Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993 TAG: 9303200213
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium
DRIVERS BACK AT ATLANTA AFTER SNOWBALL 500
NASCAR's top drivers traded stories at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday about their experiences in the blizzard of 1993 as they practiced in a final tune-up before today's snow-delayed Motorcraft 500.Pole sitter Rusty Wallace was unofficially fastest in Friday's 90-minute session at 174.385 mph, followed by Ricky Rudd at 173.557 mph, Davey Allison at 173.173 mph, Dale Jarrett at 172.845 mph and Phil Parsons at 172.685 mph.
Drivers and crews concentrated Friday on getting their cars set up for the 328-lap race on this 1.522-mile oval, so practice speeds were several miles per hour off the 178.749 mph lap Wallace ran last Friday to win the pole.
Everyone traveled at the speed of light Friday compared to the pace that some endured as they tried to escape Atlanta last weekend when the blizzard forced the race to be postponed.
"What normally takes about two-and-a-half hours to drive to the southside of Birmingham [Ala.] took 12 hours," Hut Stricklin said. "We really didn't have much trouble getting from Atlanta to the Alabama state line, but as soon as we got there, the going was pretty rough.
"To give you some idea, in 12 hours I burned a quarter tank of gasoline. I was pretty much just idling. We made one stop for food, which was three bags of corn chips and three Cokes. I was afraid to stop after that because I didn't know if I could get back on the interstate if I ever got off."
Davey Allison had a nearly identical experience.
"It took me 12 hours to drive to Hueytown [Ala.], and just like Hut, it took a quarter tank of gas," Allison said. "We left at 10 in the morning Sunday and got home at 10 that night. We stopped whenever traffic stopped, and we'd throw snowballs for a while."
If the escape from Atlanta could be considered the Snowball 500, Colorado native Wally Dallenbach Jr. surely won.
"I left Saturday afternoon and got back home to Greensboro in four-and-a-half hours," he said. The distance is well over 300 miles.
"I didn't have any trouble at all, but I'm used to driving in a lot worse in Colorado and Wyoming.
"The good part was that everybody stayed in the one clear lane and that left the whole rest of the unplowed road to run through."
The $879,129 race, which starts at 1 p.m., will be televised live by TNN, which took over the telecast from ABC. There will be no snow here today, but there is a 30 percent chance of showers under mostly cloudy skies.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING