Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 4, 1994 TAG: 9402040069
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The three-time Winston Cup champion joins a stable that includes 1986 Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine and Greg Sacks.
Goodyear still has the vast majority of front-runners in its camp for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20, but two more top drivers, Ricky Rudd and Harry Gant, say they'll choose their tires based on performance.
"We're bolting on what works," Rudd said Wednesday.
Gant and his car owner, Leo Jackson, have said essentially the same thing.
Even Goodyear officials have admitted the Hoosiers consistently ran two- to three-tenths of a second faster during January testing at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
Waltrip said that's what swayed him.
"After all the testing was said and done, myself, our sponsor and my crew discussed the situation and we decided, for this team at this time, it was best to go with Hoosier tires," Waltrip said in a statement.
"It's a difficult decision for me because of all my years of using Goodyear tires. But this is a decision the car owner and not the driver had to make. As a car owner, I have to look at performance first, and right now it appears, particularly at Daytona, that Hoosier has a performance edge."
Bob Newton, Hoosier's president, called the signing of Waltrip "a tremendous breakthrough for our company. To have a driver-car owner of his caliber display the courage to switch over says a lot about our product."
During the first Hoosier-Goodyear skirmish, Waltrip won the 1989 Daytona 500 on Hoosiers. But that year Goodyear pulled out of the race, so everyone ran Hoosiers.
\ TAKING TO THE AIR: Laying the groundwork for his post-driving career, Kyle Petty announced Thursday he will be a pit reporter for ESPN on Saturdays when the cable network shows Grand National races at Winston Cup tracks.
Petty's first race as a reporter will be the Goody's 300 at Daytona on Feb. 19. ESPN will have a delayed telecast of that afternoon race at 8:30 p.m.
Petty said the idea was suggested by Bob Scanlon, an ESPN motorsports executive, in the fall. He said he discussed the opportunity, and whether it would get in the way of his driving, with his car owner, Felix Sabates, and his sponsor. They thought "all this can do for Kyle Petty and Mello Yello is just enhance the value of this team," Petty said during a teleconference from Richmond International Raceway, where he was practicing for the Pontiac Excitement 400 on March 2.
"The way I rationalized it in my mind was that 90 percent of the time [during those races] I'm standing up on the truck watching them, or walking around the race track watching the lines they take through the corners or walking up and down pit road checking on tire wear.
"Hopefully, maybe I'll know a little more about the right questions to ask and be a little bit kinder and gentler with the drivers" in difficult situations, he said.
\ WILL HE COACH: Dale Jarrett, visiting Greensboro, N.C., on Wednesday to promote the Goodwrench 500 at Rockingham on Feb. 27, was asked whether he thought his car owner, former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, would return to the National Football League now that the Redskins have hired Norv Turner.
"I would guess he would be back in football sometime," Jarrett said. "When you're that good at something, it's hard to stay away from it."
Jarrett said it was pure speculation on his part, but, "I think his first choice, if he got back into coaching, would be the [Carolina] Panthers."
by CNB