THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 6, 1995 TAG: 9503060111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
NASCAR had a little surprise waiting for the Winston Cup teams Sunday when they arrived at Richmond International Raceway for the Pontiac 400.
It was a rule change for next weekend's race at Atlanta that basically is designed to slow the cars by making them harder to drive, crew chiefs and drivers said.
The change was unexpected. And a number of teams, especially Ford teams, were unhappy about it.
``They didn't even tell us about it,'' said Larry McReynolds, crew chief for Dale Jarrett and his Ford team. ``All we got was a piece of paper this morning. They stuck it in my tool box. I just walked by and found it. I thought it was one of those pieces of paper that tells you about added contingency awards.''
Winston Cup director Gary Nelson reiterated the changes during the driver's meeting.
``Basically what we're doing is cutting a quarter of an inch off the rear deck lid and raising the ground clearance on the front air dam from 3.5 inches to 3.75 inches,'' NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said. ``The deck lid will still be 57 inches across, but only 6.25 inches high instead of 6.5 inches.
``We feel it may have some positive effects on competition and safety. We'll be interested in seeing how it affects speeds. And, depending on what happens, there may be more changes down the road.''
The cars, to be sure, are faster this year. Track records were set at Richmond and at Rockingham despite the end of the Goodyear-Hoosier tire war. Last year a slew of track records were set because the two companies were producing softer, faster tires.
``It's going to slow the cars down, but it's going to give us less downforce,'' said Bill Ingle, Ricky Rudd's crew chief. ``It should be an exciting weekend for the wrecker services at Atlanta.''
A similar change was made two years ago before the fall race at Atlanta, and the weekend was plagued with crashes. But the mayhem at that event also was blamed on the sealer that had been applied to the track surface.
``I don't think anybody can afford to give downforce up, but I think it's going to hit (the Ford teams) harder than the Chevrolets because they've got a little bit more downforce to spare than we do,'' McReynolds said.
Some Chevy teams were none too pleased about the change.
``There should be a rule that you can't change the rules once the year gets started,'' said Pontiac 400 winner Terry Labonte, who drives a Chevy. ``I don't see what's wrong with what we've got now. I don't think trying to slow the cars down by making them harder to drive is the answer.''
``Nobody breathed a word about this until this morning,'' said Robin Pemberton, crew chief for Rusty Wallace's Ford team. ``We'll race with anything they come up with, but we just don't appreciate this type of change after spending $100,000 in the wind tunnel testing our stuff.''
``You just would like to know their reasoning behind this,'' said McReynolds. ``But that's the thing about NASCAR. They always keep us guessing.'' by CNB