THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507090070
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
There was not much doubt as to who would lead the second round of time trials for today's Slick 50 300 Winston Cup race at New Hampshire International Speedway.
And Jeff Gordon, a winner of seven poles already this year, came through, leading all second-day qualifiers with a speed of 127.355 mph in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
It was good enough for the 21st starting position, the highest spot a second-day qualifier can earn. But had Gordon run that lap on Friday instead of hitting the second-turn wall, it still would have been good enough only for the 11th spot.
``We didn't have a bad lap today,'' Gordon said. ``We did exactly what we needed to do. That's important for me and the team to bounce back right away. Little things like that (Friday's incident with the wall) can affect you. Hopefully, it won't affect us too much.''
Provisional starting spots went to Chuck Bown, Brett Bodine and Jimmy Spencer, while the only driver to fail to make the field was newcomer Eric Smith.
FORBES ON NASCAR: The July 3 edition of Forbes magazine had a cover article on NASCAR, reporting that stock-car racing is the fastest-growing professional sport in the nation, with a fans-in-the-stands growth rate of 9 percent a year since 1990.
Forbes estimated that the total take in NASCAR racing, including the income of speedways, car owners and teams, at $2 billion a year. It described NASCAR president Bill France Jr. as an ``overweight chain-smoker,'' but said the France family's holdings exceed $500 million.
SUPPORT RACES: Winston Cup regular Ricky Craven passed Kelly Moore on the final lap to win the Slick 50 150 Grand National North race Saturday, while Steve Parks won the 40-lap Modified race.
``I passed (Moore) with a lap to go because everything worked out perfect,'' Craven said. ``Had I passed him with two to go, he would have passed me back. And had there been another lap, he would have probably passed me back. There were several opportunities to wreck each other.''
NELSON ON FINES: One of the repercussions of the record fines handed out by NASCAR to teams this season for rules violations is the perception that cheating has reached new heights.
This perception has generated negative publicity for NASCAR and even has spawned rumors that NASCAR Winston Cup director Gary Nelson is on the outs with his superiors because of it.
``The thing about the higher fines was the perception that the cheating was worse,'' Nelson said in an interview. ``I didn't anticipate that. To me, (the amount) is the same and I don't think the `catch rate' has changed over the last five years, but the perception has changed for the public.
``I'm not saying the side effects of our record fines is something that disturbs us. It's something that's there. But I don't see where we're going to change what we're doing.
``We announced that a year ago in Daytona and it's still in effect.''
GROOVIN': Pole-sitter Mark Martin is hoping today's race is a one-groove affair, making it all the harder to pass the leader.
``There's one groove out there and there's one lane to race on and one to use to pass,'' Martin said.
Ricky Rudd, however, was thinking about 1994, when he won the second Winston Cup event in the history of the track by using a considerable amount of its asphalt.
``I haven't figured out where the racing groove is yet,'' he said. ``What will happen is all of the guys who can't run down low will try to make the groove move out wide. Whether it works or not like it did last race . . . there's a big unknown.''
Rudd kept his Ford on the low side of the lightly banked track last year, then switched to a high groove late in the race and ran off to his first victory as an owner-driver. by CNB