Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994 TAG: 9405290102
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
\ The spotlight is on John Andretti today as he tries to compete in a unique doubleheader on auto racing's biggest day of the year.
Andretti, the 31-year-old nephew of Mario Andretti, will start in the Indianapolis 500 at 11 a.m. and then, after his Indy race is over, will hustle to Charlotte by jet and helicopter to drive in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which starts at 5 p.m.
After a 53-minute jet flight from Indianapolis to Charlotte, the helicopter flying him to the Charlotte track is expected to touch down in the tri-oval in front of the main grandstand about 20 minutes before the 600 starts.
If Andretti doesn't make it in time, Phil Parsons, the winner of Saturday's Champion 300 Grand National race, will start the race for him.
"My objective is to win both and do the best I can do," the amiable, slightly built racer said. "We're going to go out and race as hard as we can race and see what comes out of it. All I can do is hope for the best and do my best."
Andretti is eminently qualified to run both races. He has six previous Indy starts and is a regular in the Winston Cup series. But he is expected to win neither one.
He starts 10th in the 500, in which the favorites to win the greatest spectacle in racing are Penske drivers Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr., who will debut the powerful new Mercedes pushrod engines.
Andretti is supposed to start ninth in the 600. However, unless he manages to make it in time for the mandatory driver's meeting two hours before the race, he will have to start in the back of the field in his Billy Hagan-owned Chevrolet, which is an unsponsored car.
So far, the only thing about Andretti's unprecedented effort that makes him uncomfortable is answering so many questions about it. He brought all the hype on himself, but he'd still rather not have talk about it all the time.
"Now I know what Dale Earnhardt feels like every week," Andretti said.
Earnhardt, as might be expected, is the favorite on the strength of two consecutive victories in NASCAR's longest race.
"We didn't qualify that great [24th], but the car is running pretty good," Earnhardt said. "I'd say I've got a real good shot at a good race on Sunday. This isn't the car we wanted to run in the 600, but it's the car we won with at Bristol, and we've kept working on it pretty hard and we've got it dialed in pretty good."
Geoff Bodine, the winner of last weekend's Winston Select, also has to be considered a favorite because of the performance of his car at Charlotte and the performance of his Hoosier tires.
Bodine had one of the fastest speeds in the final practice Saturday, with a lap of 173.070 mph.
And the Hoosiers outran the Goodyears in the Champion 300 on Saturday, with Parsons, a part-time driver, whipping Mark Martin by more than 10 seconds.
The Hoosier drivers in today's race also include Darrell Waltrip, Harry Gant, Rick Mast and Jeff Burton. Bodine has the edge because he's spent hundreds of hours racing and testing the tires.
"Here at Charlotte, we're confident we have a good tire," Bodine said. "We tested here for Hoosier, and we tested at Atlanta for Hoosier. We knew when we came here with the same design tire, it would work. It's proven to be a good tire."
Hoosier President Bob Newton was in the infield media center after Saturday's Grand National victory.
He said, "We expect the same results tomorrow. But again, we've got to have a lot of luck."
The Hoosier cars really came on after about 25-lap or 30-lap runs in Saturday's race. It wasn't that they became faster; the Goodyears became slower.
This means the Hoosier drivers need a lot of long, green-flag runs to perform at their best today.
"It's 400 laps, so we should get a bunch of green-flag racing," Newton said. "That's what we're hoping for."
Earnhardt said, "The 600 is a different kind of race. If you've got the car right at the beginning of the race, there's no guarantee that it's going to be the same way at the end of 600 miles.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB