THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605050208
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SONOMA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Wally Dallenbach will start 10th in today's Save Mart 300 NASCAR road race at Sears Point Raceway, which was not quite as good as the veteran road racer had hoped.
But considering that he wasn't even in the series a year ago, his position today is a major accomplishment.
He did come to Sears Point in 1995 for a one-race deal. But when he got here, his car wasn't even ready.
Most of last season, Dallenbach was at home in Greensboro, trying to find a ride, or a sponsor, or both.
After spending four years trying to make a success of his NASCAR driving career, Dallenbach had hit bottom. He was out of a ride, out of sight and out of mind.
But Dallenbach is back.
With a little help from Ford and a lot of his own campaigning, he managed to land a one-race ride in the Daytona 500 with veteran car owner Bud Moore and the No. 15 Ford Thunderbird team.
His sixth-place finish in the 500 kept him in the car beyond Daytona, and the improvement he showed on the tracks, particularly in qualifying, earned him the ride for the year.
Dallenbach credits a former teammate, Mark Martin, and his new crew chief, former driver Jimmy Means, with showing him how to go faster during qualifying.
``We were testing down in Atlanta earlier this year and I just started talking to Mark,'' Dallenbach said. ``He was testing there too, and I kind of explained to him how I approached things when I qualified. He pointed out a couple of things on what you have to do differently when you qualify.
``When I applied that, it showed up a lot on the (stopwatch). And it made a big difference at a lot of places where we qualified.''
Simply put, Dallenbach was being too aggressive entering the corners. That's fine with sports cars, but that's not the way to qualify a stock car on an oval track. When he applied a smoother style, his speeds immediately improved.
``The way I was getting into corners was OK during the race, but it really wasn't what you wanted to do to go fast in qualifying,'' he said.
``I gave him a couple of pointers this year,'' Martin said. ``He's an extremely talented race car driver - much better than what he has shown. He's got the talent to make it. It's a matter of things working out for him.''
Said team manager Greg Moore: ``I think Wally has been one of the most overlooked driving talents that we've had come along recently. We saw a lot of potential in him a few years ago and actually looked into getting him, but it didn't work out.
``Once we get this thing going, people are going to see how really good he is.''
Dallenbach and his team still have quite a way to go, however. He failed to qualify at Martinsville, and his 12th-place finish at Talladega was his best since Daytona.
But Moore didn't even have a sponsor before Daytona. And the team is still in the process of completing the final paperwork on its one-year sponsorship with Hayes Modems.
Dennis Hayes, founder and chairman of the computer modem company, is here this weekend. And based on what he thinks of the sponsorship venture thus far, the company may stick around awhile.
``What we're finding is the tie-in between our product and NASCAR and the Internet is an aspect we really hadn't realized,'' Hayes said.
The company has created a racing corner on the Hayes web site on the Internet. Web browsers can download an illustration of the car that they can convert into a computer screen saver. And Hayes will soon have short video features and clips on its home page.
``We think there are a lot of opportunities working with the Internet and our NASCAR program,'' Hayes said. ``And the thing that has amazed me is I've been getting 10 or 15 letters a day and E-mail from people telling me they're going to shop for our modem because we're a NASCAR sponsor.''
Dallenbach believes he can win today's race but notes that the number of good road racers in the Winston Cup series has been growing every year.
``These guys are good wherever they race,'' he said. ``I don't care if it is a road course, a short track or a superspeedway, they're the best when it comes to stock cars.
``The one thing that puts me on an even playing field with these guys is when I come to a place like Sears Point, I have as much if not more experience than they do. And that's what it's all about - experience.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
DON PETERSON/Landmark News Service
``He's an extremely talented race car driver. . . . He's got the
talent to make it,'' Mark Martin says of Wally Dallenbach, above.
by CNB