NASCAR rookie Pruett riding up-and-down

Stephen Hawkins

Wednesday, April 5, 2000 | 5:09 a.m.

NASCAR newcomer Scott Pruett jokes about selling tickets to his own roller-coaster ride.

For a 40-year-old driver proven in CART and on other racing circuits, life as a Winston Cup rookie has been and up-and-down experience. Take his last race, for example.

After another strong qualifying run, Pruett started in the second row Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. He took his first NASCAR lead on lap four when he passed DirecTV 500 polesitter Terry Labonte, and stayed in front for the next 13 trips around the demanding, 1 1-mile oval.

Then Pruett tangled with Steve Park, spun and hit the wall.

"We took the lead with authority at the start of the race and had a good car," Pruett said. "Unfortunately we got caught up with the 1 car.

"The crew did a great job. We kept coming in and fixing the car, moving the rear end around and fixing this and fixing that. We got the car pretty decent and were able to run pretty hard."

The patched-up Ford went on to finish 27th, the best yet for Cal Wells' first-year team.

Pruett has made just three of six races, starting on the outside pole in Las Vegas and Hampton, Ga. But he finished 42nd in Las Vegas and was knocked out of the Cracker Barrel 500 after an accident on the 178th of 325 laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

"We've certainly had our ups and downs," Pruett said.

The worst of the downs is failing to qualify.

"There's no question about it, when you have to pack up and go home from a race it's tough," he said. "When you have to back up and go home from three races it's that much more difficult."

Extremely difficult for someone who has had success in other forms of racing.

Driving most recently for Wells' CART program, Pruett was a consistent top-10 finisher in the Champ Car series points in the last decade. He also won three sports car championships.

He was the Indianapolis 500 co-rookie of the year in 1989 and won three times in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Now, instead of racing for the lead, he's chasing the front-runners.

"The reality is this is a very tough business," Pruett said. "We're going to have our weekends good and our weekends bad, but I guarantee you we're digging. We're finding our way. We're learning."

Wells expected that for Pruett and the team.

"It's as tough as I thought it would be," Wells said of NASCAR. "We're doing OK as far as meeting our expectations. ... Maybe not other people's who are looking at what we are doing as possibly failure."

Because Wells is still fielding CART and off-road racing teams, he wanted his debut season in NASCAR to be less demanding. His original plan was to start in the Busch Grand National series, but unexpected sponsorship from Tide led to a Winston Cup entry.

"We were going to get in, run a quiet little Busch program and build a company," he said. "One thing led to another, and here you go."

But Wells thinks his NASCAR team is heading in the right direction.

"We are building an organization that will allow us, I hope, in two years, to really get together a formidable effort every weekend," he said.

And Wells believes he made the right choice in choosing Pruett as his Winston Cup driver over several other drivers who already had raced in NASCAR. He is not concerned with Pruett's inexperience in a stock car.

"Scott's not going to get ready unless we toss him in to the wolves," Wells said. "You don't learn by just always doing it right. You don't learn by qualifying in the second row. You learn by not making the show, and that's expected.

"He's kept his head up and his chin up when he hasn't made the show. I get thrilled talking about it because he has made such a commitment."