Butch Gilliland comes into race confident

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 9:35 a.m.

The last thing his Winston West competitors want to hear is that Butch Gilliland has discovered another advantage.

After winning the 1997 Winston West championship and opening the 1998 season with a victory at Tucson Raceway Park, Gilliland is coming into Wednesday night's Cactus Clash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with what he feels is another ace up his sleeve.

"We've been doing a lot of tire testing for Hoosier Racing Tires in Indiana and I'll be racing on Hoosier Tires in the Winston West race on Wednesday," Gilliland said. "The tire testing we have done has been real positive. I'm running speeds over a second faster than we did when we raced in Vegas in November.

"The testing and the research and development that we have been doing with Hoosier is really paying off and hopefully that will give us a pretty good advantage going into that race."

While Gilliland's focus this week will be on Wednesday night's 100-lap Winston West race, the 40-year-old Anaheim, Calif., resident also will attempt to qualify for Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup Series Las Vegas 400. The inaugural Winston Cup race in Las Vegas will be one of four of five Gilliland said he will attempt to run this year.

While the prestigious Winston Cup Series is where Gilliland ultimately would like to end up, he is concentrating on winning a second straight Winston West championship this season.

"We're trying to do another championship effort this year on the West Coast and see where NASCAR and Winston takes the West Coast series. Because their plans are to really boost it up and it might turn into a real good series itself," he said.

"I'd like to finish this year off in good fashion, get our sponsors even happier and more behind us and do more Winston Cup races, going on to drive for somebody. That's my ultimate goal, but we've got to take care of this season first."

Winning a second straight Winston West title, Gilliland admits, will be tougher this time around.

"Winning it again will be more difficult because you're seeing a lot more well-funded teams coming into the series," he said. "Again, we have a lot of good equipment and ability ourselves, so it'll just be more top teams to compete with. But, really, I think we're still in good shape and our team will be a pretty substantial factor."

* ADD WINSTON WEST: Among the drivers expected to compete in Wednesday's Cactus Clash at Las Vegas Motor Speedway are Wayne Jacks of Las Vegas and three drivers who have raced in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series -- Lance Norick, Boris Said and T.J. Clark. Norick, Said and Clark will be making their Winston West debuts. ... NASCAR Winston Cup veteran Ken Schrader has won each of the two fall Winston West races at LVMS, but Gary Smith of Malahat, British Columbia, won the spring event here in 1997. ... Another Winston Cup driver, Kenny Wallace, holds the Winston West track record at LVMS with a qualifying speed of 164.790 mph last November. ... Defending Winston West Series champion Butch Gilliland will celebrate his 41st birthday Wednesday.

* BETTER TIMES: After breaking a gear in his Valvoline Ford Taurus and finishing 38th in the season-opening Daytona 500, NASCAR Winston Cup star Mark Martin had his spirits lifted with his third-place finish Sunday at North Carolina Speedway. "It really broke my heart at Daytona," Martin said. "I kept my chin up all through the qualifying and was happy with getting eighth in the qualifying race. Starting 15th in the 500 was good and I was happy with how we were doing on the race track, then I was crushed when we left Daytona 38th in the points. Then we come back the next week and led the most laps and we had a shot to win. I'm pretty excited right now about coming to Las Vegas. It's a great race track, we've got great stuff and our team is starting to show signs of being great."

* LAS VEGAS ADVANTAGE?: NASCAR Winston Cup rookie Steve Park said he feels he might have a slight advantage over his competitors coming into this weekend's Las Vegas 400. Park finished eighth in the Busch Grand National Series race at LVMS last year en route to winning the Busch Series Rookie of the Year award. "Every week I'm learning a new track so I don't mind it being time for some of the other drivers to see how it feels," the driver of the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet Monte Carlo said about coming to Las Vegas. "I think you could say my familiarity with Las Vegas is an advantage but not a very big advantage. I feel like going to a track where all of these Winston Cup guys are racing for the first time puts us on more of an even footing than giving us an advantage." Park's experience on the 1.5-mile superspeedway leads him to believe Sunday's Las Vegas 400 will be a good show for the fans. "The best thing about Las Vegas is that you can pass anywhere on the track," he said. "This will probably turn out to be one of the best tracks in our series."