Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 16, 1992 TAG: 9202160102
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
SLEEK FORDS WILL BATTLE EARNHARDT FOR CHECKERED FLAG
For the past nine days, Winston Cup teams have been turning wrenches and testing stock cars at Daytona International Speedway, playing the automotive guessing game to find the speed and stability for today's Daytona 500.But the darn thing about stock car racing - and the beauty of it - is that no team really will know how its car will perform until the green flag falls on the 42-car field.
The race is scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m. Weather forecasters call for a high temperature near 80 and a 20 percent chance of rain.
Last year, Dale Earnhardt seemed to have this 2.5-mile superspeedway figured out - until the final laps.
But the handling on Earnhardt's Chevrolet faded and Ernie Irvan passed him on lap 195 of the 200-lap race. Irvan went on to win, while Earnhardt crashed, taking out Davey Allison and Kyle Petty.
This year, Earnhardt again seems to have things under control. He won Saturday's Goody's 300 for Grand National cars, Friday's IROC race and his Twin 125 qualifying race on Thursday.
He only took a few laps in the final Winston Cup practice session Saturday afternoon before parking his car.
"Everything is running smooth on the car," he said. "There's no reason to keep running it and wearing it out. I can't believe this week is going as good as it is. I feel I've got a good shot at running tomorrow."
Earnhardt, who starts third, was voted the favorite to win by four of seven Chevrolet drivers in an informal poll taken by Chevrolet's Ray Cooper on Saturday. But two Chevy drivers - Darrell Waltrip and Derrike Cope - picked Ford driver Bill Elliott.
Through two months of winter testing, the Fords have been the fastest.
Sterling Marlin's Ford won the pole last Sunday at 192.213 mph. Elliott won the outside pole, securing the front row for car owner Junior Johnson.
"The Fords look pretty tough," said 1990 Daytona 500 champion Derrike Cope, a Chevy driver. "They've got the power to hang on the bottom and wait, so they can manipulate the draft. They can run by themselves."
In Daytona's freight-train drafts, however, the Chevrolets, Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles have been able to stay with the Fords. And there are questions about whether the Fords will maintain their handling as the race progresses.
With carburetor restrictor plates holding down the power of the engines, handling has become the key at Daytona.
But, as Earnhardt put it, "handling is a constantly changing thing."
To improve handling, most drivers probably will start the race with their rear spoilers well above the 35-degree minimum angle to increase the downforce on the back of their cars.
On Thursday, in the midst of the crash-filled first Twin 125 qualifying race, pit crews for cars in the second race were rushing to the garage area to tilt their rear spoilers up for better handling.
But raising the spoiler also slows the car.
So despite the racing expertise of the best mechanics and drivers in the business, race strategy boils down to a guessing game.
Even if a car handles well, the driver probably will need drafting assistance from another car to make a pass.
"It seems like without a real, real good helper, it's just hard to pass," said Mark Martin, who starts fifth. "You can't hardly do it. You will need to get two cars that complement each other to really get the most out of the draft."
But on superspeedways, the Ford drivers have had trouble cooperating with each other.
This is not particularly surprising because a driver loses his chance to win if he decides to help another car make a pass.
"I don't have any buddies out there, and I ain't one," said Pontiac driver Michael Waltrip, who starts 10th. "I get tired of hearing all that `buddy' junk. People are going to use whoever is available to them. If I was working with you, and I saw where I could pass you, I'd forget I was working with you."
Today's race will be the final Daytona 500 for Richard Petty, "The King" of stock-car racing. He has been running fairly well here and had the 10th fastest qualifying speed.
But Petty was forced to go to a backup car after becoming involved in one of the wrecks in the first Twin 125 qualifying race Thursday.
"We'll try it again," he said. Petty starts 32nd.
The race also will mark the first Winston Cup start in five years for independent Delma Cowart, who was a beneficiary of all the wrecks in that first qualifying race.
"I've been in it three or four times before," said Cowart, who finished 13th in the first Twin 125, "but it's been so long ago that I forgot what it feels like."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING