THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 9, 1994 TAG: 9407090328
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Darrell Waltrip, preparing for Sunday's Slick 50 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway without an official crew chief, said Friday that he would fill the position only if it became obvious that the team needed one.
``One reason I did this in the middle of the year was to give us half a year to see where we want to go,'' he said in the wake of the Fourth of July firings of crew chief Barry Dodson and chief engine builder Lou LaRosa.
Waltrip said there are enough qualified crewmen on his team to do without an official crew chief and chief engine builder. He said he expects to have faster, stronger cars within the next few races.
``If that doesn't happen, there's two positions open at my race team,'' he said.
Waltrip said he noticed a difference in his Chevy engines almost immediately after LaRosa was fired.
``As soon as he's out the door, the (engine) guys picked up 15 horsepower,'' Waltrip said. ``There were a lot of things the guys wanted to do that they were not able to do'' with LaRosa in charge.
For Waltrip, the final straw was the fact that his engine was no more powerful at Daytona last weekend than it had been at Talladega in May.
``I was on Lou and on Lou and on Lou to get the performance up and it just didn't happen,'' he said. ``I asked for changes to be made and they really haven't been made.''
Waltrip said Dodson and LaRosa ``were giving me due respect as a driver, but I don't think I was getting due respect as an owner. I want to run the team the way I want to run the team.''
INTO THE WALL: Two teams had to go to backup cars after their drivers crashed during practice Friday.
Wally Dallenbach smashed the front end of his Pontiac after losing control in turn four. And Tim Steele, filling in for the injured Chuck Bown, damaged the rear end of his Ford after hitting the wall in turn one. Steele said he crashed after the rear end locked up.
In qualifying, Steele had better luck in his backup car than Dallenbach did in his. Steele was 30th-fastest. Dallenbach was 41st-fastest and in danger of missing his third consecutive race.
SPENCER'S TRIFECTA: Jimmy Spencer, fresh off his first Winston Cup victory in the Pepsi 400, plans to compete in all three races at New Hampshire this weekend.
He will start 34th in a backup car in the NASCAR Busch North series race at 1:15 p.m. today following a crash in practice.
A NASCAR Modified event follows, and Spencer, who came up through the Modified ranks, is 18th on that starting grid.
He qualified 13th-fastest for Sunday's Winston Cup race.
``It's been a great week,'' Spencer said. ``I've been bombarded by a lot of things to do, but you really feel good about doing them. It feels good to look at the trophy after finally winning a Winston Cup race.''
GM TO TEST AT INDY: General Motors has scheduled an open test for its Chevrolet and Pontiac teams on Monday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
GM Winston Cup engineer Don Taylor has been spending a good bit of time working with the Pontiac teams, which have still been struggling despite the NASCAR rule change in May that gave them 5 additional inches of length.
``We're hopeful that all the Pontiac teams can take advantage of the rules adjustment,'' Taylor said. ``It's taking them some time to become equally competitive with the Fords. And as we go from the superspeedways to the shorter tracks, dialing in each of these cars is taking longer than we thought.'' by CNB