Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402060034
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The lines have been drawn for a new war between Hoosier and Goodyear, the David and Goliath of tire companies.
And for the first time in series history, the Winston Cup starting fields routinely will be overbooked. Week in and week out, 40 to 45 teams will compete for 40 starting spots, or 32 spots at the short tracks - not including provisional spots.
The lineup includes seven drivers who will battle for rookie honors, but most often may be fighting simply to make races.
And midway through the season, on Aug. 6, this mob of tough, scratching stock car racers will be turned loose for the first time on The Greatest Race Course in the World - Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The dream of countless race fans - a NASCAR race at Indy - is coming true.
The Brickyard 400 is the biggest new race in the United States since the late Bill France, the founder of NASCAR, initiated the Daytona 500 in 1959.
Two years ago, when the Brickyard 400 was only an idea, it was reasonble to wonder whether Indy could sell half of its estimated 350,000 seats for a stock car race.
As it turned out, demand was so staggering that every seat was sold in less than a month.
And if that isn't enough to keep the fans buzzing, there's Harry Gant, calling it quits with a farewell tour in the busiest of seasons.
And Dale Earnhardt, NASCAR's greatest star and still in the prime of his career at 42, will be seeking his seventh Winston Cup championship to tie the all-time leader, Richard Petty.
"Going into the year and having the opportunity to race for a seventh championship is what really excites me," Earnhardt said recently. "It's unbelievable to some point. [Car owner] Richard Childress and the team talk about it. They talk about winning seven, and they talk about winning eight and nine."
First off, as always, is the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20, a race Earnhardt never has won. And if the preseason trend stays its course, Earnhardt won't win again this year. That is because he is sticking with Goodyear tires, and so far the Hoosier tires have proved faster at the 2.5-mile superspeedway. Whether they remain quicker during the race is anybody's guess.
Three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip and 1986 Daytona 500 champion Geoff Bodine already have committed to Hoosiers, joining Greg Sacks and rookies Ward and Jeff Burton, Loy Allen and Rick Carelli.
The switch-hitters - those who have no contract with either company and will try to figure out the fastest brand from race to race - include top contenders Gant and Ricky Rudd, as well as Rick Mast and rookies Joe Nemechek and Steve Grissom.
Goodyear loyalists include Earnhardt, Kyle Petty, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Terry and Bobby Labonte, Bill Elliott, Jimmy Spencer, Ken Schrader, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Ted Musgrave, Wally Dallenbach Jr., Chuck Bown, John Andretti, Sterling Marlin and Brett Bodine.
Their philosophy is, as Petty put it, "You dance with the one that brung you."
The new tire war is a concern to drivers, since the first Goodyear-Hoosier battle in 1988 and early 1989 (when Hoosier dropped out) left Elliott, Gant and others with broken bones and other injuries from crashes caused by tire failures.
Bob Newton, Hoosier's president, doesn't think that will be a problem this time because both companies are using only a radial tire, which is more reliable than the bias-ply tires that were the norm in the first war.
That's why he says: "I don't see it as a tire war. [The bias-ply tire] was a much more dangerous tire."
But Mark Martin, for one, does not relish what's coming.
"After seeing what happened in 1988, I'm very concerned . . . " he said. "Boy, I sure don't want to watch my car running somewhere while I'm laid up."
Everyone is assuming that Goodyear tires will be stronger at some tracks and Hoosier at others, which is what happened the last time.
This assumption prompted Newton to suggest in January that any team that has signed an exclusive tire contract with either company (contracts give teams some or all of their tires at no cost) won't be able to win a championship.
"I doubt very much whether a contract will mean anything when it comes to a few weeks in the season," Newton said with his usual frankness.
"That will make it rough if you do try to stay with one tire company," Earnhardt said. "Yeah, we may have to sacrifice a little bit here. On the other hand, we might gain a little there."
But in some ways, the switch-hitters have a more daunting challenge than the contracted teams.
NASCAR now limits each team to three sets of tires for practice and qualifying before each race, and that apparently doesn't mean three sets of each brand.
Since every team needs one set of new, so-called "sticker" tires for qualifying, that would leave one set of each brand to practice with while also trying to figure out chassis setups.
"That's what makes this whole thing so frustrating," Mast said. "It just adds another variable to the infinite number of variables we already live with. It's just going to be a very tough situation, a lot of trial and error.
"There's going to be a lot of timing going on with other cars, and what you'll have to do is kind of take an overall consensus with the other cars.
"But then the question becomes, `Are the tires going to be good in the race or not?' That's what you're going to have to fight every single week."
Teams that have the most trouble figuring out what they need to go fast will be making early exits.
The first big exodus of full-time teams is likely to come March 6 at Richmond, where 10 or more drivers will have to head home after second-round qualifying. That creates its own sort of tension, because the sponsors of those teams will not get any TV exposure during the race.
"I don't know what you explain to sponsors when you get to that point," Petty said. "There are going to be teams going home from races that have major sponsors. You are going to have to take that into account at the beginning of the season. But I think you also have to adopt the attitude, `It ain't going to be me.' "
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB