Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 6, 1995                   TAG: 9504060067
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TEAMS STILL DON'T KNOW WHICH WAY WIND IS BLOWING AFTER TUNNEL TESTS

Crew chiefs and drivers alike were in the dark about the results at Bristol during the weekend. Some spoke of getting nothing out of engineers who were at the tests, engineers they've known for decades.

Two rumors began circulating at Bristol: One was that NASCAR planned to go back to the tunnels with the cars of the very best teams; the other was that NASCAR would return to the tunnels to test proposed changes to the cars of one manufacturer or another.

``I wouldn't expect it,'' said Gary Nelson, NASCAR's Winston Cup director. He did acknowledge that ``it would be nice'' to return to the tunnels to test proposed changes.

Nelson said NASCAR ``definitely found something'' in the tests. He wouldn't say what it was, but others were willing to speculate.

``I think what they'll find, more or less, is that the Chevrolet Monte Carlo has more rear downforce and the Ford has more front downforce and the Ford has more drag,'' said Richard Childress, a Chevy car owner.

LESSONS LEARNED: David Green will be standing by at North Wilkesboro this weekend in case Bobby Labonte needs relief, but Labonte's plans, as of midweek, were to qualify the car and drive the entire race.

``He's going to go all the way. That's his plan,`` Green said Wednesday. ``I knew that when Bobby ran as long as he did in the race'' at Bristol. ``It might have settled out the kinks.''

Green, who relieved Labonte after 118 laps, said he learned much in his first Winston Cup ride with an experienced team, even though Dave Marcis took him out on lap 151, leaving him with a crippled car.

``Jimmy Makar [the crew chief] made me feel like I'd been there forever,'' Green said. ``What I learned last weekend probably would have taken me a year to learn on my own.``

REBUILDING TIME: Kyle Petty's best run in 1995 ended up being his worst finish.

Petty was 35th in the 36-car field at Bristol after being bumped and crashing into the wall in turn 4. But it was an encouraging weekend for a team on the rebound.

``Like we've said pretty much all year, we're not a championship-caliber team at this point in time,'' Petty said. told Pontiac's Brian Hoagland at Bristol. ``We can be one, but we're not one right now. We're just really trying to rebuild.''

JUNIOR'S BLUES: To say Junior Johnson is not happy with NASCAR management in the wake of his $40,000 cheating fine would be an understatement. But he's sticking it out.

``Just because we've got a crummy bunch of people running the sport don't mean the sport ain't a good sport,'' Johnson said at Bristol during the weekend. ``That's a shame you've got people who take a grudge or a stand on some people, and other people they don't do this to. They have nothing equal or fair about the way they do business. Something you've got to understand is the people you're dealing with is that kind of people, that's all.''