ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260041
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
With the announcement last week of an agreement between Bob Bahre and Bruton Smith over the fate of the two Winston Cup dates at North Wilkesboro Speedway, the ball has fallen into NASCAR's court.
And this matter is a good example of one of the hard decisions that NASCAR President Bill France must make.
``Nobody knows who's going to get what,'' Bahre said Tuesday. ``Bruton and I have agreed on something, but Bill France owns the dates, nobody else.''
Bahre owns New Hampshire International Speedway. Smith heads Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which owns the tracks at Charlotte, Atlanta, Bristol and Texas, which is still being built. Each owns 50 percent of North Wilkesboro.
A disagreement developed when Bahre sought to get this fall's North Wilkesboro race for New Hampshire. Smith expected his Texas track to be ready for a fall race as well.
In any event, NASCAR announced that the fall North Wilkesboro race wasn't going anywhere, which seemed to calm the waters and pave the way for an agreement between Smith and Bahre, which was signed last Thursday.
Details were not announced, but presumably each got one of Wilkesboro's dates. The spring date seems to fit Smith's needs; the fall date is what Bahre has wanted. But now what does France do?
Should Texas get a date? Of course. Should New Hampshire get a second date? Maybe, maybe not.
All of the established tracks except Pocono have had two dates for decades. NASCAR added the second Pocono race in 1982. All new Winston Cup tracks since then - Watkins Glen, Phoenix, Sears Point, New Hampshire and Indianapolis - have received only one date.
Does the series really need to go to New Hampshire twice a year? The track already seems prosperous with one Cup race. On the other hand, Bahre spent millions for his share of Wilkesboro simply for the Cup date. Would it be fair to deny him that date?
``Bill France has got the agreement,'' Bahre said. ``He's the man. Until Bill decides what's going to happen, it doesn't mean much.''
``None of that has been resolved,'' NASCAR spokesman Andy Hall said Tuesday. ``The only thing that has changed is the two of them have settled their differences and now we have a starting point.
``Nothing is going to change with the 1996 schedule. Any discussions will be about the 1997 schedule. And it would be really premature for us to comment or speculate at this point.``
Hall readily agreed that France is not obligated to give another date to either track owner.
``That's why we do one-year deals with everyone,'' Hall said. ``We have an out, they have an out. It could work that they wouldn't want us back or we wouldn't want to go back. We've always done it that way.''
PAVING TEXAS: Speedway Motorsports' man in charge of the Texas track, Eddie Gossage, says workers are putting the subbase of the track down and ``should be paving in a week or 10 days.''
Although Smith wanted to open Texas this season, and Gossage says never say never, he also said, ``I think the truth is that the best opportunity for us to open is the spring of 1997. There's no big-time stake in the ground to be concerned about and the truth is, a spring date works better for us anyway. That gives us a chance to put wrapping paper and a bow on the place and make it look perfect when people show up here next spring.
``But we'd like to get some Winston Cup cars in here testing for Goodyear and some Indy cars for Goodyear and Firestone this year.''
Gossage said the track should be ready for testing around Aug. 1.
IN UNDER THE WIRE: Ted Musgrave, who began driving full time in the Winston Cup series in 1991, says he's glad he is not trying to break in now.
``If I was a rookie now, I probably wouldn't make half the shows,'' he said Tuesday. ``It's so competitive now.''
Musgrave said that's why it is an advantage to be one of Jack Roush's three drivers instead of driving for a one-team operation. The addition of Jeff Burton and Buddy Parrott to the Roush juggernaut this year at a separate shop is ``like spying on different teams, but it's your own team,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 linesby CNB