DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997               TAG: 9703010618
SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE:    - BOB ZELLER

                                            LENGTH:   98 lines

NASCAR REPORT

RICHMOND - Richmond International Raceway seems to experience the best and worst that weather inflicts on NASCAR racing, and on Friday the worst was back.

If you've never seen the September sun set over turn 3 at the night race here, you've missed a sight. But on Friday, you didn't miss anything at all.

Daylong rain kept the cars off the track and forced NASCAR to consolidate qualifying for Sunday's Pontiac 400 Winston Cup race into a single round today.

Qualifying was canceled altogether for today's Hardee's 250 Grand National race. The 43-car lineup was drawn up in order of 1996 car-owner points and even by the postmarks on entry blanks.

It was the second race weekend in a row that the track had to cancel Friday activities because of weather. Last fall, damage from Hurricane Fran left the track and a large portion of the city without power, forcing NASCAR and track owner Paul Sawyer to cancel the day's schedule.

A single round of Winston Cup qualifying is scheduled to begin at 11:15 a.m. today. But the forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of rain and drizzle until the front moves through the area, which may not happen until tonight. The temperature is expected to be in the low to mid-60s.

Sunday's race forecast, however, calls for partly cloudy skies and temperatures well into the 70s.

Friday's rain taught a harsh lesson in promptness to the six Busch Grand National teams that will miss today's race because the postmarks on their entry blanks were too late.

When qualifying is rained out, the order is set first by the top 35 in car owner points, then with past champions not already in the field, then past race winners, and finally by the dates on the postmarks of the remaining teams' entry blanks.

For today's Grand National race, NASCAR filled the first 23 starting spots on the basis of 1996 owner points, with champion Randy LaJoie on the pole, and filled positions 24 through 43 by postmark dates.

That left Nathan Buttke, Kevin and Wayne Grubb, Brad Payne, Joey McCarthy and Jeff McClure out of the show. Their entry blanks had the most recent postmarks.

The Busch drivers will have one 30-minute practice session scheduled for 8 a.m. today to get things sorted out for the 1:15 p.m. race. Yet another obituary for Ford's Thunderbird

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Ford will not have a new Thunderbird in showrooms next year for the first time in nearly 45 years because of sagging sales and will suspend production of the car until after the turn of the century.

The news did not send shock waves through the garage. This is not the first time the demise-of-the-T-Bird story has been written, although the Journal story had more specifics than previous versions. In any case, the T-Bird could be around NASCAR tracks for two years after it is taken out of production.

NASCAR rules require that teams field models based on production cars, but they allow teams to use a year's approved models for three years. For example, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo replaced the Lumina after 1994, but the Lumina was still an approved car through last season.

``We've heard this for a while - that the T-Bird would eventually be out,'' said Ford driver Geoff Bodine. ``We need to know as soon as possible what's going to happen, what we're going to use and when we're going to get it. That's what we're concerned about.''

There has been speculation that the Ford Taurus would replace the T-Bird in Winston Cup racing.

``That would make me pretty happy. We've been kind of stale with the T-Bird,'' Bodine said. ``If we're given the ability to do what Chevy did to the Monte Carlo and what Pontiac did to the Grand Prix, we can make a good race car out of the Taurus.''

Mike Helton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said he was not concerned with the news.

``We've had production changes in NASCAR before,'' he said. ``We feel confident something from Ford will continue to be here.'' G. Bodine sought Glidden's help to remain competitive

Geoff Bodine says his move to hire drag-racing legend Bob Glidden to find more horsepower in his engines is the type of thing he must do remain competitive with the mega-teams.

``It was pretty obvious at Daytona that Bob and his sons helped, and they only had a week and a half. But drag racers are very precise in the way they tune engines. And it did help us at Rockingham, too,'' Bodine said.

Bodine said Glidden approached him in December, but he couldn't reach an agreement then. He said the only way he was able to afford to hire Glidden was to bring in partners. He confirmed that the Stavola Brothers will also receive Glidden's help for Hut Stricklin's engines, and that negotiations continue with Filmar Racing and driver Kenny Wallace.

``We're doing this the only way I can afford it,'' he said. ``But I would rather have two more competitors with good cars and my own good car than me not having as good a car as the 40 others out there.''

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu