ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 25, 1996 TAG: 9605280115
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
It's called the ``hooligan'' race.
It's 40 laps around Charlotte Motor Speedway on a slow Friday for the honor of starting in the back of the field in today's Red Dog 300 Grand National race.
But, as winner Joe Nemechek said, ``It doesn't matter what you put us race car drivers on, we're going for the win. You put us on lawn mowers and we're still going for the win.''
He also said, ``We won us a suitcase race, man.''
Nemechek passed Rodney Combs on the 27th lap and held on from there to win by three-hundredths of a second. Terry Labonte was third, followed by Ward Burton, Matt Kenseth, L.W. Miller III, Joe Bessey, David Bonnett, Kevin Lepage and Doug Heveron.
``Four out of five times we've been here, I've had to run the `hooligan,''' Lepage said. ``I've had to do it from the rear, too. But we figured it out.''
Outside the top 10, there were 14 other drivers who found nothing but disappointment running with the hooligans, including Kenny Wallace (11th), Dennis Setzer (14th), Steve Grissom (17th) and Tommy Houston (21st), who was knocked out in the race's only wreck. It occurred on the 11th lap in turn 4. No one was hurt.
Grissom, as a former Busch champion, gets a champion's provisional and will be the 43rd and last starter in today's race, which begins at 1 p.m. Dale Jarrett starts on the pole.
The field faces hot weather and the slickness of the track is ``real bad up in [turns] 3 and 4,'' Miller said. ``I don't feel that it's going to get any better unless we get some rain and it washes the track. It'll still be greasy tomorrow and it'll get worse throughout the race.''
TOUGH TO BEAT: Grand National points champion David Green says today's race is the toughest for a Busch regular to beat a Winston Cup regular.
``All the Cup guys have been here since last week,'' he saidtold Chevy's Ray Cooper. ``While we were up at Nazareth (Pa.), they were going around here basically a second quicker than we are. When they get in the Busch cars, they feel like they aren't going anywhere. They're really at ease in a Busch car. When I get in my Busch car, I feel like I'm setting a record.''
SPACE COMMAND: When Charlotte Motor Speedway chairman Bruton Smith gives the command of ``Gentlemen, start your engines,'' for the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday evening, he'll have help from the space shuttle Endeavor.
Endeavor Cmdr. John Casper and pilot Curt Brown, a native of Elizabethtown, N.C., will assist Smith via a special NASA downlink while orbiting 180 miles above the earth.
THREE-WAY DONATION: The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has donated $180,000 raised in the 1996 Winston Cup Preview to three organizations: $60,000 each to The Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxiliary, the AirCare helicopter ambulance service and Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem, N.C.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Tommy Houston (left) and Greg Clark spin out Fridayby CNBin turn 4 during the Red Dog Challenge at Charlotte Motor Speedway.