Columnist Ron Kantowski: NASCAR splitting into two league inevitable

Thursday, Feb. 26, 1998 | 2:29 a.m.

RON KANTOWSKI is Las Vegas SUN sports editor.

NASCAR's PAST and present come together on page 26 of "50 Years of NASCAR," a special collector's issue of Sports Illustrated that recently hit newsstands.

There's a color photograph in which Darrell Waltrip, still going ... well, if not strong, at least still going, is posing with a trophy girl following his exciting victory in the 1979 Rebel 500 at Darlington.

The trophy girl is wearing hot pants, Waltrip an ill-fitting Gatorade cap and driving suit, in deference to his sponsor those years. There is a huge, greasy oil stain on his left pant leg. And get this -- D.W. is wearing black socks and a pair of dirty Converse All-Stars. Cons for cryin' out loud. And all this time you thought Dave Marcis' wing tips were extreme footwear for a Winston Cup driver.

Nineteen years later, Waltrip still is going around in circles and making left-hand turns (although at his present pace, he might exhaust his allotment of provisional starting berths by April Fool's Day).

On the day ol' D.W. finally stops spinning his wheels, every driver-turned-analyst is going to be looking over his shoulder as if there were two laps to go and the Goodwrench Chevy was closing fast. The colorful Waltrip is going to make one heck of a sidekick for Bob Jenkins or Mike Joy when his driving days are done.

By then, Waltrip may be pontificating on Winston Cup as a two-division conglomoration.

You can disregard NASCAR czar Bill France Jr.'s wishy-washy denial that stock car racing isn't about to divide and conquer anytime in the forseeable future. Treat it as if it were a slip of paper bearing Dick Trickle's name in the Daytona 500 office pool.

The best way to "grow it," an expression France and others in NASCAR often use in conjunction with Winston Cup expansion, is to split into east and west divisions with seperate drivers, teams, speedways and schedules.

Modern, bazillion-dollar speedways are cropping up like dandelions in spring. But Las Vegas Motor Speedway, site of Sunday's inaugural Las Vegas 400, is the proud recipient of the only new date on the Winston Cup calendar.

With 33 points races in addition to a couple of all-star events, NASCAR's schedule looks a lot like Tyra Banks' dance card. It's absolutely full. At least that's what its road-weary teams and drivers say.

But by forming two leagues, NASCAR could move into new markets and provide their new tracks with the races they covet. At the same time, it would enable the smaller tracks in the Southeast to keep their dates and preclude them from turning into flea markets.

Logistically, there are a lot of details to be worked out. But here's how a two-division league might work:

Existing tracks west of the Mississippi (St. Louis, Texas, Colorado Springs, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Fontana and Sears Point) as well as the ones being planned in Kansas City, Denver and Sacramento each would get two races. Put Michigan, Bristol and Chris Pook's remodeled Memphis facility in the West, and you've got enough tracks for 26 races.

The Southeast tracks along with Dover and Pocono could divvy up 26 more races. Then I'd make five races -- the ones at the No Bull Bonus tracks (Daytona, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Talladega and Darlington) -- combined events. These could comprise the World Series of stock car racing, with a separate points fund. To make the regular season more intriguing, perhaps only the top 20 cars from each division would qualify for the combined series.

Initially, the fans in NASCAR's traditional Southeast stomping grounds will blow a gasket over not getting to see all the stars on the same piece of asphalt. But they'll adjust. If Dale Earnhardt were sent west, it wouldn't take long for the NASCAR marketing machine to develop a star to replace him.

Or did you forget that Jeff Gordon was driving sprint cars in Indiana six years ago?

The split may not happen tomorrow but it's coming. NASCAR may even have tipped its hand at Wednesday's Winston West race at LVMS. Whereas WW used to have trouble drawing a dozen cars to some of its races, a full field of 35 cars raced for a sizeable $176,082 purse here.

There's a reason NASCAR has injected new life (and dollars) into Winston West. When it expands into two leagues, it will need new teams and drivers to fill them out.

Breaking up will be a hard thing for NASCAR to do. But if you don't believe change can be a good thing, just remember Darrell Waltrip's socks in that SI photo.