THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502260176
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER NASCAR NOTES
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Jimmy Hensley showed Saturday just how big a difference there is between a regular race-car driver and an experienced NASCAR driver when it comes to piloting a Winston Cup stock car.
Hensley was more than 5 mph faster around North Carolina Motor Speedway on Saturday in the No. 32 Active Motorsports Chevrolet than Mike Chase had been on Friday. More importantly, Hensley qualified the car for today's Goodwrench 500.
After only one practice session in the car, Hensley claimed the 32nd starting spot in the second round of time trials at 153.503 mph. Chase, the slowest of the 44 drivers who completed qualifying runs Friday, managed only 148.059 mph and was fired immediately afterward.
``It worked good. We got it in the race,'' Hensley said of the car. ``We didn't get a lot of time to work with it, but they had the car working pretty good.''
Hensley was hired for this race alone and he said he doesn't know whether it will go beyond that.
``We really haven't sat down and talked,'' he said. ``We've been busy trying to thrash and get in the race. I think if we can be competitive, I can keep the ride.''
Steve Grissom led the second round of time trials with a lap of 155.452 mph in his Chevy, which gave him the 21st starting spot. Had he run Saturday's lap on Friday, he would have started seventh.
All of the regulars made the race, with provisional starting spots going to Steve Kinser, Loy Allen Jr., Ward Burton and Dave Marcis.
Ben Hess, Gary Bradberry, James Hylton and Billy Standridge failed to make the field.
FAIR AND SQUARE, GORDON SAYS: Jeff Gordon offered his own defense this weekend to suggestions that his popular victory in the inaugural Brickyard 400 last year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway had been manipulated by NASCAR.
``I don't even know what they're suggesting, but I can tell you we were by the books,'' Gordon said Friday after winning the pole position for today's Goodwrench 500.
``I know that it looked too good to be true. I mean, it looked like a fairy tale. It looked like a fantasy. I'd say the same thing. I couldn't believe it was happening. . . .
``There were some cars that were faster than we were at times. Geoff Bodine had a really good car. Ernie (Irvan) had a great car there at the end. And it just seemed like nobody could take it away from us. It was our day no matter what.''
No one has publicly accused NASCAR of manipulating that race or any other event by secretly helping individual teams, but such talk is common in private conversations in the garage, and Gordon's Brickyard victory is frequently mentioned in that regard.
In an anonymous poll of 30 drivers, crew chiefs, owners and team members conducted by The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star at Daytona last week, 14 said they believed that NASCAR does does give certain teams an occasional helping hand, and two people said it had happened to their teams. But 16 said they don't believe it occurs.
Gordon said he doesn't think that NASCAR helps any team, ``but it doesn't matter if they were helping you, you wouldn't be able to go out and do what we did. All the help in the world isn't going to make things happen like they did that day.''
NASCAR officials, he said, ``certainly don't try to help us. I think they treat everybody the same. I think they've got a really good system right now, and they're really making it work. . . .
``But if you go out and win one race, I don't think measures need to be taken. They are as hard on us as they are anybody else out there. And I feel like they're just as hard on that 3 car (driven by Dale Earnhardt) at times as they are on other cars. I think they're strict on everybody.''
BACKUP FOR LAJOIE: Randy LaJoie and his team were forced to begin preparing their backup car for today's Goodwrench 500 after LaJoie spun on the backstretch and hit the wall during the final Winston Cup practice Saturday.
LaJoie, who was unhurt, will have to drop to the back of the 42-car field before the start. by CNB