THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 25, 1996 TAG: 9605250715
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: 50 lines
It's called the ``hooligan'' race.
It's 40 laps around Charlotte Motor Speedway on a quiet Friday for the honor of starting in the back of the field in today's Red Dog 300 Grand National race.
But, as Red Dog Challenge winner Joe Nemechek said, ``It doesn't matter what you put us race-car drivers on, we're going for the win. You put us on lawnmowers and we're still going for the win.''
Nemechek passed Rodney Combs on the 27th lap and held on from there to win by 0.03 seconds. Terry Labonte was third, followed by Ward Burton, Matt Kenseth, L.W. Miller III, Joe Bessey, David Bonnett, Kevin Lepage and Doug Heveron.
The top 10 finishers in Friday's race earned starting spots 33 through 42 in today's race.
Outside the top 10, there were 14 drivers who found nothing but disappointment running with the hooligans, including Kenny Wallace (11th), Dennis Setzer (14th), Steve Grissom (17th) and Tommy Houston (21st), who was knocked out in the race's only accident. It occurred in turn 4 on lap 11. No one was hurt.
Grissom, as a former Busch champion, gets a champion's provisional and will be the 43rd and last starter in today's race (1 p.m., WTBS). Dale Jarrett starts on the pole.
The field faces hot weather again today, and the slickness of the track is ``real bad up in (turns) 3 and 4,'' Miller said. ``I don't feel that it's going to get any better unless we get some rain and it washes the track. It'll still be greasy tomorrow, and it'll get worse throughout the race.''
TOUGH TO BEAT: Grand National points champion David Green says today's race is the toughest for a Busch regular to beat a Winston Cup regular.
``All the Cup guys have been here since last week,'' he said. ``While we were up at Nazareth, they were going around here basically a second quicker than we are. When they get in the Busch cars, they feel like they aren't going anywhere. They're really at ease in a Busch car. When I get in my Busch car, I feel like I'm setting a record.''
SPACE COMMAND: When Charlotte Motor Speedway chairman Bruton Smith gives the command of ``Gentlemen, start your engines'' for the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday evening, he'll have help from the space shuttle Endeavor.
Endeavor commander John Casper and pilot Curt Brown, a native of Elizabethtown, N.C., will assist Smith via a special NASA downlink while orbiting 180 miles above the earth.
THREE-WAY DONATION: The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has donated $180,000 raised in the 1996 Winston Cup Preview to three organizations: $60,000 apiece to The Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxiliary, the AirCare helicopter ambulance service, and Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem. by CNB