DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709070250

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BOB ZELLER 

                                            LENGTH:   54 lines

NASCAR REPORT

RICHMOND - Dave Marcis actually talked about retiring Saturday after failing to qualify for the Exide 400 at Richmond International raceway.

It was the sixth straight race that Marcis failed to make, and he sounded like a driver who had finally found a mountain he couldn't climb.

``I'm trying to get it turned around, but obviously I'm not doing a very good job of it,'' he told Chevy's Ray Cooper here Saturday. ``I don't seem to be able to do it. I don't know where our problem is.

``The plan is to get things turned around and maybe put someone else in the car after next season,'' he told Cooper here Saturday. ``If we don't get things turned around, no one will want to drive it.''

``We qualified fifth at Dover earlier this year, but we wrecked that car at Pocono. We haven't run good since we wrecked that car.'' Second round of trials does no one any good

No one qualified for Saturday night's race in the second round of time trials, which were held at 2 p.m.

Every driver in the top 38 stood on Friday's speed. And even Dave Marcis, who was 39th fastest, stood on his speed, although it was an exercise in futility the moment he made the decision.

For the drivers who didn't make it, the frustration was reflected by what Mike Bliss had to say. ``First of all, it was a lot hotter today than it was yesterday,'' he said. ``Plus, there's 250 more laps that have been run on this sealer, making it a lot different than it was yesterday.''

Besides Bliss, the others who went home early were Marcis, Ron Hornaday, Gary Bradberry and Morgan Shepherd.

Provisional starting spots went to Mike Skinner, Brett Bodine, Chad Little and Lance Hooper. Sawyer's special formula gives track a good seal

When it came time to reseal the three-quarter-mile oval at Richmond International Raceway earlier this year, track president Paul Sawyer went into his laboratory and came up with a special formula.

Usually, a sealer will slow speeds on a track until it gets worked in. But speeds were as quick as ever at Richmond.

Before having the job done, Sawyer consulted with the folks at Good-year, then contacted the company that originally paved the track in 1988 and finally talked with Slurry Pavers of Glen Allen, Va.

Before applying a layer of its trade-marked Jennite sealing compound, the company (at Goodyear's recommendation) added sand from a South Seas island. The sealer was applied to the track with hand-held wands on three days in June when the temperature soared to around 100 degrees.

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