ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210042
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
Only time will tell whether Indy car driver Robby Gordon can successfully make the switch to the Winston Cup series without having raced extensively in NASCAR.
Steve Kinser and Davy Jones were flops. John Andretti and Wally Dallenbach have struggled. Tim Richmond and Jeff Gordon made it.
It's not impossible, but Robby Gordon will be learn how help his crew make improvements to a Pontiac Grand Prix that has been largely non-competitive this year. In addition, he's trying to learn a new style of racing and figure out how to drive an unfamiliar group of tracks.
The odds are against him.
``I figure the first year, we're going to be here learning,'' Gordon said Tuesday on the weekly Winston Cup teleconference. ``I've got a lot to learn. I'm going to struggle for a while. It's going to be a frustrating year.''
That seems to be a given, so the real question will be how much frustration Gordon and car owner Felix Sabates can take.
Gordon, renowned more for his fire than his patience, spoke of having fun in all of his previous racing efforts, but also conceded that one reason for the switch to stock car racing was, ``I didn't think I could go another bad year'' in Indy car racing.
In other auto racing news:
SAUTER AGAIN: Jim Sauter, who pleased Sabates with his steady, trouble-free drive to 21st place in Michigan, remaining on the lead lap all day, will substitute for Kyle Petty again at Bristol this weekend.
``Kyle is still hurting pretty bad,'' Sabates said. ``His stomach is swollen, his pancreas is inflamed and his liver is inflamed. Jim Sauter did a pretty good job for us as an old man, so we're going to put him in the car this week.''
Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt, injured at Talladega last month, plans to go all the way at Bristol.
``In fact, right now he's out on his tractor on his farm, working in the hay field,'' assistant business manager Ty Norris said.
TWO TEAMS IN '98: Sabates said ``the only way to survive and be competitive'' is to have two teams in the Winston Cup series.
So in 1998, ``most likely we will be a two-car team,'' he said. If so, the driver won't be Jay Sauter, the driver of Sabates's part-time NASCAR truck effort.
``He's going to be going to the [Richard] Childress truck next year,'' Sabates said. ``Jay did such a good job, Childress hired him to replace Mike Skinner.''
Skinner becomes the driver of Childress' second Winston Cup car.
TWO TEAMS IN '97:While Sabates plans to expand the season after next, car owner Larry McClure is busy expanding to two teams for 1997.
Morgan-McClure Racing is building a new shop for Sterling Marlin and the No.4 Chevrolet Monte Carlo team about two miles from the existing shop in Abingdon, Va. The old shop will be for the second team.
``We're just putting things together,'' McClure said. ``We're talking to sponsors right now, and we're going to wait until we get everything put together before we make any announcements. I think within the next three weeks we'll be able to formally announce what we're doing.''
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB