Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Car owner Jack Roush is an automotive engineer in every bone of his body, so you would expect his team to be on the cutting edge of this research and development.
But Roush driver Mark Martin's transporters don't have dynamometers to test shocks. In fact, Martin says the shock craze is nothing but a ``fad.''
``I run the same shocks that I ran five years ago,'' Martin said. ``With those, I plan to outrun everybody with their shock gurus and their shock dynos and all that.
``Engineers need to make livings,'' he said. ``So they come in here and try to make us believe that they have something that can help us. So you have about 20 engineers in the garage here today making a good living telling the teams that they're helping them. ... It's something that has become a huge fad in here.''
But not in Martin's garage.
``You know, this thing isn't nearly as complicated as people think,'' he said. ``We do very simple, basic things, and it just floors people when they come to work for us. They come to us from teams that couldn't make races and they see how simply we do the things that we do. They cannot believe the way we do things.''
Steve Hmiel, Martin's crew chief, said his driver is the team's most reliable shock dyno.
``We're not a bunch of hayseeds who say, `Naw, we don't need that,''' he said. ``What we have is Mark, and he has a real good feel for what he needs in shocks and springs.''
A FINE MESS: NASCAR announced this week it has fined Kenny Wallace $7,500 for ignoring a black flag at Phoenix on Oct.29.
During the race, Wallace's car began smoking badly. Kevin Triplett, a NASCAR spokesman, said Wallace was black-flagged repeatedly, and only obeyed the call to the pits when NASCAR announced it was going to pull his scorecard.
It was the second time this year Wallace has been fined for ignoring a black flag. He was hit with a $500 fine at Charlotte in May.
Triplett said the fine was $7,500 primarily because NASCAR has instituted an escalating scale for black-flag fines (the same as it has for cheating fines), but also because it was Wallace's second offense.
The escalating scale of fines for ignoring the black flag cost Elton Sawyer $2,500 at Charlotte in May and Geoff Bodine $5,000 at Michigan in June.
ROOKIE RACE: Don't ask how the Winston Cup's rookie of the year contest is decided. It would take a congressional investigation to figure it out. Trust us, it's all but in the bag for Ricky Craven.
Craven leads Robert Pressley by 12 points going into the final race Sunday at Atlanta. But the rookie contest is different because competitors don't get points for all the races. And there are bonus points, and committee points. It would take a seminar just to explain it.
What it boils down to is Pressley needs a top-five finish at Atlanta to have a chance of pulling close enough to Craven that bonus and committee points might be a factor. And he hasn't had a top-five finish this year. His best result was 10th at Bristol in April.
by CNB