THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 7, 1995 TAG: 9505070208
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SONOMA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
You know you're at a NASCAR race in California when the car going into the track ahead of you is a Volkswagen bus with a ``Save the Earth'' bumper sticker instead of a pickup truck with a gun rack.
You know you're in California when you see young guys wearing pagers riding around the garage on mountain bikes or motorized skateboards.
You know you're in California when the drink in the media-center refrigerator is apple-boysenberry juice, and the waiter at your restaurant asks, ``Are you folks involved in the race?''
You know you're at a California track when you can smell eucalyptus trees instead of charcoal grills; when you don't see car owners' wives because they're at a spa getting a massage; when Dale Earnhardt's team hires an Italian chef to cater lunch.
There's no question that the annual Save Mart 300 at Sears Point International Raceway is different from any other race on the Winston Cup circuit. And it's not just because the 11-turn, 2.52-mile road course is darn near impossible to negotiate in a 3,400-pound stock car without getting off the asphalt.
It's the atmosphere, the ambience, the sheer sense of California cool that permeates the scene.
``You don't see too many Volkswagens back home and you certainly don't see any with peace signs painted on the rear bumper - and I mean actually painted on the car,'' said Jeff Gordon, who grew up in nearby Vallejo.
``When we got ready to practice this morning, they were playing a Doors song on the public address system,'' said Steve Hmiel, Mark Martin's crew chief. ``You don't hear that at any other track.
``And when they're not playing Doors music, they actually have an announcer doing play-by-play of practice. Where else do you hear play-by-play for practice?''
At no other NASCAR track will you see ads for Yokohama tires, Auto Spa and Korbel champagne, and signs that exhort you to ``Buy Recycled. Everyone Profits.''
There's a sense of propriety around here that doesn't exist, say, in the rowdy infields of Talladega and Darlington. And NASCAR is in tune with the custom.
``This happens at Pocono, too, but we had to stop practice this morning for a deer on the track,'' NASCAR spokesman Andy Hall said Friday. ``Of course, we did the politically correct thing. We shooed it away.''
But if the atmosphere isn't as rowdy, there's no other race in the series whose primary reason for existing is to give Northern Californians an excuse to party.
There's no pretense about this. The Sears Point ad in this year's NASCAR media guide says: ``Think of it as a party with 90,000 of your closest friends.''
After all, you can't see a whole lot of the track from most vantage points. And the average California fan probably doesn't have his finger on the pulse of the NASCAR scene anyway.
``You can definitely walk around here and see that some people don't know exactly what's going on and don't know exactly who you are,'' said Derrike Cope, a native of Washington state who cut his teeth in West Coast stock-car racing. ``In fact, if you're out of uniform, you're probably pretty safe from the autograph hounds.''
Gordon agrees: ``As soon as I leave that race track, I'm as normal a human being as anybody else.''
Gordon's biggest problem here has been getting into the track.
``Here, it doesn't matter who you are,'' he said. ``If you don't have a badge, you're not getting in. I've had trouble at the gate every time I've ever come here. You say, `I'm Jeff Gordon.' And they say, `So?'
``It's kinda tough not having any clout. You don't have any weight to throw around here. Heck, the first year I came here, they were checking my trunk for beer.''
But a driver can't always escape the spotlight, not even in California.
Rick Mast was at the Oakland Athletics baseball game Friday night when a stranger wished him well in today's race. Mast was startled that he was recognized, so he asked the man if he was from California.
``Oh, no,'' the man replied. ``We're from Pennsylvania. We come out here for the race.'' by CNB