THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180857
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Ken Schrader, who lost the top of his left thumb last weekend in a garage accident at a racetrack in Washington state, visited a surgeon in Charlotte on Tuesday who told him he was recovering well.
``The surgeon looked at him yesterday and said it looked great,'' Teresa Underdown, who handles public relations for Schrader's SuperTruck team, said Wednesday.
Schrader lost the top of his thumb and the first joint while he was working on the engine of his truck before Saturday night's race at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash.
``It was about noon on Saturday and he was getting ready to go out and practice,'' Underdown said. ``He reached down to test the alternator belt and, at the same moment, a crewman cranked the engine. The crew chief (Tim Kohuth) told the guy to crank it. He didn't know Schrader was under the hood.''
Schrader was treated and was back at the track by 5:30 p.m. to watch the race. And he displayed his usual self-deprecating sense of humor about the accident.
``That's one less nail I'll be biting,'' he told team members. `Maybe I'll take the thumb home and put it under my pillow and see if I get a quarter.''
Schrader still plans to compete at Charlotte Motor Speedway in this Saturday's Winston Select Open and, if he qualifies, The Winston Select.
``I was lucky,'' he told Underdown. ``It was just my thumb. It could have been all my fingers.''
RUDD FINE UPHELD: A three-member panel of the National Stock Car Racing Commission on Tuesday night upheld the $50,000 fine levied against Ricky Rudd and his team by NASCAR officials after inspectors found a hydraulic lowering device in his car.
The device, designed to lower the rear end to reduce drag and increase speed, was found in pre-practice inspection at Talladega on April 28.
The panel - Dennis Huth, NASCAR's vice president of administration; Dale Pinilis of the Bowman-Gray Stadium racetrack in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Bill Taylor, a former USAC official - had the option to decrease, increase or uphold the penalty, NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said.
Rudd was fined $25,000 as driver and $20,000 as car owner. Crew chief Bill Ingle was fined $5,000 and placed on probation the rest of the year.
SILVER DOLLARS: You can't accuse Dale Earnhardt of failing to milk a cash cow when he sees one.
Earnhardt and car owner Richard Childress announced Wednesday that the No. 3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo will be silver and orange for Saturday's Winston Select. The one-time-only switch from the familiar black and silver will be to commemorate the 25th anniversary of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s involvement in NASCAR racing.
Moments after the announcement, Earnhardt's marketing firm unveiled ``limited-edition'' souvenirs for sale: silver No. 3 baseball caps, die-cast cars, T-shirts, car-shaped banks, etc.
DOVER TEST: A three-day open test at Dover Downs International Speedway ended Wednesday, with drivers generally praising the track's new concrete racing surface.
``The comment that every single driver made was that this was not like Bristol - the paving job was smooth,'' said National Speed Sport News correspondent Stan Creekmore, who visited Tuesday. ``They said they weren't going to have any of the problems they had with the rough surface at Bristol.''
Among the Winston Cup drivers who participated were Jeff Gordon, Steve Grissom, Ward Burton, Randy LaJoie and Michael Waltrip.
Gordon told Creekmore he thought the pole qualifying speed for the June 4 Winston Cup race would be just shy of the track record of 152.840 mph set by Geoff Bodine last fall.
CHANGING JOBS: Veteran Winston Cup crew chief Mike Beam has joined Bill Elliott's racing team as a consultant and head of research and development. His duties will include supervising car preparation for tracks of a mile and less.
Beam resigned last week as crew chief of Junior Johnson's No. 11 Ford, driven by Brett Bodine.
Johnson said he would not replace Beam. He said that he would be more ``hands-on'' in heading up the operation and that Bodine would take charge of setting up the chassis. by CNB