The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 36

SPORTS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution D2 Saturday, Feb. 13, 1999 AUTO RACING Earnhardt: Hungry for wins Lineup for today's NAPA Auto Parts 300 Busch race with car number in parentheses, driver, car make and lap speed in mph: Kerry Earnhardt catching up to kin says it won't happen unless he's competitive again. "He's not going to sit out there-1 and run 20th," Childress said. "If we can be competitive and have a chance at the championships and still win our share of the rac: es, you could see him race through 2001, for sure. knows after that?" Childress confirmed that and Earnhardt already have had discussions about who will over the wheel of the io.

3 rolet when that time "I don't think we'll ever find 'a replacement," Childress "We're going to put else in there after he leaves. We are looking at other drivers. Dale? and I have already had two versntinns nhnnt uhn we'H like to' 1. (15) Ken Schrader Chevrolet 189.865. 2.

(1) Randy laioie Chevrolet 189.661 3 (34) Mike McLaughlin Chevrolet 189.386 4 (27) Casey Alwood Chevrolet 189.175 5 (93) Dave Blaney Pontiac 189.151 6 (95) Bobby Hamilton Jr. Chevrolet 188.949 7 (36) TimFedewa Pontiac 188.703 8 (00) Larry Pearson Pontiac 188.580 9 (21) Michael Waltrip Chevrolet 188.561 10 (87) Joe Nemecheh Chevrolet 188.482 11 (9) Jeff Burton ford 188.273 12 (57) Jason Keller Chevrolet 188.222 13 (32) Jeff Green Chevrolet 188.186 14 (63) Chuck Bown Chevrolet 188.159 15 (44) Terry Labonte Chevrolet 188.155 16 (3) Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet 187.891 17 (66) Todd Bodine Chevrolet 187.844 18 (17) Matt Kenseth Chevrolet 187.829 19 (99) Kevin Lepage Chevrolet 187.825 20 (59) Mike Dillon Chevrolet 187.813 21 (43) Adam Petty Chevrolet 187.778 22 (47) AndySanlerre Chevrolet 187.770 23 (8) Bobby Hillm Jr. Chevrolet 187.664 24 (10) Phil Parsons Chevrolet 187.570 25 (35) Lyndon AmicK Chevrolet 187.508 26 (37) Kevin Grubb Chevrolet 188.017 27 (60) Mark Martin Ford 187.774 28 (22) Jimmy Kitchens Chevrolet 187.352 29 (50) Mark Green Chevrolet 187.336 30 (5) Dick Trickle Chevrolet 187.301 31 (25) Jeff Finley Chevrolet 187.278 32 (31) Ron Hornaday Chevrolet 187.149 33 (40) Kerry Earnhardt Chevrolet 187.118 34 (38) Glenn Allen Jr. Chevrolet 187.071 35 (89) Jeff Fuller Chevrolet 187.056 36 (90) Brad Loney Chevrolet 187.021 37 (74) Tony Raines Chevrolet prov.

38 (98) Elton Sawyer Chevrolet prov. 39 (33) Jason Jarrett Chevrolet prov. 40 (4) Jeff Purvis Chevrolet prov. 41 (29) Curtis Maikham Chevrolet prov. 42 (18) Andy Hillenburg Pontiac prov.

43 (26) Johnny Benson Chevrolet prov. see in the car when that tim0 1 Continued from Dl his seventh points championship in 1994, Earnhardt finished second in '95; fourth in '96; fifth in '97 and eighth last year, only the second time he fell outside the top five since 1985. Earnhardt's 15-year streak of at least one victory per season ended in 1997, and his number of top-five and top-10 finishes declined in each of the past five seasons. Richard Childress, who owns Earnhardt's black No. 3 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, concedes that the team fell behind in technology last season.

Earnhardt's average starting position was 26th. There also was tension in the garage area after Earnhardt's relationship with crew chief Larry McReynolds soured because of a slow start. In early June, Childress replaced McReynolds with Kevin Hamlin, the crew chief from his other team, Mike Skinner and the No. 31 Chevrolet. Earnhardt didn't win under Hamlin's direction last year, but he finished 10th or better in three of the final four races.

"Kevin and I just sort of had a better relationship or thought process," Earnhardt said. "We ended up talking about the same things. We're comfortable with each other, and it just seems to work better. I think as much of Larry as I always have, and I'm comfortable with him." Hamlin worked the final 20 races of last season with Earnhardt, who says he spent more time in the shop during the offseason. After a disappointing testing time at Daytona in January, in which Earnhardt finished 30th out of 40 drivers at 190.130 mph, he rebounded with a solid Speed Weeks performance.

Earnhardt was 10th in last week's first-round qualifying, then on Thursday won his 10th Gatorade 125-mile qualifying race in a row to earn the fourth spot in the Winston Cup season-opener. The victory came despite skipping some of the week's practice sessions and making minimal changes to his car. "We were confident all week," Earnhardt said. "A lot of people thought we were too confident, not practicing any more than we did. But give me the equipment and give me the team in the shape it needs to be, then we can win races, and we can win championships." Earnhardt enters Sunday's race in a position to join Petty (1973 and 74), Cale Yarborough ('83 and '84) and Sterling Marlin ('94 and '95) as the only back-to-back winners of the Daytona 500.

Earnhardt says he's still hungry for a record-setting eighth points title, as well as another trip to Daytona's victory lane. But he also says he knows that the end of his storied driving career is near. His contract with Childress ends after the 2000 season. Although there are talks about renewing the deal, Earnhardt comes." 1 1 he had eight top-10 finishes in 11 Goody's Dash Series races. In '94, he made 26 starts in late-model competition in Hickory, N.C., with one top-five and seven top-lOs and was rookie of the year.

In 1995, Kerry Earnhardt raced against his younger brother and his sister, Kelley, in late models. "That was when you had the fun times, you could get to them, you could bump on 'em, just have a good time with it," he said. "My sister never won but she raced real well." Kerry said he isn't the least bit jealous of Dale quick success or the $10 million deal he signed to drive a car for Budweiser in the future. "I'm proud of him," Kerry said. "He's come a long way in his racing career." Kerry qualified 33rd for today's race, blew an engine in practice on Wednesday and the replacement motor, he said, seems to be better than the first.

He might have a better car than Dale who qualified 16th but was one of eight drivers wrecking in Friday's happy-hour practice. Jr. will have to go to a backup car. Six other drivers will be going to backups for the race: Jeff Burton, Dick Trickle, Chuck Bown, Glen Allen Todd Bodine and Ted Musgrave. By Al Levine STAFF WRITER Daytona Beach, Fla.

The Busch Grand National Series kicks off today with the NAPA 300, the first race in a season that might be called "NASCAR: The Next Generation," because of all the sons following their dads's tire tracks. Five offspring of current drivers are in the field headed by pole-sitter Ken Schrader in the No. 15 Chevrolet: Bobby Hamilton Adam Petty; Jason Jar-rett; and a pair of Earnhardts, defending champion Dale Jr. and his stepbrother Kerry. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

is known as "Little which probably makes Kerry "Middle At 29, Kerry is Dale oldest son, from his first marriage, and is five years older than Dale Jr. But Kerry Earnhardt is many years behind Junior in racing. He was 2 when his parents divorced and he grew up as Kerry Key, taking the name of his stepfather. He said he legally changed his name to Earnhardt when he was 16, although he has said previously he is in the process of changing it. Kerry began racing in 1992 when he and his younger brother bought a street stock car.

In 1993, When Earnhardt does retire' from driving, he won't walk'' away from stock-car racing altoV-gether. His company, Dale Earfr hardt based in MooresvilleW N.C., owns the Winston Cup Steve Park and Dale Earn-'1? hardt Busch Grand National team. yfi Earnhardt's teams are housed in a facility in front of his home ill Mooresville, dubbed "The'A' Garage Mahal." For now, Earnhardt's goal i closing the gap between him two-time defending Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon. "I know Dale Earnhardt as well as anybody," Childress saidH "He is ready to go, and I see that desire to win." Today: NAPA Auto Parts 300, Busch race, noon. Sunday: Daytona 500, 1 2: 1 5 p.m.

A Intimidator shows patience in IROC; crashes mar dash-series event Danny Bagwell were released. DAYTONA NOTEBOOK AL LEVINE three- and four-wide racing at the beginning." Elder takes Discount 200 Christian Elder of Minneapolis won the Goody's Dash series Discount Auto Parts 200 by surviving a race punctuated by three major wrecks that sent four drivers to a hospital. There were three red flags that stopped the race for 57 minutes, 20 seconds. Pole-sitter Scott Weaver was to go undergo surgery at Halifax Medical Center for an open fracture of the left tibia. George Crenshaw was set for surgery at the same facility for a fracture of the right femur.

Danny Snell and Sponsor for No. 90 Veteran owner Junie Donlavy picked up a sponsorship for his--No. 90 Ford when Larry Hedrick, whose No. 41 car didn't make the field, negotiated a deal that allow his sponsor, Kodiak, to be u- on the 90 car for this race. led the most laps with 23, finished third.

The field was reduced by four cars after eight laps. Eddie Cheever brushed the wall, lost control and through a curtain of smoke took out Dale Earnhardt Rusty Wallace and Jeff Burton. Earnhardt Sr. said he was driving defensively early in the race. "Call it what you want, patient, cautious, finesse.

It was a little bit on the scared side at one point, to be honest with you. There was just a little too much Daytona Beach, Fla. This is turning out to be Dale Earnhardt's week. A day after winning one of the twin 125-mile qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway for the 10th year in a row, Earnhardt used a last-lap surge to take the first race in the International Race of Champions (IROC) series. With Bobby Labonte's help, Earnhardt came from behind and passed Mark Martin on the last lap of the 40-lap race.

It was Earnhardt's fifth IROC win at Daytona and eighth in the series that matches 12 champions in Winston Cup, Busch and Indy cars in identically prepared cars. "It was exciting," Earnhardt said. "When Bobby got in there with us and we started working together, we came to the front. If it wasn't for Bobby, we probably wouldn't have won the race." Labonte was second by just 0.107 of a second and Martin, who Take the Heritage Cadillac Illl I ChaWannal UPA to carry 30 Braves games YOU CAN NOT FIND A LOWER PRICE ANYWHERE! 1 BrtnS lnt" ii net youl ast year, WUPA (Channel 69) got the equivalent of a partial i in' mi mm mil 1 NEW '99 CADILLAC SEOfltl BEM111ES Bits and pieces Citing a scheduling conflict, Falcons quarterback Chris Chandler canceled his interview Friday with Jim Rome on "The Last Word." GPTV's (Channel 8) "Prep Sports" returns today at 9 am, while MediaOne Channel 33 will televise the state high school wrestling championships tonight at 7 Fox has changed Atlanta's NHL game Sunday (3 p.m., WAGA-Channel 5) to the Flyers and Avalanche, replacing the previously announced Red Wings and Rangers. .1 TV RADIO PRENTIS ROGERS MSRP $40,085 A mj MSRP $46,523 NEW '99 CADILLAC TODAY ON THE AIR SEUILLES '1 IN i tnsNs If 1 Fi tta US 3000 1W OR xn AT MSRP $44,623 TliHSffiflV' A LEASE FOR 0KUT PER MONTH 48 MONTHS ir 46 month Itaw $3,248 toftl due it mcaptwn Indudtt ratundtbtt Mcurity rtutvwH With appFovnd crdrt 9TKi9194 nun MUM Mm low MMMnmnW Mewl OoooM Wpmlo BtKltlB ride on the Braves' television bandwagon.

In 1999, the UPN affiliate will get a full ride. As the Atlanta carrier of the Braves' over-the-air package in the Southeast, WUPA will carry 30 games this season, which should boost the profile of the station dramatically. "Truthfully, we never thought we'd have sports become such a big part of our programming," said WUPA senior vice president Linda Danna. "On our 11 Braves telecasts last year, we averaged an 8.0 rating, with a high of 11. And this year, we have a greater consistency throughout the schedule, which should cut down on some of the viewer confusion of a year ago.

"Also, from a television perspective, the Braves have the highest local ratings in baseball. Most teams do 4.0s, and the Braves do twice that." The bulk of the Braves' regular-season schedule will air again on TBS, which has 90 games. Fox Sports South will carry 29 games, with ESPN and Fox expected to pick up another 11 telecasts. Two Sunday afternoon games at 5 p.m. Pacific time, June 20 at Arizona and Aug.

15 at Los Angeles, will not be televised. At first glance, it would appear that Fox Sports South took a hit, because the regional network carried 45 games in 1998. But that was a result of last-minute scrambling caused by TBS' conversion from a superstation to basic cable and being restricted to 90 games. "Except for last year, we've normally had 25 regular-season games, so we've actually added more games than we've had in past years," Fox Sports South vice president Hunter Nickell said. Turner Sports senior vice president Kevin O'Malley said, "We wanted to hfve a larger over-the- Luxury, Prestige Mi Comfort air package last year, but there was not sufficient time.

The Braves continue to be hugely popular, and the advertisers have great loyalty. So we're confident the TBS package will be sold out once again." Oscar night on TVKO Between the reports about Mike Tyson and the Salt Lake City Olympics scandal, there hasn't been much attention devoted to the most challenging fight of Oscar De La Hoya's career. For boxing fans, De La Hoya's showdown against undefeated Ike Quartey has been too long in the making. For HBO's pay-per-view arm TVKO, tonight's WBC welterweight title fight will be a true test of De La Hoya's drawing power, at $39.95 a pop. "There's no question he's our biggest star outside the heavyweight division," HBO vice president Lou Di Bella said.

"Ike is a terrific fighter, but he's not a big draw. There has been so much going on, the buzz has been affected to some extent. But Oscar is like a heavyweight on pay-per-view." In his last six pay-per-view fights, De La Hoya has averaged 500,000 buys and grossed more than $100 million, including an all-time non-heavyweight high of 800,000 buys and $35 million gross for the 1997 fight against Julio Cesar Chavez. HBO would be satisfied if tonight's fight meets that average. I UUU3II I liUdl lid liillUKI lid IUU li.iy.ll IIIiliA.

-'1 AUTOS NAPA Auto Parts 300. noon CBS Galcnade Iwin 125s 2 30 pni CBS BASKETBALL Appalachian State at VMI. noon FoiSS Massachusetts at Rhode Island, noon ESPN Wake Forest al Duke, 130 p.m ABC Women: UAB at Memphis, 2 p.m. Foi SS Detroit at Butter. 2 pm.

ESPN Women Connecticut at Old Dominion. 2 pm, ESPN2 South Carolina at Kentucky. 4pm WXIA North Carolina at Maryland, 4 pm. WAIL SE Missouri State at Tennessee-Martin. 4 m.

SS Florida at Georgia, 6 p.m. FoiSS Iowa State at Nebraska, 7 30 pm ESPN Michigan State at Minnesota, 9 30 ESPN BOXING Oscar de la Hoya Ike Quartey, 9 Pay -per-lm FIGURE SKATINO Championships Men I tree skate. 4pm ABC Championships Ladies tree skate, 9 ABC GOLF Dubai Desert Classic. 9am GoH Ch. Buick Invitational.

4 pm. CBS LPGA Valley ol the Stars. 4 30 pm GotlCh. 'Senior American Express Invitational, 5pm ESPN Encsson Masters, Bp GoH Ch. NIGH SCHOOL Wrestling championships 7pm MediaOne Ch 33 H0CRET BlackhaiksatMapleleats.630pm ESPN? TRACJl los Angeles Indoor, 12 30 am ESPN taped AUTOS NAPA Auto Parts 300, noon WEKS 02.5 FM), WW (101 1 FMI BASKETBALL GSU It Samford.

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