THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130568
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: 70 lines
Gentlemen, start your engines. And sportscasters, cue your replay machines.
NASCAR has cooked up a recipe of Ford equals Chevy equals Pontiac at Daytona International Speedway, and the potential effect of such perfect balance may be akin to splitting the atom.
Drivers fear pileups of nuclear proportions today in the Twin 125 qualifying races for Sunday's Daytona 500.
``It's going to get pretty heated up and pretty intense out there,'' said Chesapeake native Ricky Rudd, who starts 11th in the first race.
Added 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope: ``We're definitely concerned about what's going on out there. I got hit this morning. I pulled out of a lot of three-wide situations out there.''
Morning practice Wednesday claimed one car. Joe Nemechek's Chevrolet Monte Carlo was hit from behind by Ward Burton's Pontiac Grand Prix in turn 1 after slowing to avoid Hut Stricklin, whose Ford Thunderbird slowed after breaking a shock absorber.
``We were all pretty much in a cluster,'' Nemechek said. ``Everybody was driving crazy. It just got out of hand.''
Nemechek will have to start his backup car from the rear of the pack in the first 125-miler. He was already 24th in the 26-car field.
``I'm seeing real good, heads-up drivers making silly moves because it's so hard to pass,'' Pontiac driver Bobby Hamilton said. ``It's a weird thing. It's just weird.''
Not everyone is complaining about passing. Ford driver Rusty Wallace, for one, said Tuesday that the ``passing thing was malarkey. I didn't see any problem whatsoever with passing.''
He added that the reason there were so few passes in last Sunday's Busch Clash was that there weren't enough cars on the track to stir up the air.
Rudd said he was able to pass other cars in practice Wednesday, ``but I didn't see anybody who looked particularly spectacular. It's basically a 40-car IROC field.''
Rudd said one of the only ways to pass appears to be to use the side draft, in which the passing car pulls up close to the car that is being passed, and then pulls back away. That move seems to give the passing car a boost.
Dale Earnhardt ``is probably as good at it as anybody has been in the past,'' Rudd said.
The technique was discovered by drivers in the IROC series a few years ago, and about half the Winston Cup drivers use it, he said.
To counter the side draft, the driver that is being passed must go with the other car when it tries to pull back away. It doesn't take a fertile imagination to guess the results: Cars rubbing, touching, dodging and darting about.
``You're going to see short-track racing at Daytona International Speedway is what you're going to see,'' Rudd said. ``I've already gotten two doughnuts on the side of the car in practice.''
Said Ford driver Jimmy Spencer: ``Drivers are moving around, cutting people off. You're starting to see this constant shifting. A lot of guys are doing this, and I'm telling you, we can't do what we're doing. It's going to cause a big pileup.''
Starting positions 3-30 for Sunday's race will be determined by the finishing order of the 125s, with the top 14 drivers in each race (excluding front-row starters Mike Skinner and Steve Grissom) advancing. Positions 31-38 will then be filled according to qualifying speeds. There will also be up to five provisional starting spots.
Today's races, which start at noon, will be telecast Saturday on a tape-delay basis. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Michael Waltrip, left, and Bobby Labonte compare notes as they wait
for afternoon practice to begin at Daytona.