The Atlanta Journal from Atlanta, Georgia • 60

ER 2 Sunday March 9 1997 AUTO RACING 4 The Atlanta JournalThe Atlanta Constitution THE CIRCUIT race: Primestar 500 1 pm Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway Hampton a Track: The 1522 mile At lanta Motor Speedway oval hap quarter mile straights banned at 5 degrees The cor ners are banked at 24 degrees Track race record: Dale Earnhardt 163633 mph Nov 12ip95 Track qualifying record: Bobby Labonte 185887 mph NqV10 1995 Location: Hampton 27 miles south of downtown on USj9and41 TVradio: ABC (blacked out locally) 640 AM 925 Last winner: Dale Earnhardt was all wet but it was all good Earnhardt have enough time during his pit stop with 38 laps to go to finish his cup of water When the jack dropped on a 197 sec ond pit stop water splashed frbth his cup He gained more than two seconds in the pits on Terry Labonte When the checkered flag fell he was 41 seconds ahead Qtfrer winners here: Jeff Gordon Ernie Irvan Morgan Shepherd Bill Elliott Ken Schrader Darrell Waltrip and Ricky Rudd Cey to the race: Cautions Long green flag runs could lead to a surprise winner or at least a situation where fuel mileage makes an impact Three to watch: Jeff Bur ton qualify for this race last season so you know he wants to do well this year es pecially after a dismal day at Richmond Shepherd has three of his four career wins at this 'Track and also was terri ble last week and Jimmy Spencer finished seventh and 14tfrhere last season Winston Cup points 1 Jeff Gordon 525 2 Terry Labonte 462 3 Dale Jarrett 449 4 Rjcky Rudd 448 5 Ricky Craven 44 1 6Mark Martin 409 7 Bill Elliott 385 8jGeoff Bodine 378 9 Jeremy Mayfield 377 10 Rusty Wallace 370 I fJkerling Marlin 369 1 2Bpbby Labonte 368 1 3 Bbbby Hamilton 357 14 Ted Musgrave 354 I Jeff Burton 337 16 rtake Speed 336 1 7 Kyle Petty 33T 1 8 Ward Burton 327 I Waltnp 3 1 6 207Brett Bodine 315 21 Ernie Irvan 306 22 Hike Skinner 305 23 Johnny Benson 299 24 Dale Earnhardt 293 25! Grissom 264 26 Robby Gordon 258 2A Dick Trickle 255 organ Shepherd 1 244 Michael Waltrip 239 30 Pave Marcis 237 31 Keh Schrader 231 Stricklin 228 3 John Andretti 219 4 Rick Mast 209 J5 Robert Pressley 198 (tie) Jimmy Spencer 198 (tie) Derrike Cope 198 Busch Grand National IRandy Lajoie 487 j2' Todd Bodine 462 fk Phil Parsons 454 jl Mark Martin 418 5 Mark Green 380 65teve Park 378 Butkshot Jones 375 Elton Sawyer 372 Elliott Sadler 358 Green 352 graftsman Truck Series i gffich Bickle 335 grtch Miller i 330 Sauter 325 Iy Hensley 292 Irwin Jr 267 Sown 265 Sprague 264 uttman 259 Crawford 257 255 Drivers bidding farewell to Paper Clip Track scales are not in relation to each other going to bring a new 10th or 15th CURRENT I NEW By Al Levine STA WRITER Track length: 1522 mile oval Last race: Spring 1937 ARCA garage area Quarter mile legendstrack Champions' Grandstand Drrirr Dau Winston Cup Media center and garage area photo compound Special New shape of AMS in rendering shows drivers heading into turn 2 The changes which will be finished for NAPA 500 are supposed to be better for spectators 1 Three lane infield tunnel East turn 77 grandstand VERNON CARNE Staff on what will become the front Richard Petty Grandstand North turn grandstand East turn grandstand Weaver Grandstand Busch Series garage area ii down a long contends AMS built correctly anyway The startfinish line should be the front door of the facility he said 1 Clark said the change will make the best track on the circuit now as far as seeing all the even better certain the drivers will adjust think any of them will come to say boy we used 7 still going to be competitive still going to be real fast be coming off the corner faster and going into corners faster Just like Pit road Victory lane press box new yiP suites DALE EARNHARDT 5 8 compound scoring stand broadcast facilities camper showers and restrooms and a pedestrian tunnel The quad oval shape is 1 signature His Charlotte Motor Speedway is built that way building the new Tex as Motor Speedway that way He said got more than addition al seats in mind like this configuration be cause of Smith said it affords you the ability to do things other than just race spectators will love it They can see it better The way the grandstands are wrapped around be able to see all the activity better instead of try 2 ing to lean forward and look Grandstand North turngrandstand Richard Petty uigiidiiuimei Weaver Grandstand I race at Atlanta Motor Speedway is the Primestar 500 but it ought to be subtitled set at the Big Paper After event the 1522 mile oval which resembles an enlarged pa per clip will be torn up and re configured into a 154 mile quad oval in time for the NAPA 500 in November The change which breaks up a long straightaway with a series of subtle turns has gotten the attention The new shape is supposed to be specta tor friendly (less looking side to side like a tennis match) but OV111V VVIUOLVJI VU7 U11VV10 CllV expressing regret at the change hate to see it because I en joy racing so much said Dale Earnhardt who has won eight times on the present track still going to be competitive still going to be real fast be coming off the corner faster and going into corners faster Just like wish leave it John Andretti said the one track that is a true oval and we have many of those left But you know times change and we move kind of sad to see Johnny Benson said has always had its own charac teristics with the long sweeping turns and short straight aways I wish they would keep it the same just have to wait and see how it turns Startfinish Track length: 154 mile quad oval irst race: Nov 16(NAPA 500) AMS officials probably expect the drivers to embrace the change drivers have mixed re Ed Clark the president and general manager said Elliott told me yester day he loves driving the track the way it is and he hopes the new one will be as much fun to drive challenge to all of them All the old setups go out the window ev erybody comes in November starting AMS owner Bruton Smith said the change will separate the competitors on the track find out who the racers Smith said who are just driving will be back somewhere The most' ambitious single year construction project in the 38 year history will move the startfinish line to what is now the backstretch A 37000 seat Grandstand now under construction will be added to the 22000 seat North Turn Grandstand and the 12000 seat Richard Petty Grandstand stretch orty four luxury suites and a new press box will be built atop the Grandstand The reconfiguration will bring a new victory lane: pit road quarter mile oval track for Legends racing two new garage areas two new scoreboards in field media center photogra to run that old track great but we just figure out how to run' this new not that drastic of a ON ACCESS ATLANTA Rev up for the Primestar 500 at INSIDE MOTORSPORTS TOM McCOLLISTER Sabates: ord HP big edge Ys inch conces sion to the ord teams has all the Chevrolet teams steaming but elix Sabates who fields cars for Robby Gordon Joe Neme chek and Wally Dallenbach has been the most outspoken The floor is yours Mr Sabates kicked butt at Daytona Rockingham and Richmond led 80 percent of all the laps so far Somebody must be seeing a dif ferent race from the one seeing they make rules changes I know They explain it to us If anyone needs help the Pontiacs The Chevy teams just have better drivers than the ord teams ord has four or five drivers and all got I was shocked whenNASCAR made the announce ment It caught everyone off guard except the ord guys I help it if they win They got us by at least 40 horse power and Gary Nelson knows that wind tunnel test really mean that much a good gauge but you can take a car to the wind tunnel and terrible but it can kick every butt on the race track How do you compensate for horsepower? You all get better but going to be tough with the ords getting the rules changed after done everything but win the first three WORTH NOTING rom ESPNET comes this tidbit ollowing his Daytona 500 victory Jeff Gordon took a trip to New York but soon after ar riving he was kicked out of his room the Presidential Suite at the Waldorf Astoria He was bumped in favor of an even high er profile guest President Clinton POWER PACKAGE Geoff Bodineffias signed a i three year contract with 10 time JOHNNY CRAWORDStaff ive year old Mathew Martin poses with his dad Mark Martin and the trophies the old er Martin earned by winning the Stihl 300 Busch race at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday L7 at Wfe? A A O' Jr 7 viKz Ji i NHRA champion Bob Glidden and his sons to work on the re search and development for his engine program Glidden saw the opportunity for this new busi ness while searching for spon sorship for his ord Probe racer been that successful for ord in drag racing recently and we think we can have more impact with their Winston Cup teams in the Glidden said think we can use what learned to find power where they just had time to OOPS After a quick pit stop last Sunday at Richmond Ted Mus grave came out third then quickly fell back the pack He radioed his pit string thing is terribly wrong with the Seems the crew put the left rear tire on the right side and the right on the left ruining the handling The car was so hard to drive that the entire right side was scraped from repeatedly hit ting the fourth turn wall He fin ished 20th three laps down had an opportunity to win that was thrown away in the pits We just have to learn from it and go Musgrave said DIPLOMACY Doug Hewett crew chief for Johnny Pontiac has taken a diplomatic approach to rule change: be going to analyze things in Atlanta and maybe give the Pontiacs something af ter Hewett said need more front downforce and I think Atlanta will tell the AROUND THE TRACKS Veteran crew cheif Philippe Lopez has moved from the Sta vola Brothers to head up Winston Cup development of Dale Earn hardt's team next year Richard Broome becomes the Stavola crew chief Eenson protects his feet from heat by carving up styrofoam cups and attaching the material to the bottom of his shoes QUOTE wreck at Daytona did serve one purpose It gave us something else to talk about be sides not winning the Daytona 500 Eamhdrdt PROILE Ricky Craven: purely a driver now In the past tried to do too A Ricky Craven is stock car 'Maine man The New Englander received the best op portunity of his career when Rick Hendrick selected him last year to replace Ken Schrader Craven was Winston Cup Series rookie of the year in 1995 the first of his two sea sons behind the wheel of Larry Kodiak No 41 In 1991 Craven won the champi onship of Busch North Series and he went on to finish second twice in the Busch Grand National division1 Age: 30 amily: Wife Cathieen Car: No 25 Budweiser Chev rolet Monte Carlo owned by' Rick Hendrick Hometown: Born in New burgh Maine raised in New burgh and Bangor Maine and now lives in Concord NC What has changed with the move to Hendrick? purely a driver now In the past tried to do too much Now I have a number of new commitments that come'' with representing my team and my sponsor Also it is a challenge to be on a team with two drivers as great as Jeff Gordon and Terry Labonte I think it adds any pres sure comfortable with the How do you get along with your new crew chief Andy Graves? only been working with Andy for a short time but it seems like known each other for years Right now Andy is very underrated but within the sport I think everybody knew he was one of the brightest most ambitious mechanics in the How would you rate your odds of winning your first race? A year ago a lot of people were saying I was bn the verge and to tell you the truth I wasn't sure that we wete ready This year I donrt fed cautitms at all in sajlhg we are on pie CURRENT STATISTICS.