THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020461
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 72 lines
As the Winston Cup series prepares for qualifying tonight for Sunday's UAW-GM 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR has been busy-fine tuning the aerodynamic rules again.
All three makes will lose a quarter-inch in height on their spoilers, and the Chevys and Pontiacs also will have to raise the height of their air dams.
For this weekend's event, the Chevys will have a spoiler that is 5 3/4 inches high, the Fords will have one at 6 inches and the Pontiacs will have one at 6 1/4 inches.
The air dam for the Chevy will be one-eighth inch higher (from 3.75 inches to 3.875) and the Pontiacs will have to raise theirs a quarter-inch to 3.75 inches. Fords remain at 4 inches.
The net effect should make the cars slightly less stable and, NASCAR hopes, a bit slower. But these differences are so small, it's hard for even the drivers to notice.
The Pontiacs, which have been running strong for a change in recent races, have been hit with the biggest adjustment.
``It's going to take a little bit away from the Pontiac,'' said Rick Mast, driver of the Richard Jackson No. 1 Pontiac. ``Yeah, I think it will hurt us a little bit, but I think it will be all right.''
Qualifying for the pole position and the next 24 starting spots in Sunday's race begins at 7.
GORDON'S SECRET: Jeff Gordon will be going for four straight victories Sunday. If he succeeds, he'll be the first since Mark Martin did it in 1993.
Why is Gordon running so well right now?
Mast thinks he knows the answer.
``What amazes me about that particular car is (it) just never slips,'' he said. ``The car just never gets off. We're talking nowadays in Winston Cup racing a driver means a lot, but that car seems like it's always handling properly. Everybody gets their car to act like that on a given weekend, but that bunch, they're just doing it every week.''
Mast will be going for his fourth straight top-10 finish Sunday, but when asked why he and his car are suddenly performing so much better, he said, ``I don't have a clue, man. I can't answer that.''
NO JUNIOR RETURN: A few weeks ago, there were rumors that Junior Johnson would return to the Winston Cup series. There's about as much chance of that as Joe Gibbs returning to NFL coaching.
Junior, in fact, is thoroughly enjoying his retirement.
``I've got two little kids and me and my wife do what we want to do whenever we want to do it,'' he said last week. ``I have a full-time occupation looking after the kids and looking after 600 head of cattle.''
Junior said he could get back in if he wanted to.
``I've had some generous offers,'' he said. ``But it's just the time involved. You're gone so much, and almost always gone Thursday through Sunday. You grind out 40 years of that and then people wonder why you retired.''
STEWART PLANS DOUBLE: Tony Stewart, who will run for Winston Cup rookie of the year next season, joins counterpart Robby Gordon as a driver who intends to run in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day in May.
``I'm sure we'll be at the Indy 500 next year,'' said Stewart, who drives John Menard's Indy cars.
Stewart is still mending from a broken collarbone, a broken pelvis and a cracked hip suffered in an Indy Racing League crash last month at Las Vegas.
``It looks like for sure I'm going to try to make (a comeback at) the ARCA race in Atlanta,'' he said.
Stewart will drive a Ford for Harry Ranier, who is making a comeback in the Winston Cup series after leaving in 1988. ILLUSTRATION: Jeff Gordon on Sunday will try to become the first
driver since 1993 to win four consecutive races. by CNB