Southwest Tour cars to hit the big time

Friday, March 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

NASCAR's Featherlite Southwest Tour is no stranger to Las Vegas, having visited the 3/8-mile oval annually since 1990. But the series will be venturing into uncharted territory when it races under the lights at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday night.

The 133-lap Las Vegas 200 will mark the first time in series history that the Southwest Tour stock cars have raced on a track bigger than one mile. As a result, the lightning-quick Southwest Tour cars will be equipped with restrictor plates for the first time.

Despite the use of the speed-curtailing restrictor plates, the series qualifying record of 131.745 mph is expected to be shattered Saturday afternoon.

Craig Raudman of Redding, Calif., who is third in the Southwest Tour points standings after two races, said he believes the series drivers will put on a good show at the 1.5-mile superspeedway.

"It's big and fast," Raudman said of LVMS. "I think it'll come down to something like a Winston Cup race where we're all running together. I've never run on a track this size. I definitely want to be in front. We're hoping for good things."

Sean Monroe is the series points leader with 330 points but the Venice, Calif., driver will be behind the wheel of buddy Chris Trickle's car Saturday night. Trickle was running second in points before he was critically wounded in a Feb. 9 shooting in Las Vegas.

Qualifying for the Las Vegas 200 will begin at 12:30 p.m. Saturday and will set the order for the top 30 positions. A 20-lap qualifying race will begin at 4 p.m. and will send the top four finishers into the main event, which gets the green flag at 8 p.m.

The racer's edge

Many of the drivers in Sunday's NASCAR Busch Grand National Series Las Vegas 300 are relying on their friends in the Craftsman Truck Series for pointers on how to set up their cars for the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The truck series visited LVMS last November and Bryant Frazier, crew chief for Bobby Labonte's Shell Oil Racing Team, said he contacted some of the drivers who ran the race or tested tires in Las Vegas to get an idea of how to set up Labonte's No. 44 Pontiac for Sunday's 200-lap event.

Frazier said he believes his team will have an edge over the others in the field Sunday because of its driver.

"Bobby Labonte has an incredible feel for a race car and (he) knows what he needs for the car to go fast," Frazier said. "Our advantage will be that we will be able to make better adjustments quicker because of who we have behind the wheel."

Oops

After an incident-free morning practice session Thursday, Busch Series drivers Brad Payne, Kevin Lepage and Johnny Chapman had mishaps in the afternoon session at LVMS.

Payne scraped the wall in turn four with his Perry Racing Ford but reported only minor cosmetic damage; Lepage and Chapman weren't as fortunate. Lepage crashed his Hype Chevrolet in turn four and will switch to a backup car for Sunday's race. Chapman put his Sherwin Williams Ford into the wall -- also in turn four -- and will use a backup car Sunday.

Both Lepage and Chapman were unharmed in the separate incidents.

Beating the Busch

Defending NASCAR Busch Grand National Series champion Randy LaJoie, on the difference between running the Richard Petty Driving Experience cars and his own FINA Chevrolet on the 1.5-mile Las Vegas Motor Speedway: "I'm a whole lot more careful with the Petty cars -- I would have to buy it if I wrecked one." LaJoie went through the Petty Experience earlier this winter during a promotional trip to Las Vegas and is one of the few Busch Series drivers who had any time on the track prior to Thursday's practice.