ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997 TAG: 9703030109
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: AUTO RACING NOTES
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
Richmond International Raceway seems to experience the best and worst that weather inflicts on NASCAR racing, and on Friday the worst was back.
If you've never seen the early September sun set over the third turn at the night race here, you've missed a sight. But on Friday, you didn't miss anything at all.
A day-long rain kept the cars entirely off the track, and forced NASCAR to consolidate Pontiac 400 qualifying into a single round today. Qualifying was canceled altogether for today's Hardee's 250 Grand National race. The 43-car lineup was drawn up in order of 1996 car owner points and, in some cases, even by the postmarks on entry blanks.
It was the second race in a row that RIR had to cancel all of the Friday activities because of weather. Last fall, damage from Hurricane Fran left the track and a large portion of the city without power, and forced NASCAR and track owner Paul Sawyer to cancel the day's schedule.
A single round of Winston Cup qualifying, with each driver entitled to two laps, is scheduled to begin at 11:15 a.m. today. But the forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of rain and drizzle today until the front moves through the area, which may not happen until tonight. The temperature is expected to be in the low to mid 60s. Sunday's race forecast, however, is balmy, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures well into the 70s.
Friday's rain taught a harsh lesson in promptness to the six Busch Grand National teams that will miss today's race because the postmarks on their entry blanks were too late.
When qualifying is rained out, both for Grand National and Winston Cup, the order is set first by the top 35 in car owner points (1996 points for the Richmond events), then by past champions who are not already in the field, then by past race winners and finally by the dates on the postmarks of the remaining teams' entry blanks.
For today's Grand National race, NASCAR filled the first 23 starting spots on the basis of 1996 owner points, with champion Randy LaJoie on the pole, and filled positions 24 through 43 by postmark dates.
That left Kevin and Wayne Grubb, Nathan Buttke, Brad Payne, Joey McCarthy and Jeff McClure out of the show. Their entry blanks had the most recent postmarks.
The Busch drivers will have one 30-minute practice session scheduled for 8 a.m. today to get things sorted out for the 1:15 p.m. race.
BYE-BYE T-BIRD: The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Ford will not have a new Thunderbird in showrooms next year for the first time in 42 years because of sagging sales and will suspend production of the famous car until after the turn of the century.
The news did not send shock waves through the garage here, although some of the Ford folks were talking about it. Ford NASCAR spokesman Jeff Owens said he could not comment on the story.
This is not the first time the demise-of-the-T-Bird story has been written before, although the Journal story had more specifics than previously reported. In any case, the T-Bird could be around NASCAR tracks for two years after it is taken out of production.
NASCAR rules require that teams race models based on production cars, but they allow teams to use each year's approved models for three years. For example, the Chevrolet Monte Carlo replaced the Lumina after 1994, but the Lumina was still an approved car through last season.
``We've heard this for awhile - that the T-Bird would eventually be out,'' said Ford driver Geoff Bodine. ``We need to know as soon as possible what's going to happen, what we're going to use and when we're going to get it. That's what we're concerned about.''
There has been speculation that the Taurus would replace the T-Bird in NASCAR Winston Cup racing.
``That would make me pretty happy,'' Bodine said. ``We've been kind of stale with the T-Bird. Hopefully, we'll be able to create a good race car like GM was able to do with the Monte Carlo. If we're given the ability to do what Chevy did to the Monte Carlo and what Pontiac did to the Grand Prix, we can make a good race car out of the Taurus.''
Mike Helton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, said he was not concerned with the Thunderbird news.
``We've had production changes in NASCAR before,'' he said. ``We feel confident something from Ford will continue to be here.''
BODINE ON GLIDDEN: Geoff Bodine said his move to hire drag racer Bob Glidden to find more horsepower in his engines is the type of thing he must do to remain competitive with the mega-teams.
``It was pretty obvious at Daytona that Bob and his sons helped,'' Bodine said. ``And they only had a week and a half. But drag racers are very precise in the way they tune engines. And it did help us at Rockingham, too.''
Bodine said Glidden approached him in December, but he couldn't reach an agreement then. He said the only way he was able to afford to hire Glidden was to bring in partners. He confirmed that the Stavola Brothers will also receive Glidden's help for Hut Stricklin's engines and that negotiations continue with Filmar Racing and Kenny Wallace.
``We're doing this the only way I can afford it,'' he said. ``But I would rather have two more competitors with good cars and my own good car than me not having as good a car as the 40 others out there.''
Bodine said Glidden also ``did stuff for Bill Elliott and you saw how well he ran at Daytona.'' But Elliott team publicist Danielle Humphrey said Glidden did not work on Elliott's Daytona engines.
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Optimistic race fans waiting for NASCAR qualifyingby CNBto get underway find plenty of room in the grandstands at Richmond
International Raceway on Friday. The fans saw no action on the track
as rain postponed all activities. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING