THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190541
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 98 lines
Which is the best track in the Winston Cup series? And which is the worst?
If the drivers could race on only one track for the rest of their lives, which one would it be? By the same token, if they could drop a track from the schedule, which one would take the fall?
We decided to find out. And who better to ask than the drivers themselves. We polled 33 of the regular Winston Cup drivers.
And the hands-down, landslide, runaway winner is:
Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The loser, by the narrowest of margins, is a track that seems to be doomed anyway:
North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Mind you, this was not a scientific poll. We couldn't get to about a half-dozen of the regulars. And some drivers voted for two or three bests or worsts, or none at all.
Mark Martin, for instance, named Charlotte, Atlanta and Michigan as equally the best, and a single track, Martinsville, as the worst. And Ken Schrader had two bests - Charlotte and Daytona - but no worst. Dale Earnhardt said he thinks all the tracks are equal.
In any event, each track named by a driver, good or bad, received a vote.
A whopping 16 of the 33 drivers picked Charlotte as NASCAR's finest. Second was Michigan International Speedway, which received six votes. Daytona and Richmond were tied for third with four votes each.
The voting for worst track was much closer.
North Wilkesboro had 10 votes, followed closely by Sears Point International Raceway, the twisty northern California road course, with nine. Martinsville Speedway was third with five votes, followed by Bristol Motor Speedway with four.
Other interesting facts gleaned from the survey:
Two tracks, North Carolina Motor Speedway and Phoenix International Raceway, received no votes either way.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the most famous speedway in the world, received one lonely vote for the best track. That came from Ricky Craven, who cited the tradition and history of Indy, and not raceability, as the primary factor for the choice.
Thirty of the 38 ``worst'' votes cast went to short tracks or road courses.
Only two of the 40 votes cast for best tracks went to the short tracks and road courses, with the exception of the four votes cast for Richmond.
The votes of one driver, Kyle Petty, flew in the face of conformity, as you might expect. Petty cast one of two ``best'' votes for Atlanta, but was the only driver who said the hands-down favorite - Charlotte - was the worst.
``Tell me the last time we had a good race at Charlotte,'' Petty said. ``Great facility. Terrible racetrack.''
But Petty was a lone voice of dissent about Charlotte.
``Driving has a lot to do with what you can do at Charlotte,'' said Dale Jarrett, who voted it the best. ``You can race there and it's fun.''
Martin said Charlotte was one of his ``best'' picks ``because you can race there and put on a show that $40 million worth of race teams are capable of doing.''
Said Ernie Irvan: ``Just the other day I told somebody that there's no better place to watch a Winston Cup race than Charlotte. It's the right size, not too big, not too small. You can go up high and pass or you can pass on the low side.''
``And a lot of it is the atmosphere,'' Irvan said. ``They put on an atmosphere at Charlotte that nobody else does.''
Irvan, by the way, certainly can't be accused of a lack of objectivity in his choices. Along with Charlotte, he cited as the best track Michigan, where he was nearly killed two years ago in an accident.
The problem with the short tracks in general, according to several drivers, is that the sport has outgrown them.
``You can't race these big ol' cars on that little old track,'' Martin said, explaining why he picked Martinsville as the worst.
But North Wilkesboro's problems are compounded by its surface.
``The track surface is so old, it just chews up your tires after 10 laps,'' Bobby Hamilton said. ``You can't really race anybody. You're just trying to save your tires. And you can't test there because the tires won't last. They just need to pave it and fix it up.'' The problem with Sears Point, the drivers said, is that there is no place to pass. Most of the drivers are stuck in a long line of traffic all afternoon.
``It's not built for our cars,'' said Hut Stricklin. ``Our cars are not made to jump hills. You need a four-wheel-drive out there.''
Many drivers made it clear that their favorites are subject to change, sometimes very quickly.
``I used to really enjoy Bristol,'' said Ricky Rudd. ``But then they paved it with concrete. And the concrete hasn't allowed us to race like we used to race there.''
Finally, as Jimmy Spencer pointed out, ``I think what makes a driver like or dislike a track is how he's run there before.''
Perhaps that's why Earnhardt likes them all equally. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
NORTH WILKESBORO SPEEDWAY
HOW THEY VOTED
[For a copy of THE BEST and THE WORST, see microfilm for this date.]
KEYWORDS: RATING RACE TRACK SURVEY by CNB