THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 23, 1996 TAG: 9605230513
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: 61 lines
Dale Earnhardt is the biggest name in NASCAR racing, but he isn't getting paid a cent to don those custom-made Nike driving shoes he was wearing Wednesday at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
``Neat, aren't they?'' Earnhardt said. ``They're black.''
Earnhardt and his business manager, Don Hawk, usually have people coming to them with business proposals.
``In this case, we went after them,'' Hawk said. ``I've been talking with them for two years.
``To them, we were just another marketing proposal. They moved me around their phone system. It was almost a brush-off. But I decided I wasn't going to let it go.''
Hawk said Earnhardt is only the second race driver to have custom-made Nikes; Formula One star Michael Schumacher is the other.
``We're not being paid to wear them,'' Hawk said. ``There's no deal, no money. But we want to show 'em the feedback. After all, there's a survey that's been done that says 77 percent of the people who come to the racetrack wear sneakers.''
PONTIAC'S NEW NOSE: Pontiac hopes to have a new nose piece for its Grand Prix teams in time for the June 23 race at Michigan, Pontiac motorsports manager Gary Claudio said Wednesday.
``It's already done,'' he said. ``We want to see what it does in the wind tunnel, test it on the track and then get it approved by NASCAR.''
In the meantime, NASCAR has allowed the Pontiacs an extra inch of length below the front bumper in an effort to improve front downforce, which has been lacking.
Claudio said the change from the old nose is almost imperceptible.
``It's just tilted down a little more,'' he said. ``We just rolled it down some more. It's hard to believe that little bit of difference could make that much difference in the downforce numbers, but it does.''
STEWART BACKS OUT: In the wake of teammate Scott Brayton's death, Tony Stewart scrapped his plans to drive in both the Red Dog 300 Grand National race Saturday at Charlotte and in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday.
Stewart had planned to drive a Ranier-Walsh Pontiac Grand Prix here, but Brayton's death in a crash at Indy last week means he'll start from the pole position in the 500. That was enough to prompt him to back off from the Charlotte race. Stewart, however, will return to the Busch series at Dover next weekend.
TWO CRASHES: Winston Cup part-timers Mark Gibson and Robby Faggart smacked the wall here in crashes during practice. Neither driver was injured.
CONTRACT EXTENSIONS: Team owner Rick Hendrick announced Wednesday that he has signed contract extensions so that all three of his drivers and sponsors will remain together through the year 2000.
Those signing extensions included Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon and his crew chief, Ray Evernham; driver Ken Schrader and his sponsor, Budweiser; and engine builder Randy Dorton and car builder Eddie Dickerson.
Hendrick previously had signed extensions with DuPont (Gordon's sponsor), and driver Terry Labonte and his sponsor, Kellogg's. by CNB