THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606060557
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COMMENTARY
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 73 lines
Once upon a time, ``stroker'' was the worst name anyone could call a stock-car driver.
Insult his mama, call his best coon dog a fleabag, but you'd better not call him ``stroker,'' a name for drivers who didn't have the nerve to put the pedal to the metal.
Strokers were so despised that former NASCAR star Junior Johnson, a bona-fide leadfoot, once declared that anyone caught stroking ``ought to be drug out of the car and whupped.''
Needless to say, ol' Junior would want no part of what is going on at Langley Speedway.
Stroking is in style in the track's elite Late Model Stock division.
Those drivers still wanting to floorboard it from start to finish are getting ``whupped'' - and whupped good, too.
The culprit is the new model of tire the speedway is requiring this season.
Drivers say you can race these Hoosier tires hard for only 20 or 30 laps before they turn to mush. But what happens when the race is 100 laps long, such as the Late Model features?
The answer is that you stroke for the first 60 or 70 laps and save the tires for a race to the checkers.
As distasteful as that might be, drivers claim it is absolutely necessary if they are to be competitive. And it hasn't spoiled the show.
``Show'' is what NASCAR old-timers, such as Richard Petty, call races. Much of it is a show, too.
But it can be an entertaining show, as were the first 70 laps of last Saturday's Langley feature, when Phil Warren stroked along with a colorful crowd of noisy cars tucked in behind him.
There wasn't much real racing, but with the cars hooked up in a tight, bumper-to-bumper parade, it looked exciting.
Two drivers who seemed more interested in racing than parading were Roger Sawyer and Greg Edwards. But each faded back into the crowd after heating up his tires.
Finally, when the time came to race for the checkers, it became a heckuva show, with Warren slamming the door on challenges from Shawn Balluzzo and Mike Buffkin in the last few laps.
Ironically, Warren was a prime reason track promoter Wayne Wyatt changed tires this season, forcing Late Model drivers to drive with their heads instead of their feet. Warren stunk up the show too many times last year on a firmer, more raceable tire. He won 19 features and had locked up the championship by midseason.
If anyone thought changing tires would make Warren an also-ran this season, he was badly mistaken.
New tires, a new car, and moving into a new home all were factors in Warren getting off to a relatively slow start and not getting his first win until six races into the season. But he finished well enough that his second victory last Saturday boosted into the lead of the championship standings.
No one should be surprised if Warren goes from here to win his third straight title, and an unprecedented fifth overall, at the track.
He has the experience, talent, and the team behind him to adjust to any change or situation - even one that demands stroking for more than half a race.
Unfortunately, some other very good drivers are still struggling while they and their mechanics try to learn the secrets of this new stroking game.
Sawyer, a former track champion who races best with his foot all the way down on the accelerator, had expected a couple of victories by now. He doesn't have any.
Charlie Bryant Jr., the division's top rookie last year when he finished second in the points behind Warren, is off to a miserable start.
But while Sawyer and Bryant are among those making a slow transition from charger to stroker, they do have one advantage over the lightfoots.
They won't have to worry if Junior Johnson shows up some Saturday night at Langley. by CNB