Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 18, 1994 TAG: 9402180147
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
"I'm either going to be walking around here with my chest puffed out, or I'm going to have a bag over my head - one or the other," he said Thursday morning at Daytona International Speedway.
Waltrip was ready for that bag by the time his Twin 125 qualifying race was over.
The Hoosiers were, in a word, terrible.
Joe Nemechek posted the best finish of the 11 drivers who started the Twins on Hoosiers. He was 16th in the second race and failed to qualify for Sunday's Daytona 500.
After the races were over, Hoosier president Bob Newton passed the word to his drivers that despite the contracts he had signed with them, he would not force them to stick with Hoosiers for the 500.
Of the six Hoosier drivers who qualified for Sunday's race - all on the strength of their qualifying speeds - Waltrip, Geoff Bodine and Jeff Burton reportedly decided to switch to Goodyears. The plans of Greg Sacks, Loy Allen and Joe Ruttman could not be determined Thursday evening.
Although Newton has said all along that his contract drivers could switch to Goodyear if they decided they needed to, the drivers did not have that option until late Wednesday night, when NASCAR changed its rules.
"In the interest of competition . . . ," a NASCAR statement said, "teams will now be allowed to, without penalty, change tire brands prior to and up through . . . the 40th lap of the Daytona 500."
The old rule forced drivers to race with the same brand of tire they used for qualifying.
Officially, NASCAR officials said safety wasn't an issue. But the Hoosier drivers discovered in practice during the past several days that, while their cars were fast for the first few laps on a new set of tires, they barely could keep them under control during long runs.
For instance, Loy Allen won the Daytona 500 pole on Hoosiers, but he never led a lap in his Twin 125 qualifying race and quickly went to the back of the field.
The rules change angered some Goodyear drivers.
"The thing is, for the guys who got in the race on their qualifying times, now they can go get Goodyears and not lose their starting positions," Dale Earnhardt said. "Is that right?"
While 11 drivers decided to stick with the Hoosiers for the 125s after the rules change was announced Thursday morning, seven drivers, including Harry Gant and Rick Mast, immediately switched to Goodyears.
The performance difference, according to Mast, was "about 10,000 percent. There's no comparison. No comparison," said the Rockbridge Baths resident. "At least now I've got something to work with."
The Hoosiers apparently are a bit too hard and won't adequately grip the track. That problem was even more obvious in the Twin 125s than in practice.
At one point during his race, Waltrip told his crew: "I'm about to wreck. I'm in a four-wheel slide."
About 20 laps later, he added: "The front tire felt like it was as big as a balloon."
And as he crawled out of his Chevy after finishing 19th in the second Twin 125, Waltrip said, "Well, we might have a little work to do. There's nothing wrong with the tires. They just don't hook up after awhile."
Jeff Burton finished 21st in the first 125 - the best finish for a Hoosier driver in that race. But Burton was on the edge throughout the race and complained often about his car's handling. At one point, he told his crew: "Right now I just can't do anything. I don't know if you can set up a car this bad."
Bodine was lapped twice in the first race and finished 22nd in the 30-car field.
\ BODINE FINED: In the midst of a busy Thursday morning, NASCAR officials announced that Bodine had been fined $1,000 for using two left-side tires on the right side of his car during practice Wednesday.
Left-side tires are manufactured slightly softer than right side tires, so the suspicion was that Bodine was trying to see if a softer tire on the right side of the car would help.
But Bodine said it simply was a mistake.
"Our tire man is new and got confused," he said. "It was an honest mistake."
He said he had flats on three left-side tires during practice this week and after new tires were mounted for the team following qualifying, "he marked them wrong."
Did his car's performance improve with left-side tires on the right side?
"There was no big change," he said.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB