ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605280128
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
A LOT CAN HAPPEN in 400 laps, and drivers and crew chiefs expect just that in today's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It's something about those extra 100 miles.
Parts that hold up fine in a 500-mile race start wearing out in NASCAR's longest race, the Coca-Cola 600, which starts at 5 p.m. today at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
``It's that extra 100 miles where you always feel like you're going to break something,'' said Steve Hmiel, Mark Martin's crew chief, told Ford's Kevin Kennedy. ``So we pay real close attention to our fasteners and our safety wires.
``All the hardware issues will have more focus put on them than normal. It adds to the emotional drag when you think it's that last 100 miles is where you always get caught, so you make sure everything is super-tight, super-prepared and perfectly lubed.
``And you get ready for a long 600 miles here at Charlotte. You know that last 100 miles always feels like 500.''
Jeff Gordon starts from the pole this evening after posting the fastest lap in qualifying Wednesday, reaching 183.773 mph in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo. He'll lead the field to the green flag for 400 laps around this 1.5-mile oval.
Martin, who won Saturday's Red Dog 300 Grand National race, hopped into his Winston Cup Ford Thunderbird for the final 600 practice and ran the fastest lap of the session - 174.944 mph.
Ward Burton, Dale Jarrett, Lake Speed and Sterling Marlin also were in the top five during the final one-hour practice, which was incident free.
``We have a great car,'' Martin said. ``But we feel like the 3 [Dale Earnhardt] and the 24 [Gordon] and possibly the 18 [defending champion Bobby Labonte], they're all going to be tough.''
``But I'm going to tell you something right now - that 43 [Bobby Hamilton in a Pontiac Grand Prix] was awesome in practice. The 43 has outrun me every time I've run with him on the race track. And the 22 car [Ward Burton's Pontiac] has potential. So I know there's two Pontiacs running real good.''
But Pontiac driver Kyle Petty said Martin has the hot car.
``In a race like this, it's not how fast you run, it's who out-handles everybody else,'' Petty saidtold Pontiac's Brian Hoagland. ``Right now, Mark Martin is out-handling everybody else. As good as Mark is handling, I don't know if he's going to lose anything.''
The Chevy teams haven't been quite as strident about an alleged Ford advantage in the past couple of days as they were after Michael Waltrip drove his Ford to victory in The Winston Select last weekend.
But they're still worried.
``You know in your heart of hearts that the Fords have more downforce than they've ever had here before,'' said Jimmy Makar, Bobby Labonte's crew chief, told Chevy's Ray Cooper. ``Their hand is going to show when the track gets the slickest and the tires have the least amount of grip. That's when the downforce thing is going to show. I look for [the Fords] to be good on long runs.''
But some of the Ford teams are worried that the extra downforce they received when NASCAR allowed them to lower their roofs by a half-inch also will produce extra drag, which will mean the Fords will burn more fuel and perhaps get beat by the Chevys on fuel mileage.
Now that the 600 is a twilight race, it creates all sorts of potential chassis set-up problems.
``This race drives a chassis man nuts,'' said Larry McClure, Sterling Marlin's car owner. ``We'll have to start the race loose and hopefully go to neutral for the last part. A looser car under control will run faster than a pushy car.''
Said Hmiel: ``Let's be realistic. The second half of this race is 300 miles long. The second half of this race is as long as what we run at New Hampshire or Phoenix.
``Here at Charlotte, the race track changes dramatically as the sun goes down, and when the sun goes away, it's even more a different animal. You may not be a star when they drop the flag, but when the sun goes down and you're coming to the front, you'll feel good about it.''
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB