ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020045
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
As the NASCAR Winston Cup series prepares for qualifying tonight for Sunday's UAW-GM 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the sanctioning body has been busy, again fine tuning the aerodynamics rules.
All three makes of stock cars will lose a quarter of an inch of height on their spoilers, and the Chevys and Pontiacs also will have to raise the height of their air dams.
For this weekend's event, the Chevys will have a spoiler that is 5 3/4 inches high, the Fords will have one at 6 inches and the Pontiacs will have one at 6 1/4 inches.
The air dam for the Chevy will be one-eighth of an inch higher (from 3.75 inches to 3.875) and the Pontiacs will have to raise theirs a quarter of an inch to 3.75 inches. Fords remain at four inches.
The net effect should make the cars slightly less stable and, NASCAR hopes, a bit slower. But these differences are so small, it's hard for even the drivers to notice.
The Pontiacs, which in recent races have been running strong for a change, have been hit with the biggest adjustment.
``It's going to take a little bit away,'' said Rockbridge Baths' Rick Mast, driver of the Richard Jackson Pontiac. ``Yeah, I think it will hurt us a little bit, but I think it will be alright.''
Qualifying for the pole position and the next 24 starting spots in Sunday's race begins at 7 p.m.
GORDON'S SECRET: Jeff Gordon will be going for four straight victories in Sunday's race. If he succeeds, he'll be the first driver to do it since Mark Martin in 1993.
Mast, who was on the weekly Winston teleconference Tuesday, thinks he knows the secret of Gordon's success.
``What amazes me about that particular car is that car just never slips,'' Mast said. ``The car just never gets off. We're talking nowadays in Winston Cup racing, a driver means a lot, but that car seems like it's always handling properly. Everybody gets their car to act like that on a given weekend, but that bunch, they're just doing it every week.''
Mast will be going for his fourth straight top-10 finish Sunday, but when asked why he and his car are suddenly performing so much better, he said, ``I don't have a clue, man. I can't answer that.''
NO JUNIOR RETURN: A few weeks ago, there were rumors that Junior Johnson would return to the NASCAR Winston Cup series. There's about as much chance of that as Joe Gibbs returning to NFL coaching.
Johnson, in fact, said he is thoroughly enjoying his retirement.
``I've got two little kids and me and my wife do what we want to do whenever we want to do it,'' he said last week. ``I have a full-time occupation looking after the kids and looking after 600 head of cattle.''
Johnson said he could get back in if he wanted. ``I've had some generous offers,'' he said. ``But it's just the time involved. You're gone so much, and almost always gone Thursday through Sunday. You grind out 40 years of that and then people wonder why you retired.''
STEWART PLANS DOUBLE: Tony Stewart, who will run for NASCAR Winston Cup rookie of the year next season, joins counterpart Robby Gordon as a driver who intends to run in both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day next May.
``I'm sure we'll be at the Indy 500 next year,'' said Stewart, who drives John Menard's Indy cars.
Stewart still is mending from a broken collarbone, a broken pelvis and a cracked hip suffered in an Indy Racing League crash last month at Las Vegas.
``It looks like for sure I'm going to try to make [a comeback at] the ARCA race in Atlanta,'' he said.
Stewart will drive a Ford for Harry Ranier, who is making a comeback in the Winston Cup series after leaving in 1988.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB