Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 30, 1993 TAG: 9305300178
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
The 1993 edition of NASCAR's longest race has a new starting time of 4:30 p.m., and unless you're a sports editor with early Sunday night deadlines, the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway offers a number of advantages.
First, the race no longers conflicts with the Indianapolis 500, which means die-hard race junkies don't have to move the kitchen TV into the family room to watch both races at once. Now they can spend the entire day in front of the tube, as with football bowl games on New Year's Day.
Second, the hearty fans - expected to exceed 150,000 in the grandstands and infield - don't have to bake in the sun all afternoon.
Third, for the race teams, the twilightrace complicates the problems of chassis setup on their race cars. Do they set up for the hot asphalt of day, or the cooler surface of night?
This adds intrigue, and enhances one of the quirks of this 1.5-mile speedway: It changes more quickly than almost any other track on the Winston Cup circuit.
Cars that are fast during the afternoon might not be so fast at night, and vice versa. So chassis setups will be critical.
But because this is the first 600 ever to start in daylight and end at night, no one is sure what's going to happen. That is obvious from the conversations drivers and crew chiefs had with reporters this week.
"Starting at 4:30 will make it a different race as far as adjusting the car, but we think we've got it figured out," said Ken Schrader, who won the pole Wednesday at a speed of 177.352 mph.
"It might be a matter of who guesses best and whoever makes the best guesses as it goes from afternoon to night," said Bill Elliott. "I don't really think anybody is going to really know."
Said Davey Allison: "We don't have a great chassis setup for either time of day yet, but we're gaining on it." But that was before his car broke an oil line in Saturday morning's practice, prompting an engine change and additional uncertainty.
"We've got no idea" how the track will change, said Rick Wilson. "We're figuring the track is going to tighten up when it cools down."
"I think it's going to be looser at night," said Ray Evernham, Jeff Gordon's crew chief.
Nobody can be sure.
"We hope we can adjust. . . . and the car will respond, but after practicing [Thursday night], we saw a lot of people scratching their heads," said Pete Wright, Terry Labonte's crew chief.
Irvan, the Winston 500 winner, and Jarrett, the Daytona 500, are the only drivers who have a shot at the Winston Million, a $1 million bonus to any driver who can win three of the four crown jewel races in the Winston Cup series in one year. There is a $100,000 bonus for any driver who can win two of the four races.
But neither driver is paying much attention to the bonus just yet.
As Jarrett said, "It's not something that's going to dictate the way you're going to run the race."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB