ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702100127
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It really is a new year for Rick Mast.
The Winston Cup driver has a new sponsor, a new boss, a new crew chief, a new team, a new make of car, a new number and more than one new paint scheme for his seventh season among NASCAR's big-leaguers. The crew at his Rockbridge Baths home added twin daughters Kaitie and Sarah in October, too.
As for whether it's a happy new year, check back with Mast after he checks in at the Waldorf-Astoria in December.
``It's all about getting acclimated to one another as quickly as possible,'' Mast said a few days ago, before leaving his hillside home for Daytona International Speedway, where the 1997 Winston Cup season began Saturday with front-row qualifying for the Daytona 500 on Feb.16. ``We're all after the same thing, so at this point it's as much about putting together communications and personalities as it is having a good race car.''
Would Mast like to win the Daytona 500 in his new No.75 Ford for Remington Arms Racing? Shoot, who wouldn't. Daytona may be a Super Bowl to start the season, but it isn't exactly a barometer of the Winston Cup year.
Dale Earnhardt has won seven points championships, but never the circuit's glamour event. No driver has won Daytona and the Winston Cup title in the same year since Richard Petty, in 1979. Petty's dad, Lee, and Cale Yarborough are the only others to achieve that double.
Mast would just like to win, period. He never has in 216 Winston Cup starts. Only Michael Waltrip (330), Hut Stricklin (225) and Dick Trickle (224) have made more Winston Cup starts among current drivers without winning a points race, although Waltrip took last season's Winston Select.
Butch Mock, Mast's team owner, hasn't been in Victory Lane since the season Mast ran his first two Winston Cup races, 1988. The late Neil Bonnett won twice for Rahmoc Racing that season, four years before Mock formed his own team. In August 1996, Mast decided to leave Richard Jackson, and the Hooters Pontiac, after a six-year association.
``I don't see it as that,'' Mast said when asked, as some have suggested, that he needs to win a race this season. ``Butch and I have a firm three-year deal. He's wanted to get into the winner's circle longer than me. The main thing I want is something different.
``What I want is to be in the top 10 in points at the end of the year. I want to get up on that stage at the Waldorf [at the NASCAR banquet] with those other nine guys. If we're 10th or better, it means we've had at least three or four shots at winning a race. I'd rather be in the top 10 than win one race and finish about 24th in the points.''
Mast was 18th in points last year, matching his 1994 finish, his best. His career winnings have eclipsed $3.9 million, and he likes his new ride with Gere Kennon, who is starting his first full season as a Winston Cup crew chief. Mast's most memorable race still may be the 1989 Daytona 500, when he finished sixth in a car with no sponsor.
His next Daytona trip is crucial in building an attitude, too, because of his new team.
``You've got to post a good speed on qualifying day,`` Mast said of Thursday's Twin 125 races, in which spots 3-30 will be filled after Saturday's front-row spots went to Mike Skinner and Steve Grissom. ``You're in trouble if you don't do it then.
``Last year, we were the seventh fastest [in practice], and then we got into the 125s and we had a lot of problems. We ended up with the fastest speed that didn't get in the top 30, so we start 31st. You can't win Daytona from 31st.''
After going in circles in the No.1 black car for Skoal and the owl-and-orange Hooters ride, Mast will be a chameleon driver this season. Remington's regular ride will be primarily green with a bright-orange bottom. At Talladega, Mast will drive a camouflage-pattern car. For the July return to Daytona, Mast's Ford will be purple, with Remington's Stren fishing line getting the exposure.
Mast has traveled quite a bit for his new sponsor in recent months. In a get-acquainted session, Mast and his Mock crew went to a farm in South Carolina awhile back to hunt deer and wild boar. Do you think he was perhaps using a Remington rifle?
``I got a six-point buck the first day, '' Mast said. ``Maybe that's a good omen.''
Mast meant for himself, not the deer.
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Mast KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB