Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407090025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium
"One reason I did this in the middle of the year was to give us half a year to see where we want to go," he said in the wake of the Independence Day firings of crew chief Barry Dodson and chief engine builder Lou LaRosa.
Waltrip said there are enough qualified crewmen on his team to do without an official crew chief and chief engine builder. But he expects to have faster, stronger cars within the next few races. "If that doesn't happen, there's two positions open at my race team," he said.
Waltrip said his Chevy engines almost immediately picked up 15 horsepower after LaRosa was fired. "As soon as he's out the door, the [engine] guys picked up 15 horsepower," Waltrip said. "There were a lot of things the guys wanted to do that they were not able to do" with LaRosa in charge.
For Waltrip, the final straw was the fact that his engine was no more powerful at Daytona last weekend then it was at Talladega in May.
"I was on Lou and on Lou and on Lou to get the performance up and it just didn't happen. I asked for changes to be made and they really haven't been made."
Waltrip said Dodson and LaRosa "were giving me due respect as a driver, but I don't think I was getting due respect as an owner. I want to run the team the way I want to run the team."
Waltrip said Dodson was in charge of the previous two teams he worked for and "it's hard to get people who have been in that role to answer to someone."
Clyde Booth, the team's general manager, veteran engine builder Claude Queen and chassis specialist Pete Peterson have assumed Dodson's and LaRosa's responsibilities, Waltrip said.
\ DALLENBACH, STEELE CRASH IN PRACTICE: Two Winston Cup teams had to go to backup cars after their drivers crashed during practice Friday.
Wally Dallenbach smashed the front end of his Pontiac after losing control in turn four. And Tim Steele, the substitute driver for injured Chuck Bown, damaged the rear end of his Ford after hitting the wall in turn one. Steele said he crashed after the rear end locked up.
In qualifying, Steele had better luck in his backup car than Dallenbach. Steele was 30th fastest. Dallenbach was 41st and was in danger of missing his third consecutive race.
\ SPENCER IN THREE RACES: Jimmy Spencer, fresh off his first Winston Cup victory in the Pepsi 400 one week ago, plans to compete in all three races here this weekend.
He starts 34th in his Grand National car in the NASCAR Busch North series race at 1:15 p.m. today. He crashed his primary car in practice Friday and had to qualify a backup.
A NASCAR Modified Tour event follows the Busch race and Spencer, who came up through the Modified ranks, is 18th on that starting grid. He qualified 13th for Sunday's Winston Cup race.
"It's been a great week," Spencer said. "I've been bombarded by a lot of things to do, but you really feel good about doing them. It feels good to look at the trophy after finally winning a Winston Cup race."
Spencer edged Ernie Irvan by a few feet in a side-by-side battle to the finish line of the 400 last weekend in the closest, most exciting finish of the season.
\ GM TO TEST AT INDY: General Motors has scheduled an open test for its Chevrolet and Pontiac teams on Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Most of the teams were planning to participate in the test, but GM Winston Cup engineer Don Taylor refused to say who was going and who was not.
Taylor has been spending a good bit of time working with the Pontiac teams, which have still been struggling despite the NASCAR rule change in May that allowed the Pontiacs to be extended 5 inches in length.
"We're hopeful that all the Pontiac teams can take advantage of the rules adjustment," Taylor said. "It's taking them some time to become equally competitive with the Fords. And as we go from the superspeedways to the shorter tracks, dialing in each of these cars is taking longer than we thought."
But Taylor noted that Michael Waltrip and car owner Chuck Rider have been running consistently better since the rule change.
"Chuck is setting the pace," he said. "And the reason is that when you visit Chuck's team, you realize that Chuck has made a personal commitment" and is at his shop nearly every day.
Taylor conceded the extra length slowed the Pontiacs at Daytona last weekend, but `'whenever you add downforce to the car [a result of the extra length], you also tend to increase the straightaway drag, which turns out to be a disadvantage at Daytona and Talladega. It was a tradeoff we knew we had to make."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB