Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 22, 1994 TAG: 9404220044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Darrell Waltrip expects to run well in the Hanes 500 on Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, but if he doesn't, and his tires have anything to do with it, he may say goodbye to Hoosier.
"Pretty big test, pretty big test," the three-time Winston Cup champion said at a news conference Wednesday to promote the May 21 running of The Winston at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord.
The Winston Cup cars begin practicing on the .526-mile Martinsville track at 11 a.m. today. The crucial first round of qualifying for Sunday's Winston Cup race is 3 p.m.
"We believe Martinsville is the place where it's all going to come together," Waltrip said. "We've got our best car, we've got our best tire for the year and Martinsville is one of my best race tracks. So this is really a big week for us. We go there with high expectations."
Waltrip said his Hoosier tires aren't all that's kept him from finishing well, but "they've been a big factor."
"If you get the car off a little bit and the tires aren't very good, too, then you look like I did Sunday at [North] Wilkesboro," he said. "I might as well have pulled in and parked the darn thing."
Waltrip shook and rattled his way to a 28th-place finish, 10 laps down, and after 280 laps of the 400-lap race, told his crew: "I've never drove anything this terrible."
Afterward, one of his crewman said, "I've never worked so hard to run so bad."
"We've been to seven races and I've had one good one," said Waltrip, who finished third at Atlanta.
"If you went by the [performances in] the races, and you were buying all your tires, you would have bought Hoosier tires once and Goodyear tires six times," Waltrip said. "That's not a good ratio.
"But, hopefully, we're going to turn that around. Martinsville is the first race that we have been to so far this year where I think we've got the right tire to get the job done. I'm not saying it's better than a Goodyear. I'm saying it's as good as a Goodyear.
"And from there on, we're going to be in great shape. We got with [Hoosier Tire president Bob] Newton, Geoff Bodine and I did. We've got him thinking differently. We've got him looking at the tire differently. He was going in the wrong direction and we got him turned around and headed in the right direction. And we think we're going to be on to some good stuff before long."
Does Waltrip think about switching back to Goodyear?
"Oh, yeah," he said. "I think about it daily, hourly. I've got a lot invested in this deal."
Waltrip's car is one of 46 entered at Martinsville, including one driven by Winston Cup newcomer Jim Bown, a Grand National regular who will try to qualify a Chevrolet owned by John Kieper.
But with only 34 starting positions and no more than three provisional spots available, at least nine drivers will be going home early.
As a former Winston Cup points champion, Waltrip doesn't have to worry too much about making a race, since one provisional spot always is available to a champion. And he said he has a hard time comprehending the stress of trying to make races in 1994.
"I'm just having a hard time explaining to my sponsor every week how come we're not running better than we are, let alone if we weren't making the show," Waltrip said. "It's so tight that the times that I'm running to barely make the field are times that would have been on the pole a year or so ago."
Geoff Bodine set the Martinsville track record of 93.887 mph in April 1993. But one-lap records have been set at every track this year except Daytona, so there is every reason to think today's pole winner at Martinsville also will set a record.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB