Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9405010132
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
He's never had a finish to brag about at either place. And his terrible flips in last year's Daytona 500 and Winston 500 made him even more gun shy of NASCAR's biggest, fastest tracks.
But now that NASCAR's roof flaps seem to be keeping race cars from flipping and flying, Wallace has a flat-out attitude toward today's Winston Select 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
"I've completely forgotten about all that stuff that happened last year," he said Saturday. "We've got roof flaps and all that stuff, so I'm ready to go. I've got a lot more confidence out there. . . . Everybody's got them, and that's going to make racing better."
Wallace has 33 Winston Cup victories, including two this year and 10 in 1993, but he's never finished better than fifth at Talladega and seventh at Daytona in 42 starts.
"I think the car has been a limiting factor, but I did have the car to win this race last year," he said. "I was winning it - until the restart" with two laps to go. "If they hadn't had the restart, I would have won this race."
Ernie Irvan, who won the pole for today's race with a lap of 193.298 mph, won last year's event by a car-length over Jimmy Spencer. Wallace flipped past the finish line when he was bumped by Dale Earnhardt during the wild finale. Wallace finished sixth and broke his left wrist in the crash. He still has a steel pin in his left arm to stabilize the wrist.
"I had a lot to do with [the roof flaps] being on the cars here," Wallace said. "After last year, everybody said, `Now, we've got to do something.' A lot of teams worked with NASCAR to develop the roof flaps. We went to the wind tunnel with them and worked real hard on it."
The flaps received their sternest and most dramatic test in Saturday's ARCA race. With 1 1/2 laps to go, Loy Allen Jr. spun out of control on the backstretch when his car was tapped by Jimmy Horton.
As Allen's car turned around, the back wheels lifted off the ground. But at the same moment, the two flaps popped up from the roof and the car came back down. Although the car hit the inside wall, it never flipped.
Forty-two cars will start today's race at 1:30 p.m. At the back of the field, in 42nd position, is Earnhardt's former crew chief, Kirk Shelmerdine, who is making his Winston Cup debut in Jimmy Means' car.
Shelmerdine, who was 40th-fastest in qualifying Friday, stood on that lap and dropped to 46th, but he still earned a provisional starting spot.
Means, one of NASCAR's legendary low-budget privateers, was laughing at his financial predicament Saturday. The entry fee for a Winston Cup race is $500, but NASCAR deducts $500 from a team's race winnings.
Means' Ford Thunderbird, however, has failed to qualify for the past three races.
"This is the first time in my career I've got to pay NASCAR to race," he said. "Whatever I earn in this race won't pay for what I owe them."
Today's race will be shown live on ESPN.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.