ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9606030133
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING
DATELINE: DOVER, DEL.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
Huge C5A military transport planes lumber through the sky here like giant elephants, appearing to move so slowly that they seem to crawl compared to the NASCAR stock cars on the track at Dover Downs International Speedway.
The big planes are a routine sight each time the NASCAR Winston Cup series visits Dover. They fly out of Dover Air Force base, the East Coast headquarters for the C5A fleet.
Dover is also the home of Sambo's Tavern, as well as a congregation of Amish who still travel via horse and buggy, and a 500-mile Winston Cup race that nearly every driver wants to see shortened.
Dover is a bit of a strange place to have a major sporting event. About the only time Dover is in the news is when some tragedy or war takes the lives of U.S. servicemen overseas, and their bodies are brought back to the military morgue here.
Al Robinson, the speedway's public relations director, well remembers his first impression of Dover when he moved here more than a decade ago and first saw the vast spread of wetlands along the coast.
``I was taken out to Port Mahon [just east of the city] and it was an incredibly peaceful and unspoiled landscape. It's an amazing sight, until you look on the horizon and see the Salem nuclear plant on the Jersey side,'' Robinson said.
Dover is the state capital of Delaware, but one gets the impression that it's an outpost for legislators, and the real wheeling and dealing happens in Wilmington, where most of the money and power is located.
So NASCAR's presence in this overgrown small town is a big deal.
``People kind of take it for granted in North Carolina, but when you have an autograph session up here, there's 1,000 people in line,'' Kenny Wallace said Saturday while relaxing in the garage.
And they have no trouble packing them in at the track. More than 100,000 fans will bask under sunny skies today, ready and eager to see a four-hour marathon that nearly every driver thinks should be shorter.
If it was up to the drivers, it would be the Miller 400. Or the Miller 350.
``Five hundred miles here is cruel and unusual punishment,'' said Darrell Waltrip. ``It's just sticking it in your face. If they would just listen to what people are telling them and shorten this race to 350 miles, Dover would be a lot better.''
As he talks, Waltrip is digging into a pile of steamed shrimp from Sambo's Tavern, one of Dover's unique pleasures.
Sambo's is one of the few businesses in the sleepy village of Leipsic, just a few miles northeast of the track. They use newspapers for tablecloths, and the cuisine is steamed crabs and steamed shrimp. And if you want to see drivers up close, just hang out at Sambo's on a Friday or Saturday night of race weekend - if you can get in.
Kyle Petty is the defending champion, and he probably would take more pleasure in his victory if he could remember it better.
``I was a little out of it last year,'' Petty said. ``We had an exhaust leak and I was just trying to survive. I won the race, but I don't remember a lot about the last 100 laps.
``Dover is a great place for a 400-mile race,'' he said. ``A 600-mile race at Charlotte compares to a 400-mile race at Dover. That extra 100 miles at Dover makes it like an 800-mile race at Charlotte.''
The long race is compounded by the difficulty of driving the track.
``Dover is one of those places that has a tendency to reach out and bite you,'' said Derrike Cope. ``You carry so much speed in the turns here, you're almost in the throttle before the car gets its direction set in the turns.''
That puts the driver in the awkward position of hammering the gas before he knows how his car will respond.
``It's just ridiculously long,'' said Waltrip. ``Just look at how much time it takes. Forget the number of miles. It ought to be three and a half hours long, however many miles that would be.''
But there's no indication that Dover has any intention of shortening its races.
``We conduct a very sophisticated form of audience research twice a year,'' said Robinson. ``It's called selling tickets. And our customers have voted overwhelmingly for 500 miles. We intend to maintain 500 miles as the race distance as long as it is agreeable with NASCAR.''
But as Brett Bodine argued, ``Quantity doesn't always ensure quality. This is a classic example of that.''
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB