St. Joseph News-Press from St. Joseph, Missouri • 38

D8 ST. JOSEPH (Mo.) NEWS-PRESS MOTORSPORTS SATURDAY, JULY 2, 2000 Was the Missouri 300 the last ASA race at I-70? Tas the Missouri 300 on The ASA has June 24 the ASA's last had a relationrace at I-70 Speedway? ship with I-70 It very well could be. Speedway since Much of the buzz around the 1977. It has infield on race day was that the brought a lot of ASA would not return to the future NASCAR mile oval. superstars like A shoddy track surface has a Mark Martin, lot to do with the rumors.

Sev- Alan Kulwicki eral sections of the track and Rusty Walresemble portions of the lunar lace through surface. I walked on a section Odessa, Mo. of the backstretch that fea- If the speedtured a pothole yes, a pot- way was wise, it hole! about 12 inches in would resurface diameter. Other parts were just the track and as bumpy. keep the ASA ASA director of media ser- happy.

There is a vices Mike Miller said the ASA demand for this would love to return to I-70, but kind of short it would probably boil down to track stock car the quality of the track. racing. Miller thinks it would be a We'll see what shame if the ASA departs, because the fans have a history of supporting the race. He estimated about 8,000 fans watched the Missouri 300, to mention countless others TNN. From the crankcase to the pits Pardon me as I not off the asphalt.

I'm on awestruck from my Missouri 300. pick my jaw changers still a little the nuts seat at the This is specialist Beating the Kellogg's Kellogg's NASCAR driver Terry Christi, Texas, loses let in the tri-oval at tional Speedway in Labonte, of Corpus control of his Chevrothe Daytona InternaDaytona Beach, during the Pepsi Labonte hit Michael dent. None of the seriously injured. Burton holds off stars to win Pepsi 400 wasn't exactly a seat. me gain a better for the art of racfolks at Herzog Motoroffered me complete and to the pits of Mark and Ricky Johnson.

was off limits or out of They wanted me to be middle of the action. was. about an hour before the I stood and watched pit crew roll five sets the back of the stall. you may think that's I was engrossed by In the crankcase Matt HUMPHREY E-MAIL: npgco.com PHONE: (816) 271- 8555 FAX: (816) 271- 8692 set the tires behind command center and preparing them for the member deflated the filling them back up pressure. this was going on, crewman glued the lug place, so the tire could quickly fasten during a stop.

when Dismore's fuel saw the perfect I big Well, it To help appreciation ing, the sports full access Dismore Nothing bounds. in the And I Just green flag, Dismore's of tires to Some of boring, but the procedure. The crew Dismore's began race. One tires, before to a certain While another nuts into BOB Press 400 Saturday night. Waltrip during the accidrivers involved were Associated Press It was Burton's eighth victory behind him, you never know.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. He doesn't have a flashy nickname or a daunting reputation and he's never been known as a master on stock-car racing's fastest tracks. But Jeff Burton is a cool customer and, maybe most importantly, a winner. Burton held off late challenges from Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett and several other big names Saturday night to come out on top after a four-lap dash in the Pepsi 400. Johnson has eyes forward after crash opportunity for a laugh, He motioned me over to his area of the pit and said, "Have you ever picked up one of these before?" He was pointing to a gas can, but not one of your ordinary backyard lawnmower containers.

It was a 15-gallon can he uses to fuel Dismore's car during a pit stop. "C'mon, go ahead and pick it up," he said It was not a wise idea. I placed my right hand on the handle, began to lift and nearly dislocated my shoulder. The can didn't budge an inch. Determined to show this fellow that I was a manly man, I placed both hands on the can and began to lift.

The can still didn't move. He said, "Here, let me show you how it's done." He picked up the can like it was a feather, freshly plucked from a peacock. So he proved me to be a weakling! Oh well, I guess that's why I type for a living. guys Rookie Busch wins Truck race Associated Press WEST ALLIS, Wis. Kurt Busch held off Randy Tolsma on two late restarts Saturday to win the Sears DieHard 200 and become the youngest driver to capture a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event.

Busch, 21, led 156 of the race's 200 laps including the final 56 but wasn't able to shake the persistent Tolsma on The Milwaukee Mile. Busch, however, was able to power away from Tolsma when the seventh caution ended after lap 195 and carried a 0.564-second cushion to the checkered flag. The victory, worth $49,835, bettered four second-place finishes that Busch recorded over the tour's first 13 races. He became just the fifth rookie driver to win on the circuit and youngest since Kenny Irwin, now a NASCAR Winston Cup Series regular, won at age 27 in 1997 in Homestead, Fla. Busch, who drives a Ford out of the Roush Racing stable, is the first rookie driver to win since 1998 and the seventh different winner of the current season.

"To finally pick up a win without running into anybody and keeping four tires on it really feels great," said Busch, who was involved in a major accident two races ago at Kentucky Speedway and slapped the wall with eight laps to go in Fort Worth, Texas. Dismore may look like a youngster, but he drives like a veteran in the ASA series found his own I was told by the Her- He placed a would be a nice kid his CD-ROM Lettow said. "But against you have something to the high-banked half the battle." "It's nothing This kid is so smooth on the track. He doesn't know how good he is. Randy Herzog, Herzog Motorsports co-owner 2 That's two of the best in the business.

I was worried about it." Jarrett and Earnhardt drafted together to move from eighth and ninth place to second and third with 20 laps remaining. They made several attempts at passing Burton, but Burton held them off, even though he had taken just two tires on his final pit stop and both Dales had taken four. Dave Blaney and Jimmy Spencer were involved in a crash with four laps remaining. racing from age 8 through the ranks Car feeder pro- over the past two seasons, more than anybody other than Jeff Gordon over the same span. As fireworks went off over Daytona International Speedway in an Independence Day celebration, Burton stood calmly in Victory Lane, carrying the trophy and a very big smile.

How could anybody be so cool after holding off such a big challenge? "I always thought I was in good shape, but you never know," he said. "With Jarrett behind you and Earnhardt his teeth in go-kart and swiftly moved of traditional Indy grams. He raced in the Series last year and overall points. When Herzog Motorsport approached him with an opportunity to race a stock car, he was extremely hesitant. He didn't know if his skills as an open-wheel racer would transfer to a stock car.

"I felt strange in the car and I didn't feel comfortable," Dismore said. "When I was racing open-wheel, we had and the car was very cars) move around lot of Dismore wasn't doubts. Crew chief year veteran of ASA tain his new young Lessons learned on the infield Plant your feet: When the green flag dropped, I began spinning in circles as the cars worked their way around the highbanked oval. This approached worked for two laps, before my stomach began spinning in circles. There had to bet a better way.

I kept a careful eye on Dismore's crew and they taught me how to watch. They stood in one place and followed the action with their head, not their entire body. After learning this skill, my stomach was much happier. Yours will be too, if you ever get such an opportunity. Get a scanner: Nothing made the race more interesting than listening to the radio traffic between driver and pit crew on a scanner.

It makes you feel like you're part of the action. Be prepared to run: When a wreck happens, you better be prepared to move. Shortly after the 15-car pileup outside of Turn: 2, everybody By MATT HUMPHREY St. Joseph News-Press MILWAUKEE, Wis. Jimmie Johnson has come a long way in seven days.

Last Sunday, his car was buried in a wall at Watkins Glen International after a brake line failure caused his car to fly over a sand trap. It was the first time all season Johnson failed to finish a Busch Series race and the mishap cost him a chance to move up in the point standings. He obviously hasn't let the mishap ruin his outlook. On Saturday, he qualified sixth for today's Sears DieHard 250 at the Milwaukee Mile his best qualifying run of the season. It's hard to imagine Johnson came so close to being seriously injured at Watkins Glen.

"When saw his car buried in there I start- NC Jimmie Johnson: Will start sixth on Milwaukee Mile. NASCAR 2000 Sears DieHard 250 Where: The Milwaukee Mile When: 1:30 p.m., CBS ed to get tears in my eyes," Stan Herzog, one of the owners of Johnson's No. 92 ALLTEL Monte Carlo, said. "I didn't think he was going to make it. When I saw the replay, I didn't know how he got out of there." Not only did he get out of the car in one piece, but he jumped on his roof and raised his fists into the air.

"At the time I was so happy to be alive and OK," Johnson said. and their mother boogied to the backstretch to assess the damage. If I hadn't been fleet of foot, I would have been run over by a half dozen rolling toolboxes. For the curious People have approached me with the following question: how much money went down the tubes for Herzog Motorsports last weekend? Not only did Jimmie Johnson total his car in the Busch Series race at Watkins Glen, but Ricky Johnson and Dismore found themselves in the 15-car pileup at I-70 Speedway. According to Stan Herzog, the team lost approximately $150,000.

The figure would have been much higher, but both ASA cars were repairable. While it's hard for the man on the street to comprehend such losses, he must realize it's just a relatively small drop in the bucket for modern day motorsports. "Wrecks are written into the budget," Herzog said. "The next couple of days I was really sore." The impact, softened by a double layer of Styrofoam, caused a few bumps and bruises, not to mention a stiff neck and back. Johnson visited a chiropractor earlier this week to take care of the pain.

Even though he's trying to put Watkins Glen behind him, he hasn't been too successful. While talking on the phone Friday afternoon, Johnson's father showed him another picture of the wreck a picture that brought back more memories. "It was a heck of a wreck," he said. "I've seen it and we're lucky for the way it worked out. We're lucky to land where we did." When Johnson went airborne, he thought the Styrofoam was concrete.

He was worried his car would smash right through the wall and land in the middle of some motorhomes parked on the other side. Instead, he stayed as limber as possible, placed his chin in his chest and put his hands on the bottom part of the steering wheel. He also pulled his legs away from the pedals to help avoid injury on impact. At the time of the incident, Johnson was in contention for his first-ever NASCAR win. He raced as high as third position, before his brake pedal went to the floor on the fateful turn.

Still, Johnson has high hopes for today's race. Milwaukee is one of the few places he's visited before in a Busch car a place where he collected a seventhplace finish last season. He knows a strong run today will put him closer to his goal a top-10 finish in the season standings. "Where we are at right now, if we can finish in the top 15 in points we've had a good year," he said. "If we can finish in the top to 10, it would be an awesome year." By MATT HUMPHREY St.

Joseph News-Press ODESSA, Mo. Mark Dismore is no longer a teenager, but he still looks like one. Not even his 20th birthday on Friday could disguise his ruddy face and boyish smile. He looked all of 15 years old when he walked across the infield at I-70 Speedway prior to the ASA ACDelco Missouri 300 June 24. He certainly didn't look like a race car driver.

For Dismore, that's one of the beauties of stock car racing. Age and looks don't matter once he's strapped into his seat and speeding across asphalt at speeds exceeding 130 miles per hour. The only things that matter are respect and success. The rookie, who drives for St. Joseph-based Herzog Motorsports, has been able to enjoy both.

"I'm starting to enjoy (stock car racing) a lot more now," Dismore said. Dismore, son of the Indy Racing League veteran with the same name, had his heart set on becoming an open-wheel driver like his dad. He cut the transition. "The only thing zogs was that he with a good attitude," that was a lot. If work with, that's Their work finally paid off May at Nashville Speedway USA, site of BFGoodrich 300.

Dismore guided his No. 44 Monster.com Monte Carlo to a fifthplace finish after starting the race 17th. "It started happen after Dismore said. "I said I Even so, think I can do this. Howie and I were reputation communicating well.

Now, I have chief and really warmed up to it." impressed While Dismore has- racing in his himself. blood, he doesn't have experience "The kid especially in stock cars. He's visiting said Randy many of the tracks on the ASA circuit of Herzog for the first time. know how I-70 was no exception, but Dismore He's good way to prepare. rookie of the year points standings, only NASCAR video game into 107 points behind leader Joey Clanton.

drive and competed He also has Lettow on his side, which is -generated drivers on a good sign for a rookie. Lettow has been ovals in Odessa, Mo. the crew chief for six different ASA like the real thing," Rookies of the Year, including Herzog Formula Ford 2000 finished third in Mark Dismore: Getting the hang of ASA racing. a lot of downforce light. These (stock a lot and there is a the only one with Howie Lettow, a 19- racing, wasn't cerdriver could make 21 the to Dismore said with a Busch Series driver Jimmie Johnson in smile on his face.

"The 1998. video game is fun and I'm "Howie doesn't get excited about anynot saying you should thing and that's a good thing when stop playing it. It's too working with a rookie driver." Johnson much fun, but it's not said. "There is a lot to get excited about like the real thing." with a rookie driver, because things The game couldn't sim- happen." ulate the impact he felt in The only things that get under Disa real-life 15-car pileup more's skin are the questions he has to halfway through the Mis- field about his name. Although he souri 300.

The front end of shares the same moniker as his famous his car was obliterated, father, he's not a junior for the time because he didn't have being, at least. enough time to react. "Fans ask if I used to run Indy Car or Dismore has developed a if my dad is my uncle," Dismore said. as a smooth driver. Crew "I get asked the question five times a team officials alike are day.

I'm not really a junior, but to save with the way he handles my breath, I'll go with that on my car next year." is so smooth on the track," He also hopes to go into next seaHerzog, one of the owners son with a couple of wins. His next Motorsports. "He doesn't chance will come July 16 at Chicago good he is." Motor Speedway in the USA Meats enough to be fourth in the 200..