Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409190008
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
A NASCAR inspector was chatting with Jeff Burton just before the start of the final Winston Cup practice session Saturday afternoon at Richmond International Raceway when the official put a hand through the driver's window of Burton's Ford and placed his fingers on the roll bar.
What happened next triggered the first prerace Winston Cup disqualification in anyone's memory and led to the biggest fine since Junior Johnson was suspended from the sport for four races in 1991.
When the inspector touched Burton's roll bar, he felt holes - almost as big as a quarter - that had been drilled in the top of the safety cage to reduce weight. ``There were lots of them,'' said Gary Nelson, NASCAR's Winston Cup director.
NASCAR officials decided that not only was a rules violation but a major compromise of safety. They kicked Burton and his Stavola Brothers Racing team out of Saturday night's Miller 400 and fined the team $10,000.
``The integrity of the roll cage was compromised,'' Nelson said. ``And the roll cage's ability to withstand impact is really the backbone of the car.''
Burton, a 27-year-old from South Boston, said he had driven the same car in eight or 10 races this year, including last weekend at Darlington. Burton said he was just as surprised as NASCAR officials to learn of the holes.
``If Jeff Burton would have known about it, he wouldn't have sat in it,'' Burton said. ``I laid in the hospital for a week [in 1988] with a broken back and I understand safety.
``To be honest, it's stupid,'' he said. ``The weight that was saved by drilling holes was maybe a pound or two. And we just put 25 pounds of roof flaps in the roof. It's probably the dumbest thing I've ever seen done in an effort to make something light.
``NASCAR did the right thing,'' he said. ``I feel like I'm taking a lot of the punishment and didn't commit the crime. But even still, NASCAR did what they had to do. This car was not safe to race.''
Ken Wilson, Burton's crew said, said he also was unaware of the holes. He said NASCAR ``had to show me what was done'' on the car.
``Some previous workers took it upon themselves to make these changes,'' Wilson said. ``I don't see too much advantage. I'm not too satisfied with what was done. I really don't see [any] reasoning for it.''
But neither Wilson nor Burton was buying NASCAR's story that the inspector stumbled upon the violation by chance. The holes were located in three separate roll bars.
Wilson said he believes a ``displeased former employee'' reported the team. ``I feel like that's what happened there,'' he said. ``I don't know that to be a fact, but that's what I feel.''
``I believe this car has been like this for two years,'' said Burton, who joined the team at the start of the season. ``This car was not done like this while I've been at Stavola Brothers Racing. Somebody knew about it and let them know about it. I think that's the only way they found out about it.''
While Wilson and NASCAR officials were saying they doubted any car could gain much of an advantage from such a tactic, others were not so sure.
Ken Schrader said removing ``any kind of weight up high'' would help a car. ``I don't know,'' he said. ``Two or three pounds when you're turning left and trying to hold it?''
But any advantage would be far outweighed by the safety risk, others said.
``We have enough drivers getting hurt,'' said Felix Sabates, Kyle Petty's car owner. ``If they did what NASCAR said they did, they ought to be thrown out the rest of the year.''
Burton was shaken not only by the disqualification but by the nature of it.
``You don't build anything when it comes to safety and then drill holes in it,'' he said. ``It's [expletive] stupid. I'm pretty shook up. It's hard for me to imagine me going home because of a race car that's not safe, because my whole emphasis on building race cars is safety. This is definitely not a safe race car.''
Burton said his backup car did not have holes drilled in the roll bar, but NASCAR officials told the team there was no option to use it. And he was unable to find any driver willing to let him take over a ride.
``There's been a lot of teams that haven't made all the races,'' Burton said. ``I am one rookie who has made all the races. And I take a lot of pride in that. And to not make this race because of this is pretty hard to take.''
``I'm not arguing [NASCAR's] point,'' Wilson said. ``They had a good point. I just wish we would have had a chance to fix the car and compete. I feel like we could have capped [the holes] and made [the roll bars] just as safe and strong as before, if not stronger.''
Although cars have been parked during races and disqualified after races, this apparently was a first.
``As far as we can tell, nobody's ever been booted out of the starting field on race day,'' said Kevin Triplett, a NASCAR spokesman.
by CNB