THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 29, 1994 TAG: 9409290576
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER NASCAR NOTES
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
To paraphrase Yogi Berra, it's never official until it's official, and the news that Lake Speed won't be driving Bud Moore's No. 15 Ford Thunderbird next year is, finally, official.
``Lake will not be back,'' team manager Greg Moore said. ``It's a real mutual, nice parting of the ways. Nice and friendly.''
Speed, 46, winner of one Winston Cup race in his career, will finish the season in Moore's car.
Speed had announced at Watkins Glen in early August that he wasn't going to return, but negotiations reopened soon after that as Ford officials apparently made an effort to get Speed to change his mind. Ford Quality Parts sponsors the car.
Moore said he had tried to persuade Speed to stay.
``I felt like we were pretty close to making that happen,'' he said. ``But it was his decision that we would both be better off if he left.''
Speed reportedly is considering restarting his own team and exploring other open rides for 1995.
Moore, too, said he is exploring several possibilities.
Moore said he wants to find a new driver ``as soon as I can get one. But realistically, it won't be any sooner than Charlotte (on Oct. 9). But I think this thing has dragged on long enough, don't you?''
THE ALLEN SCALE: Monte Dutton, managing editor of FasTrack, a racing newsweekly, has come up with a novel way of determining the relative difficulty of Winston Cup tracks: Using rookie Loy Allen Jr.'s qualifying performances as a measuring stick.
The easiest track, according to Dutton's ``Allen Scale,'' is Daytona International Speedway. Allen won the Daytona 500 pole and was second on the Pepsi 400 starting grid.
Talladega Superspeedway also is a cinch. Allen started second and third in the two races there.
Darlington and Richmond are tough tracks, but manageable with a little practice. Allen failed to qualify for the spring races there but made the fall races (42nd in the Southern 500 and 35th in the Richmond night race).
On the other end of the scale are the short tracks at Martinsville and Bristol. Allen missed both races at both tracks.
As for North Wilkesboro, we'll just have to wait and see this weekend. But it could be one of the toughest. He missed the spring race there.
Qualifying for Sunday's Holly Farms 400 begins at 3 p.m. Friday.
DNQ LIST: The battle to make races has created another fascinating pastime for statisticians - the DNQ list.
Allen is the leader of the Did Not Qualify list, so he's fortunate to have three poles and two outside poles to counterbalance his record of futility.
Here's the rundown:
Allen, 11 DNQs; Jimmy Hensley, seven; Dave Marcis and Wally Dallenbach Jr., six; Ward Burton, Dick Trickle and Mike Wallace, five; Steve Grissom, three; Joe Nemechek, Hut Stricklin and John Andretti, two; and Derrike Cope, Harry Gant, Bobby Hamilton and Jimmy Spencer, one.
GANT'S DAY: Taylorsville, N.C., will celebrate ``Harry Gant Day'' for the hometown hero on Monday. Drivers Rick Mast, Morgan Shepherd, Jimmy Spencer, Michael Waltrip and Dale Jarrett have agreed to participate in the activities, which include a parade at 5 p.m. and a ``family celebration'' at 6 at the city's National Guard Armory. by CNB