THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090772
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Rick Mast considers Richmond International Raceway one of his home tracks because he's a lifelong Virginian from Rockbridge Baths.
But he also genuinely likes it, and not only because he won a Grand National race there in 1990.
``I think a lot of it has to do with the schedule,'' he said. ``We just came from Michigan, where you're running 200 going into the corners. Then you go to Bristol - a four-hour nightmare. Then you go to Darlington, where you're basically holding your breath all day.
``But when you get to Richmond, you get back to really working on your chassis and handling and you can really go racing. The surface is real smooth. And you can race two-wide all the way around the race track. It's just one of the more high-profile races to run.''
Mast's sentiments must be shared by others, considering the size of the entry lists for tonight's Autolite 250 Grand National race and Saturday night's sold-out Miller 400 Winston Cup race.
A whopping 73 Grand National cars will be battling for 36 regular starting spots in tonight's race, which starts at 7:30 p.m., while 45 Winston Cup cars have entered Saturday night's event.
Both races have a maximum of 39 starters, including provisionals, so that means six or seven Winston Cup cars and at least 34 Grand National cars won't make their races.
Rusty Wallace is the defending champion of the 400, which has a purse of $825,161. Martin won last year's 250, which pays a total of $233,079.
All 74,634 seats for the 400 were sold in the first week of April, but tickets for tonight's race are general admission. They are $30 each, but kids 12 and under will be admitted free with a ticket holder.
Tickets are on sale at the raceway ticket office. For more information, call (804) 345-RACE (or 7223). Gates open at 8 a.m.
The track is located at the Virginia State Fairgrounds at 600 East Laburnum Ave. There is more than 300 acres of free parking there. by CNB