ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 1996 TAG: 9603060070
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
Jeff Burton, a third-year NASCAR Winston Cup driver, is not nervous about being second in the points standings after three races.
``There's a heck of a lot less pressure being second than there is being 32nd,'' Burton said Tuesday.
And there's another reason: ``I'm sitting in a car I feel really, really good about,'' he said.
Burton is the driver of Jack Roush's new third Ford team, led by veteran crew chief Buddy Parrott. And after opening the season with a fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500, a 13th at Rockingham and a fourth at Richmond, he seems to be proving Roush made a good choice.
The most apparent problem in the Roush camp with the addition of a third team was the conflict between Burton and Roush driver Ted Musgrave after Daytona. Musgrave was furious Burton didn't act as a team player in the draft late in the race.
``That problem was probably the best thing that happened to us, because it taught us pretty quick that if we worked together and we communicated properly, we're going to work well together,'' Burton said. ``It taught us a good lesson in our very first race.''
Burton said he's surprised at how extensive the sharing of information among the three teams has been. He said his team learned some tricks at Daytona that may help Musgrave and Roush's other driver, Mark Martin, at Talladega for the Winston Select 500 on April 28.
And Parrott said a lot of the spring combinations on Burton's car at Richmond came from Musgrave.
But Parrott said there's a limit to the sharing.
``We do share information on springs and shocks, but not the total package,'' Parrott said. ``Jeff is really relying on Ted and Mark as far as chassis setups, but we're going to do our own thing, too.''
THE LOWDOWN: Roush said the controversy over the three low cars Sunday at Richmond started after NASCAR changed the way it usually conducts post-race inspections.
``In post-race inspection, one of the things that has always happened to us is we've been allowed to re-air the tires to the minimum recommended by Goodyear, because that's where they were when we [had the height test] in the first place,'' said the car owner.
The Roush cars of Martin and Burton, as well as the Chevy of race-winner Jeff Gordon, were found to be less than an eighth-of-an-inch below the minimum 51-inch roof height.
Roush said NASCAR officials inflated the tires on the three cars to 50 pounds - at least 20 pounds above the recommended pressure - to look for evidence of bleeder valves. They found no such valves.
``What they wound up finding was a third scenario - some of the tires were leaking air slowly, just because of the wear and tear on the tires on the race track.''
NASCAR's ultimate decision was no penalties for the three cars.
``I doubt if they'll do that exact kind of inspection again,'' he said.
Goodyear, meanwhile, has had little to say about the tire issue. Stu Grant, the company's racing manager, issued a statement Tuesday:
``The Goodyear engineers were not present during NASCAR's inspection and, therefore, did not know under what conditions that inspection was performed. We did see some high wear during the race, but overall they performed trouble-free during the race and that is what is important.''
MORE GROWTH: ESPN, which took over the Richmond Winston Cup races this year from TBS, had its highest ratings ever for a motorsports broadcast during Sunday's Pontiac 400.
The network received a 5.4 rating for the race, exceeding the 5.2 rating of the April 1995 Talladega race, said ESPN spokesman Dave Nagle. A 5.4 rating means that about 3,672,000 households were tuned to the race.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Jeff Burton of South Boston is second in NASCAR'sby CNBWinston Cup points standings.