Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240177
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RANDY KING SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
Hendrick saw his driver, Darrell Waltrip, lose the First Union 400 on Sunday when eventual winner Brett Bodine was given a huge boost by a NASCAR error.
"This kind of stuff shouldn't be happening in a sport this big," Hendrick said. "There's got to be a better way, and we ain't doing it."
NASCAR official David Hoots admitted he made an error when he called for the pace car to pick up Dale Earnhardt instead of Bodine when the race's 10th caution flag came out on lap 321 of the 400-lap race.
While the rest of the front-runners stayed on the track during the caution period, Bodine pitted for four new tires. Then, instead of being placed behind the other cars on the restart, Bodine was moved to the front of the pack when Hoots discovered he had erred in calling for the pace car to pick up Earnhardt.
"NASCAR admitted it made a mistake and it cost us the race," Hendrick said.
Hoots said the primary reason for his mistake was that he was receiving race rundowns in five-lap increments. That happened because the North Wilkesboro track is the only one on the Winston Cup circuit with a hand-operated scoreboard.
"We had to base our call on information we received two or three laps earlier," said Les Richter, NASCAR's vice president of operations. "With a computer [scoring system], we wouldn't have that gap."
NASCAR has looked into several computer scoring systems but has been slow to make such a costly technological move.
In a sport full of lucrative corporate sponsorships and six-figure salaries, Hendrick, like many others, said he can't understand why NASCAR hasn't scrapped its antiquated scoring system.
"It doesn't make any sense to me," Hendrick said. "I'm not saying I have the answer. I know they've got a tough job in a race like this one.
"I'm just saying there's got to be a better way."
\ Rusty Wallace continues to fly south.
After being stung by the weekend announcement that engine builder Harold Elliott is not likely to participate in racing on a full-time basis after this year, Wallace ran an unspectacular seventh in Sunday's race.
"We finally finished one," said Wallace, who lost 24 points to leader Earnhardt and now trails by 219.
The defending Winston Cup points champion's confidence level?
"Well, let's put it this way," Wallace said. "I only lost 10 or 15 points to Earnhardt instead of the 50-60 like I had been losing the last couple of races. So we're back running the way we should be."
\ Susan Bonnett, wife of amnesia-stricken Neil Bonnett, says the driver "has regained most of his memory and is doing fine now."
She said it would be at least two weeks, perhaps longer, before Bonnett could consider driving again for the Stuart-based Wood Brothers Ford team. His condition is to be evaluated sometime this week by a Birmingham, Ala., neurosurgeon.
"Neil has not talked about racing [again]," Susan Bonnett said.
\ LUGNUTS: Bodine is the sixth different winner in seven Winston Cup races this year. . . . Kenny Wallace's big-league debut ended in a meeting with the wall. Wallace, the 1989 Grand National tour's top rookie, finished 26th in the 32-car field after wrecking on lap 315. Rusty Wallace's younger brother says he hopes to field a Winston Cup team in 1991. . . . Morgan Shepherd continues to get the job done. Shepherd finished fifth to continue his streak as the only driver to finish in the top 10 in every Winston Cup event this year. . . . Speaking of Shepherd, he has signed a deal to drive 17 GN races for car owner Mike Swaim, who recently dismissed driver Ben Hess. In another GN driver move, Clifford Allison has been let go by car owner Frank Cicci.
by CNB