THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702150660
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: 72 lines
NASCAR is expected to announce fines today for four or five teams after discovering that the side door safety bars on their cars were too thin, The Virginian-Pilot has learned.
``We don't have any announcement yet,'' Winston Cup director Gary Nelson said late Friday. ``It's not for today's news. We're kinda waiting until we check the backup cars before we announce anything.''
Nelson said there would be fines for the violations but would not say how much. ``I don't think it will be a big news item,'' he said.
Last May, NASCAR temporarily parked 16 cars in the garage at Charlotte Motor Speedway and levied fines averaging about $2,500 after discovering the same problem.
The bars are supposed to be 0.083 inches thick. NASCAR found that they were 0.065 inches thick on the cars caught last May. The difference was said to be less than the thickness of a credit card.
GARGOYLES 300: After the 45-car field starts today's Gargoyles 300 Busch Grand National race (Noon, WTKR), the hot ticket for drivers may be the high groove, which Bill Elliott used to his advantage in his Twin 125 qualifying race Thursday.
``The outside groove has shown to be really fast here so far,'' pole-sitter Elliott Sadler said. ``Any of the Cup guys will be tough. And the Busch division has really gotten tough. I'm just looking for my partner, Jeff Green.
``The two-car teams in the Busch division this year are going to help each other as much as they can. I think you're going to see a lot of teamwork.''
CIVIL WAR SCENARIO: Civil War buffs might be interested in how Rick Mast explained his failure to qualify for Sunday's Daytona 500.
``You remember Robert E. Lee?'' Mast said. ``He put a team together for the seven-day battle of Richmond, but he went to Gettysburg and got his butt whipped with a new team. It was basically a new bunch of people.
``He made a lot of mistakes. But when that deal was over at Gettysburg, he kinda pulled his bootstraps up and said, `To hell with this,' and he started kicking butt. And he basically kicked everybody's butt. He had a bad day at Appomattox, but in the long run he was good.
``That's kinda the way I'm looking at this deal. We're going to be back strong and we're going to kick some butt.''
NO MOORE? Another of the pioneers of stock-car racing could be calling it quits. Bud Moore, who fielded his first car in 1961 but is winless since 1993, failed to qualify a car for the Daytona 500 when Larry Pearson came up just short.
And without a major sponsor, the future is looking bleaker each race.
Greg Moore, his son and the general manager for Bud Moore Engineering, said the team probably won't go to Rockingham, N.C., next week for the Goodwrench 400.
``The bottom line is, we've spent so much up to this point that there's no sense going any further or doing any more until we find some money to race on,'' Greg Moore said.
Bud Moore's 63 victories tie him with Richard Childress and are surpassed only by Richard Petty, the Wood Brothers and Junior Johnson. Of those four, only Petty Enterprises and Moore are still around.
The drivers Moore has employed are a who's who of stock-car racing, imncluding Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, David Pearson, Buddy Baker and Dale Earnhardt.
A VISITING FORCE: Six-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force was at Daytona International Speedway on Friday.
``You know, drag racing is two guys, side by side. NASCAR is a whole different ballgame, and I love it,'' said Force, who is also here for a racing collectibles fair.
``I've made good money in drag racing (collectibles),'' he said. ``The collectibles in NASCAR are unbelievable. I've gotten a lot of ideas I'm going to take back with me.''