THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9407170181
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LONG POND, PA. LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
As the ruling body of stock car racing, NASCAR is a lightning rod for criticism from all quarters. But you have to feel for them when, despite their best efforts, things go awry.
Consider Daytona in February. Over the winter, Winston Cup Director Gary Nelson had worked at a feverish pace to develop the roof flaps that apparently have eliminated the problem of cars flipping when they spin at high speed.
And then, come Speedweeks, two drivers died in four days from crashes that didn't involve flips.
The flaps, nonetheless, apparently have cured the vicious tumble-roll crashes and are proving to be one of the innovative NASCAR safety developments ever.
But as one crisis is stemmed, another bursts forth unexpectedly. And at the moment, it is the condition of the tracks. The grind of the 1994 season is literally tearing up the Winston Cup speedways where the racers run.
At New Hampshire, the track tore up in all four corners, leading to a staggering 17 yellow flags as car after car wrecked. At Michigan, an asphalt patch job made turn three a nightmare. Here at Pocono last month, turn one was plagued with disintegrating asphalt.
Dover's Monster Mile is monstrous, chiefly because of the condition of its high-banked turns, which have been repeatedly sealed and patched. After Atlanta was resealed last year, there were numerous wrecks during the November race weekend.
At Charlotte's turn four, where the asphalt seems to want to slide off the banking, maintenance has been a chronic headache. And at Darlington, the track didn't tear itself up, it tore the tires up. The asphalt there is so rough and old it's like driving on sandpaper.
It's not as if there hasn't been a response to these problems. Rockingham, Darlington and Atlanta are to be resurfaced before the fall races. Dover will be resurfaced in the offseason, tentatively with concrete, which solved chronic track surface problems at Bristol.
Charlotte already has new asphalt, although after a complete repaving of the 1.5-mile speedway, turn four still has a problem spot that dips.
Charlotte president Humpy Wheeler said a concrete surface was not an option at Charlotte because it costs about six times more than repaving with asphalt.
Knowing Bob Bahre, the owner of New Hampshire International Speedway, and Roger Penske, the owner of Michigan International Speedway, they won't stop working until their track problems are solved, if only because their ability to continue to host Winston Cup races will depend on it.
Advances in the radial tires, the fact that they are wider this year and improvements in race car aerodynamics and downforce have created more wear and tear on tracks than ever before.
Tire engineers estimated that a 3,500-pound stock car at full speed in a relatively flat corner exerts a ton of downforce and two tons of lateral force on the track surface.
And the heat at New Hampshire and Michigan accelerated the pounding taken by the asphalt.
At the same time, there is no apparent reason those tracks should break up if properly surfaced. Paul Sawyer, owner of Richmond International Raceway, and Buddy Jobe, the owner of Phoenix International Raceway, have proven that.
``All they gotta do is go talk to Paul Sawyer,'' said Rick Mast, driver of the No. 1 Ford Thunderbird. ``When he redid that track (in 1988), he repaved it in the dead of summer about a month and a half before we raced there. It was hot when we ran there for the first time and the track never came up.
``He told me it was the mix of asphalt he used and the way he packed it,'' Mast said. ``It took him about a week to pack it once it was down.''
The secret, said Goodyear's Phil Holmer, is ``compaction.''
If care is taken to pack the asphalt as tight as possible, it won't come up, he said.
Clarence Cagle, the longtime track superintendent at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, supervised the recent repaving at Phoenix.
``Phoenix put down a new surface before last year's race and we had a heck of a race on it,'' Ernie Irvan said. ``They put it down in the heat and we raced in the heat. The problem (at the other tracks) is that people don't know how to put pavement down.''
``We're concerned, sure,'' said NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett. ``It's creating situations above and beyond what you normally find in the course of a race. And we're looking at all the places where it's happening, as are the tracks where it's happening. We've got faith that they will remedy these situations.
``We hope we don't run into any problems, but we don't know until we get there. Until you put 42 cars out there, how do you know?''
``I think the bottom line is we're going to be faced with this problem from now on as cars get more aerodynamic,'' Wheeler said. ``The tracks are going to have to look at very expensive repaving jobs every seven or eight years.
``We're all going to be forced to look at innovative ways to conquer this problem.'' by CNB