategy that would require only five pit stops in the race.
"We'd like to run 82 laps and pit," Steve Hmiel, Martin's team manager, said. "The tires fall off at 50 laps, so I guess the question you have to ask is if you should go 20 or 30 more laps and have one less stop."
If that's the case, why not stretch it even further? Why not go about 100 laps, until the fuel is almost gone, and run the race with only four pit stops?
"I think people could do it, but I think their tires will be so bad it won't matter," Hmiel said. "And if you have a caution period in the last 100 laps and everyone else is sitting there with four new tires, they're going to run right by you."
"Everyone's thinking about it," driver Geoff Bodine said. "You have to play this tire game. You just try to save them as long as you can, but when they're gone, you got to come in. We've got some with 80 or 85 laps on them that are pretty much gone, but we think we can go that far."
Derrike Cope's strategy is to push the tires to the limit. "That was our strong point last year - running on used tires," the 1990 Daytona 500 winner said.
Darrell Waltrip also is inclined to take that approach.
With the new pit rules, Waltrip said, "now we're back to a situation where you can sit out there and take care of your tires . . . and not come in the pits so often and win a race. That's what I like."
"I think you just have to get your car where it works as good as it can," driver Terry Labonte said.
"One thing about it," Labonte said. "I guarantee you you're going to see 40 teams doing 40 different things. And the people in the stands won't know what the hell's going on or who's leading the race. There's going to be 40 teams running 40 different speeds."
The $605,525 race is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m., but the weather forecast Saturday called for an almost 100 percent chance of rain. The Nashville Network will televise the race live on cable.
Morgan Shepherd, who was down and out Friday with a bad case of the flu, said Saturday that he would be "OK" for the race. But, he added, "I'm still under the weather."
Although backup driver Larry Pearson practiced in Shepherd's Winston Cup car Saturday, Shepherd got up from his sick bed long enough to run in the Goodwrench 200 for Busch Grand National cars. He was running in seventh place when he was involved in a crash on the backstretch late in the race. His driveshaft broke on the restart.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB