DATE: Friday, June 20, 1997                 TAG: 9706200879

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: FONTANA, CALIF.                   LENGTH:   69 lines

NEW CALIFORNIA RACETRACK EARNS HIGH DRIVERS' MARKS EXCEPT FOR A JOHN ANDRETTI CRASH, IT WAS A NEAR-PERFECT DAY AT THE ROGER PENSKE TRACK.

Things were not quite perfect on the first day of action at California Speedway Thursday, but it was so close to perfect that nobody was quibbling. The praise was almost universal for Roger Penske's new two-mile track here.

On this extra day of practice for Sunday's inaugural California 500, the speedway was - dare we say it? - a one-groove race track. The only quick way around was on the bottom.

``But I think from the first (practice) session this morning until now, it was definitely getting wider,'' said Robby Gordon, who has returned to action in the No. 40 Coors Light Chevrolet.

``At least this track has the potential to be a multi-groove race track,'' said Kyle Petty. ``Some tracks in the past - we won't mention any names - didn't have that potential. This is the first new race track we've been to this year that we can race on.''

The comparisons to the year's other new track, Texas Motor Speedway, were inevitable. And as California earned high praise, Texas took a beating.

``The first thing they did here was they built the race track, and then things were built around it,'' Jarrett said.

Other places have built all the surrounding parts and all of the grandstands and then they tried to make the race track fit into that. Here, they had racing in mind and it was done for good racing.''

Still, everybody was sticking to the same line through the corners here Thursday. And as Gordon said. ``Racing around the outside now? I don't know.''

The driver at the top of the speed chart Thursday was no surprise. But it was interesting that Dale Jarrett, who reached 183.416 miles per hour in his Ford in the final afternoon practice session, was almost two miles per hour faster than anyone else except Jeff Gordon.

In the early afternoon practice session, Gordon reached 183.369 miles per hour in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo - second fastest of the day. Next fastest was teammate Terry Labonte at 181.497 mph in a Chevy. Mark Martin, among the quickest all day, was third fastest in the quickest Ford at 181.410 mph, followed by Lake Speed and Ted Musgrave in Fords.

``It's a lot faster than I thought we could run,'' Gordon said. ``It blew us away. But you're going to see a different story tomorrow, when it's one lap on the clock and guys are getting serious. Today is really a relaxed day.''

But it was a busy day as well, with three separate practice sessions interspersed between practice for the IROC and Winston West cars, which will race here Saturday.

John Andretti became the first Winston Cup driver to smack the wall when he pounded the concrete coming out of turn two at about 7:30 p.m. EDT during the final Cup practice.

Andretti carried too much speed into the turn and flattened the right side of his Ford against the wall when he looped it. ``It was my fault,'' he said. ``I carried too much speed in the turn and the car kept getting freer and freer and then it just snapped around.''

Although the design of the race track, the grandstands and the garage is close to a carbon copy of Penske's Michigan Speedway, it is not the same when you're going 180 mph, the drivers said.

``They have a lot of similarities, but it's enough different to know you're definitely not at Michigan,'' Jarrett said.

``It's not at all like Michigan,'' said Jeff Burton, who is still a bit sore from his accident during practice at Michigan six days ago. ``There's less banking, and you gotta run on the bottom, at least right now.''

The turns here are banked at 14 degrees, while Michigan turns are banked at 18 degrees.

As much as anything, the drivers were impressed with how smooth the racing surface is.

``It's the smoothest surface that we race on,'' Jarrett said.

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