ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
THE DRIVER from Horsepasture is on a roll this year in NASCAR's truck series, and he sees a bright future for himself and the division.
Although Jimmy Hensley is in his first full season as a Craftsman Truck driver, he's hardly a NASCAR rookie.
Still, the truck series has taken the Henry County driver to seven race tracks he'd never seen before 1996.
``I think that's the kind of situation where just my experience helps me more than the younger guys,'' said Hensley, 50.
So, what will his quarter-century of NASCAR running mean this weekend, when he drives a truck for the first time on a track he really knows, Martinsville Speedway, in Saturday's Hanes 250?
Hensley, from nearby Horsepasture, will be racing in his fifth division at Clay Earles' short track. His record there includes five Grand National victories. He knows every white-painted wall, every turn banked by azaleas.
``Yeah, I've been in those, too,'' Hensley said this week during a visit to the speedway.
After three races in team owner Grier Lackey's Dodge last year, Hensley's first yearly commitment to the truck series has brought 17 top-10 finishes in 18 races. The only exception was a 13th in the Hurricane Fran-shortened race two weeks ago in Richmond.
Hensley ranks sixth in the points race (2,348) and seventh in money ($147,210). He's still looking for not only his first victory but the first for Dodge, which is using the Craftsman Truck series as its first serious return to stock racing since the Winston Cup glory days of Richard Petty's No.43.
As for that circuit, if Hensley misses it, he doesn't miss the grind for huge-money stakes and, for him, the almost weekly hunt for a ride.
His first Winston Cup race came in 1972, for Junie Donlavey. It was a fifth-place finish, and guess where? It happened in the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville. In 98 races on NASCAR's biggest stage, that still is the best finish for Hensley, who was the 1992 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, when he drove for Cale Yarborough.
In a 24-year span, Hensley had rides in 18 seasons for 22 teams, including his own. So, what happens when he finds a home in the Mopar Performance Dodge truck?
Lackey recently told Hensley the team might not run a full schedule in 1997, and told the driver to feel free to look for a full-time ride.
``I've been pursuing a few things, and I've talked to some people,'' Hensley said. ``I'm just talking right now, not negotiating, but I have to find something not too far down the road. It won't be long after we finish this year and we'll be starting up again.''
Hensley said his only frustration has been no victories. His best finish was second in late June in Nazareth, Pa.
As for the pressure of truck driving as compared with Winston Cup, he said, ``It's not there - yet.''
That's why he's not looking for a Winston Cup ride again. He does want to race at least a few more years on the truck circuit, however, because he likes the competition and grass-roots growth of the series.
``We're getting good crowds,'' Hensley said of the Craftsman series, which is run by NASCAR at many tracks that don't see Winston Cup racing. ``It's been very competitive, and I think fans like it because a lot of them drive pickups, so they identify with it.
``The only thing wrong with the trucks, in my mind, is the travel. I'll make 12 cross-country trips this year. Our banquet is out there [San Francisco], too. It kind of wears you out.''
The growth of the truck series in its second year is reflected in more than the purses, which total more than $4 million for 24 races. In a three-race, eight-day span this month, the series drew a combined 115,000 spectators to tracks in Nashville, Tenn., Richmond and Loudon, N.H. - including 22,000 for the deluged night race in the state capital.
The Hanes 250, scheduled at 2p.m. Saturday, on the eve of the Hanes 500, is one of four truck races run in conjunction with Winston Cup events this year. Martinsville's numbers reflect the truck climb, too.
The race is 100 laps longer than a year ago. The purse has increased from $162,755 to $264,964, too.
Next year, the series goes from 24 to 26 events, with one of the new stops a Jan.19 opener at Walt Disney World Speedway - three weeks before the Daytona 500.
Hensley also said Dodge has gotten a boost from its return to NASCAR racing. At a recent dealers' meeting in Monterey, Calif., at which he made an appearance, he learned the manufacturer's share of the nation's truck sales has gone from 8 to close to 30 percent.
He'd like to think his performance has made a difference.
``I know the truck racing has been good for me,'' Hensley said. ``They came to me last year when I was kind of floundering around.
``It was a fresh start, and it was a good deal for me. I'd been in some good deals in Winston Cup before, but they were part-time deals. This was mine.''
Hensley would like to repeat his Winston Cup dash of seven years ago at Martinsville on Friday, when the trucks qualify after the 3p.m. Winston Cup pole qualifying.
In 1989, he drove Dale Earnhardt's Chevrolet to the Goody's 500 pole when Earnhardt couldn't get to the speedway because Hurricane Hugo was passing through North Carolina and Virginia.
``I've done the right things to run pretty quick here over the years at Martinsville,'' he said. ``It would be nice to win the first one here.''
It also will be nice driving only 10 minutes from his home to work. Then he will be playing Horace Greeley - going west, to Sonoma, Bakersfield, Phoenix and Las Vegas - and looking for a new job.
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NATE MECHA. Jimmy Hensley has 17 top-10 finishes in hisby CNBfirst full year of NASCAR truck racing, ranking sixth in the points
standings. color. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING