THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 11, 1995 TAG: 9502110228
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: NASCAR '95: Season Preview
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
On a day when the new Chevrolet Monte Carlos were making most of the noise at Daytona International Speedway in practice for today's Daytona 500 pole qualifying, Bill Davis's Pontiac team stole the headlines by getting caught with one of the most elaborate cheating devices ever found on a Winston Cup car.
NASCAR fined the Thomasville, N.C.-based team a total of $35,100 after discovering a driver-controlled hydraulic pump designed to lower the deck lid on the No. 22 Pontiac driven by Randy LaJoie.
``This was a pretty elaborate apparatus,'' NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said. ``A lot of thought had gone into it.''
Although Davis said he intended to appeal the penalty to the National Stock Car Racing Commission, it may just be a matter of trying to get the fine reduced.
``We just got caught,'' crew chief Chris Hussey said.``They were doing their job and we were just trying to do ours.''
But the device was so complicated, one wonders how the team expected to slip it by NASCAR, particularly in light of NASCAR tradition of tough early inspections at Daytona.
``Obviously, we didn't,'' Hussey said.
Here's how NASCAR's Triplett described the device:
``The apparatus was designed to alter the height of the entire rear deck lid. There was a driver-operated three-way switch connected to a hydraulic pump by the clutch pedal. Hydraulic lines ran from the pump through the framework of the car up to the trunk to allow the alterations.''
The deck lid could be lowered by about a half-inch. Lowering the deck lid also lowers the rear spoiler, which reduces the drag created by the air flow over the spoiler, thus allowing the car to go faster.
The device was not found in the inspection bay, but at the gas pumps, when LaJoie pulled in during afternoon practice. It appeared to NASCAR inspectors that nuts on the pins to hold the rear deck lid were loose. But they weren't loose. They had been constructed that way to allow for the movement of the deck lid.
NASCAR fined Davis $25,000 and LaJoie $10,000. Hussey was fined $100 and put on indefinite probation.
Otherwise, the story of the day was Chevrolet, as well as one all-powerful Ford driven by Dale Jarrett and one quick Pontiac driven by Michael Waltrip.
After a full day of practice, Terry Labonte's No. 5 Chevy was fastest at 193.316 miles per hour, followed by Dale Jarrett at 192.860 mph and Waltrip at 192.831 mph. Then came the Chevys of Bobby Labonte (192.020 mph), Steve Grissom (191.726 mph) and Jeff Gordon (191.677 mph).
Unofficial timers had Terry Labonte and Jarrett even faster, approaching 194 mph.
These speeds will be meaningless by 2 p.m. today, when qualifying starts for the first two starting positions of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 19. But after weeks of winter preparation and a month of testing here, everyone was keeping track of the speeds as all the Winston Cup cars practiced together for the first time in the 1995 season.
``The story? The Chevys are real fast,'' said Steve Hmiel, Mark Martin's crew chief.
``Every one of them is quick. There's not a slow one in the bunch,'' Ricky Rudd said.
``That Monte Carlo is an awfully good car,'' Jarrett said. ``It's certainly not the same car I drove before I left that camp. They've made a lot of changes, obviously for the better.''
But there was a fast Ford to match them, and as usual it was Robert Yates' Ford, with Jarrett behind the wheel.
``Right now we've got a pretty good sized bubble going,'' Yates said. ``We don't want to get too pumped up, but we've worked hard on qualifying.''
But NASCAR has thrown an extra wrench in the qualifying story by enacting what amounts to an across-the-board ban on special qualifying radiators that many teams had spent many hours refining during the winter.
This new rule had teams scrambling Friday to gauge its impact.
There are various versions of the qualifying radiator, but basically it's heavier and has more water capacity. Some can be packed with ice or dry ice.
All are designed to increase the cooling power of the radiator for the two-lap qualifying run. This allows the teams to cover, or block off, virtually all of the front grille openings that allow air in the engine compartment to cool the engine. With the grille openings covered, the aerodynamics of the car are better and it goes faster.
NASCAR's new rule doesn't actually ban the radiators. It simply says that teams must race with the same radiator they use to qualify; the heavier radiators are impractical for racing.
NASCAR instituted the new rule because not all teams could afford the extra expense of developing qualifying radiators. But the impact of the rule is that teams cannot afford to completely block off the grille openings lest they overheat the engine during the qualifying run.
And so the teams were busy Friday trying to figure out how much of an opening they needed to have in the grilles and how close they could cut without endangering the engine.
``We'll be stressed all night long thinking about it,'' Yates said as the garage closed for the evening. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Dale Jarrett, left, talks with Ernie Irvan during practice at
Daytona International Speedway on Friday.
by CNB