ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 15, 1997 TAG: 9702180023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
NASCAR is expected to announce fines today for four or five teams after discovering that the side door safety bars on their cars were too thin.
``We don't have any announcement yet,'' Winston Cup Director Gary Nelson said late Friday. ``It's not for today's news. We're waiting until we check the backup cars before we announce anything.''
Nelson said there would be fines for the violations, but would not say how much. ``I don't think it will be a big news item,'' he said.
Last May, NASCAR temporarily parked 16 cars in the garage at Charlotte Motor Speedway and levied fines averaging about $2,500 after discovering the same problem.
The bars are supposed to be 0.083-inch thick. NASCAR found that they were 0.065-inch thick on the cars caught last May. The difference was said to be less than the thickness of a credit card.
In addition to the fines, NASCAR forced the teams to reinforce the doors with extra vertical bars before allowing the cars on the track.
In other auto racing news:
GARGOYLES 300: After the 45-car field starts today's Gargoyles 300 Busch Grand National race, the hot ticket for drivers may be the high groove, which Bill Elliott used to his advantage in his Twin 125 qualifying race Thursday.
``The outside groove has shown to be really fast here so far,'' said pole winner Elliott Sadler. ``Any of the Cup guys will be tough. And the Busch division has really gotten tough. I'm just looking for my partner, Jeff Green.
``The two-car teams in the Busch division this year are going to help each other as much as they can. I think you're going to see a lot of teamwork.''
The race starts at noon.
A CIVIL WAR SCENARIO: Attention, Civil War buffs. You might be interested in how Rick Mast explained his failure to qualify for Sunday's Daytona 500.
``You remember Robert E. Lee?'' Mast said. ``He put a team together for the seven-day battle of Richmond, but he went to Gettysburg and got his butt whipped with a new team. It was basically a new bunch of people.
``He made a lot of mistakes. But when that deal was over at Gettysburg, he pulled his bootstraps up and said, `To hell with this,' and he started kicking butt. And he basically kicked everybody's butt.
``He had a bad day at Appomattox, but in the long run he was good. That's kind of the way I'm looking at this deal. We're going to be back strong and we're going to kick some butt.''
A VISITING FORCE: Six-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force was a visitor at the track Friday.
``You know, drag racing is two guys, side by side. NASCAR is a whole different ball game, and I love it,'' said Force, who is also here for a racing collectibles fair.
``I've made good money in drag racing [collectibles],'' he said. ``The collectibles in NASCAR are unbelievable. I've gotten a lot of ideas I'm going to take back with me.''
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB