THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100753
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE, VA. LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
With NASCAR growing the way it is, you wouldn't expect a track to give up a couple of important stock car races.
But that's exactly what Martinsville Speedway is doing with its two Grand National races. In their place, the track is playing host to the richest Late Model Stock party in the country.
Track president Clay Campbell announced Wednesday that his spring and fall Grand National/Late Model Stock doubleheaders will be strictly Late Model Stock affairs and will be the most lucrative NASCAR-sanctioned Late Model Stock races in the United States.
Both 200-lap races, one on March 19 and the other on Oct. 15, will pay $25,000 to the winner and will have total purses of about $70,000.
Having given up his high-profile Grand National races on those dates, Campbell has slashed ticket prices for the Late Model Stock races. Tickets will be $15 each and will come with a free T-shirt if ordered in advance. He's hoping for a crowd of 15,000 or more.
Campbell said the move to drop the Grand National series ``was definitely a decision by us,'' rather than by NASCAR. The Grand National purses alone had reached about $150,000, and with doubleheader crowds at around 18,000, ``having the two races was not financially feasible anymore,'' Campbell said.
Campbell said it was impractical to think of having the Grand National and Winston Cup races on the same weekend, as many tracks do, because it would be a ``logistical nightmare'' at the 0.526-mile speedway in terms of infield space and local accommodations, among other things.
Martinsville has drawn more than 100 entries for its Late Model Stock races and, with the increase in the winner's purse from $10,000 to $25,000, ``I think this is going to attract a lot of interest all over the country,'' Campbell said.
IRVAN STILL A LEADER: After every Winston Cup race, NASCAR revises a statistical summary called ``Miles Leader Standings.''
And as the season comes to a close, the driver who has led more miles than anyone is not Dale Earnhardt or Rusty Wallace but Ernie Irvan, whose season, and perhaps career, came to an end at Michigan in August with more than a third of the races left.
Irvan had been contending with Earnhardt for the Winston Cup championship when he suffered life-threatening head and lung injuries in a crash during practice on Aug. 20.
Despite competing in only 20 of the 31 races, Irvan stands a good chance of finishing first in the category.
Irvan has led 2,419.51 miles in 1994, and Wallace is second at 2,113.53. Wallace must lead 306 miles, or 202 of the 328 laps, at Atlanta to overtake Irvan.
But that's not all. Irvan also leads in the category of times led, having been in front 79 times in 17 of the 20 races he ran.
Moreover, Irvan stands to win the True Value Hard Charger award, a competition in which drivers win points for every lap of every race in which they are first, second, third, fourth or fifth.
Since his Michigan crash, Irvan's point total has been frozen at 22,041. Wallace after that race had 16,552. He's now accumulated 20,841 but is unlikely to make up his 1,200-point deficit.
``I'm pretty proud of it, but most people don't even know about it,'' Irvan said.
Irvan is second in the category of laps led, with 1,781. That's behind Wallace's total of 2,142, but ahead of Geoff Bodine's 1,710 and Earnhardt's 996.
ATLANTA ANTICLIMAX: The season-ending Winston Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway can be as dramatic as any in the series, as it was in 1992, when Alan Kulwicki won the championship by 10 points over Bill Elliott. Or it can be a mere afterthought.
That's what seems to be in store for this weekend.
The Winston Cup championship has been Earnhardt's for almost three weeks. The manufacturer's championship went to Ford almost two months ago.
The only contest of significance still to be decided is rookie of the year, a race Jeff Burton has led virtually all season.
WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER: The ambitious resurfacing project at Dover Downs International Speedway is under way, as workers this week began assembling a giant paving machine that will spread one continuous strip of concrete around the 1-mile track.
``Where we are right now is the asphalt surface has been milled to the desired depth, and the world's largest erector set is sitting on the front straight,'' said speedway spokesman Al Robinson.
``The equipment arrived on several large trucks earlier this week and is currently being assembled with the aid of a very large crane.''
Workers also have built a concrete batch plant by the Dover Downs horse barns. Robinson said the actual surfacing work should begin next week and is expected to last eight days.
Dover followed the lead of Bristol International Raceway, which switched to concrete in 1992. by CNB