Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993 TAG: 9302090090
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
WHO'S ZOOMIN' WHO? SNIPING CONTINUES IN DAYTONA GARAGES
The war of words escalated Monday in the never-ending struggle for stock car racing superiority at Daytona International Speedway as General Motors officials refuted Ford's accusations of unfair GM advantages and NASCAR joined the fray.The message from GM was that the complaining Ford owners and drivers are a bunch of whiners.
"There's nothing new about that," said Herb Fishel, director of GM's motorsports programs. "That's part of their history."
The vocal Ford protests, which followed a 1-2-3 Chevrolet finish in Sunday's Busch Clash, were "a contrived deal" hatched at Ford headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., NASCAR spokesman Chip Williams said. The Ford owners and drivers "have been told what to say and they're saying it."
"It gets everybody excited, but it doesn't change the facts at all," Williams said. "All of the cars are very, very close. What it boils down to is we put [the GM cars] on equal ground with the Ford Thunderbirds."
Ford owners Robert Yates and Jack Roush and drivers Davey Allison and Sterling Marlin, among others, led Ford's verbal assault after the Clash. They accused NASCAR of allowing GM cars to use front and rear bumpers that vary significantly from the shape of stock production bumpers, while forcing the Fords to adhere strictly to their stock bumpers. In effect, NASCAR gave GM cars, but not Fords, some aerodynamic concessions that improved the speeds of the Chevys and Pontiacs and made them better than the Fords.
The Ford camp believes this flies in the face of NASCAR's stated policy of forcing everyone, no matter which make, to build race cars that closely match the stock shape of the production car.
But GM's motorsports communications manager Dave Hederich said qualifying statistics showed that Ford and GM cars were all but equal.
Although Kyle Petty won the pole Saturday in a Pontiac Grand Prix at 189.426 mph and Dale Jarrett was second fastest in a Chevy at 189.274 mph, Hederich noted the 10 fastest cars consisted of five GM cars and five Fords.
Hederich said the average qualifying speeds for Ford and GM cars were nearly equal. The top 10 GM cars averaged 188.449 mph in qualifying, he said, while the Ford top 10 averaged 188.416 mph.
`I think it's an insult to General Motors, an insult to Chevrolet and Pontiac and all their engineers, it's an insult to the teams, an insult to the drivers and an insult to NASCAR to say the reason those three Chevys finished out front in the Clash is because they were given favors," Hederich said.
Williams said NASCAR gave all the cars similar concessions on the front bumper by allowing everyone to have each side of the bumper rounded off.
Yes, he said, NASCAR allowed the Chevrolets and Pontiacs to round off their bumpers this year. "What Ford won't tell you, but I will, is that the Ford Thunderbirds already had been [rounded off] for three years," he said. "That put them on equal ground with the Thunderbirds."
Said Richard Childress, the owner of Dale Earnhardt's Chevy, "Last year, when Ford won the Busch Clash and the Daytona 500, you didn't hear any of us whining. We got beat like a drum last year. You can't panic over one race.
"I think Ford still has advantages in a lot of areas," he said. "I think we're still short on motor [power] compared to the Fords."
Pontiac driver Rusty Wallace said: "They didn't get anything taken away, and we didn't get anything given to us. Last year, they outworked us. So this year, these GM teams worked 15 times harder than the Ford teams have.
`I don't know why the Ford guys are crying. I can't believe this gag-me-with-a-spoon stuff they're saying."
\ WILSON LEADS PRACTICE: Action on the track Monday was limited to practice sessions and a second round of time trials. Rick Wilson led the way in Richard Petty's Pontiac with a lap of 188.549 mph, which was ninth fastest overall in qualifying.
Rusty Wallace was second fastest at 188.107 mph., followed by Bobby Hamilton at 187.563 mph, Jim Sauter at 187.426 mph and Lake Speed at 187.352 mph.
Indy 500 champion Al Unser Jr. was 12th fastest on the day at 186.749 mph and said later, "It's been an up-and-down battle."
A.J. Foyt was 21st at 183.955 mph.
Today's schedule includes pole qualifying for Saturday's Goody's 300 Grand National race. Bobby Dotter led practice Monday with a lap of 186.540 mph.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING