Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407230024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Medium
Instead, all of the talk from Rusty Wallace, Ernie Irvan, Darrell Waltrip and Geoff Bodine focused on the Brickyard 400, the inaugural Winston Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway two weeks from today.
In fact, the main reason they were there was to get Indy questions out of the way so they could concentrate on Sunday's race, the season's final restrictor plate race.
"It's been tough for everybody to concentrate on what's happening right now and worry about what's happening at Indy," Irvan said.
"I've been asked a thousand questions all week long about what's going to happen" at Indy, Wallace said. "Bottom line, it's going to be two races: qualifying and the race. In my opinion, the cream is going to rise 100 laps into the race. The qualifying, I don't know what's going to happen there."
"I guess one of the intriguing things is how many not-so-regular Winston Cup competitors will be able to make the field and how competitive will they be," Waltrip said.
Said Bodine, "We all had a lot of fun going up there last year" to test. "I took one of my sons up and we went out on the bricks at the finish line and had our pictures taken. But it's been pretty serious lately. We've been working really hard, doing a lot of testing. . . . "
Bodine completed a final tire test at the 2.5-mile speedway Thursday and was thrilled with the tire Hoosier has produced for the Brickyard 400.
"It just feels so good," he said. "The temperatures are good. The wear is good. I don't know how anyone could have a better tire."
But Bodine also noted that when everyone finally gets to Indy for the real thing, "all of this testing and practice up to now, just throw all those numbers out the window, because 80 cars will change that race track. . . . Eighty cars are going to mess it up. Once 80 cars show up, this track gets greasy."
Said Wallace, "I think the most exciting thing you'll see is the old slingshot draft. That's going to come back into effect at Indy. I noticed that in practice. I noticed you could whip out with ease and pass."
In other racing news:
\ FINES, FINES, FINES: NASCAR officials were busy handing out fines Friday after their inspectors found a number of problems on several cars, particularly around the air filter.
After Kyle Petty's qualifying run, which was 21st fastest, inspectors "found tape on the housing of the air filter extending back toward the cowl to increase the air flow [into the engine], which will increase horsepower," NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said.
The team was fined $2,000. But even though his team cheated, NASCAR allowed Petty to keep his Friday qualifying time. This is a significant departure from past practice. When NASCAR found an illegal carburetor on Ken Schrader's car after qualifying for the Pepsi 400 last year at Daytona, they not only disallowed his time, but suspended him for four races. (The suspension was later overturned).
NASCAR also fined Jeff Gordon's team a total of $3,000. The team received a $1,000 fine for arriving at the track Friday with a spoiler that was too thin. The spoiler is supposed to be .125 inches thick; Gordon's was .090 thick, Triplett said. It was found during pre-practice inspection.
Gordon's team also received a $2,000 fine for making cuts in the air filter in an attempt to allow more air flow to the engine. The filter, Triplett said, was "cut drastically in several places all around the circumference of the filter." That was found and confiscated during pre-qualifying inspection. Gordon qualified 15th.
And on Rick Bickle's car, "the base of the air filter housing was irregular, and it was the same air filter housing the team had been asked not to use twice previously," Triplett said. The housing was confiscated and the team was fined $500. Bickle was 40th fastest.
As to the apparent leniency of the penalties, Triplett said: "We're trying to give everybody a certain benefit of the doubt. We don't know how much of an advantage it gave them."
\ INDY INVASION: The Indianapolis folks were at Talladega in full force Friday, including crews from all four TV stations and both newspapers as well as a group from the speedway.
Perhaps the most interesting visitor was Tom Carnegie, the voice of the Indianapolis 500, who has been the speedway's track announcer for every race since 1947.
Like many things at Indy, Carnegie is a tradition. He will, of course, announce the Brickyard 400.
"I've never announced a stock car race," said Carnegie. "But I'd never even seen an Indy car race before I started announcing them. I'll handle it all right."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB