More stops mean fewer breaks

Michael Vega

Sunday, July 2, 2000 | 2:51 a.m.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - NASCAR reached the halfway point of the grueling 34-race Winston Cup schedule with Saturday night's Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Next Sunday's race, the Jiffy Lube 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway, will mark the unofficial start of the second half of the season. If this were the Boston Marathon, the field of Winston Cup drivers would be chugging along Route 135 in Wellesley, with Heartbreak Hill ahead.

But the NASCAR Winston Cup Series is a marathon of a different sort that covers tracks coast to coast. By season's end, drivers log enough race miles (13,365.8) to cross the country in their 3,500-pound stock cars at least five times.

Next year, the circuit will be even more grueling when NASCAR expands its schedule to 36 point races with the addition of events at Chicago and Kansas City, Kan. When you count the two exhibition races (the Bud Shootout at Daytona in February and The Winston in Charlotte in May), that means Winston Cup teams will be on the road 38 out of 52 weekends.

Some drivers and owners have expressed concern about the burden it will place upon their crew members. "Everybody says, 'Well, it's only a couple of more weekends we're throwing out,' but the problem is you're still gone Friday, Saturday, Sunday," said Bill Elliott. "And, normally, Thursday is a travel day and part of Monday is a recovery day, so that's four or five days a week, (but) I don't write the rules. I just go to the races."

The news of NASCAR's expansion to key markets in the Midwest raised concerns about whether teams are being pushed past their breaking points.

"Certainly, there is concern," said Mike Helton, NASCAR's chief operating officer and senior vice president. "You have to be sensitive to that becoming an issue. We have to be concerned about finding more time in the schedule to have more races."

So what's the solution?

"From the way I see it, we need to figure out a way to help the crews from the standpoint of wearing them out every week," Elliott said. "The one thing I see, being from the owner's side of this deal - I'm wearing an owner's hat now - is that I have to hire not just two or three more people but a lot more people to overcome the amount of traveling and what these guys go through week in and week out."

As for the drivers? What kind of time constraints will they likely face next season when two races are added to an already jam-packed schedule?

"It is definitely a time-management situation that people are going to have to handle and accept - everyone in NASCAR to some degree," said Mark Martin. "Another thing is I don't plan to do this for another 10 years. I've put 26 years of my full focus and my full life into this and as it continues to grow and require more, I continue to look and plan for retirement. Whereas, if it (were) a 25-race schedule I might plan to race another 10 or 15 years.

"But with it the way it is and with the level of success that I've been able to achieve, it just makes me look long and hard at how long I want to do this."

It is a delicate step by NASCAR, which is not only expanding its schedule, but also its media exposure when a $2.47 billion TV contract with NBC, Turner Sports, Fox, and FX kicks in next season.

"I guess if you had an ideal perfect world, maybe one of the races currently on the schedule at a track that has two (Winston Cup dates) could be cut back, so you're not really at another event on an extra weekend," said Ricky Rudd. "We'll manage and we'll cope. We're excited about going to areas like Chicago and Kansas City; but by the same token, hopefully, by not dropping any tracks, at least we're not forgetting the fans who have supported us over the years."

Bodine's destiny

Geoffrey Bodine, the 51-year-old Winston Cup veteran from Chemung, N.Y., returned to Daytona this weekend for the first time since his horrific truck crash in February. Bodine cashed in a chip as provisional starter, earning the last spot in the field for Saturday night's race. "This has been a very positive experience for me," said Bodine. "You might think I'm crazy, but I wouldn't change anything that happened here at Daytona. I survived. I survived in front of millions of people. I'm a living testament of God's power that He has over our lives. He also protected me where I wasn't hurt bad enough that I couldn't race again. I'm back. I'm racing. He blessed me there." . . . Michael Waltrip said if he had his druthers he might not have run the Boston Marathon after driving at Talladega the day before. "That wasn't one of the more sound decisions I've ever made," Waltrip said. "The race at Talladega was going well. We'd run up front all day and were running fourth and got in that wreck. We loaded up that night and flew to Boston and got up the next morning and did the Boston Marathon." Waltrip said he is training to run one more marathon in December in Tampa. "I really want to make it in less than four hours. That's my only goal, to finish one in less than four hours, and I'm definitely in better shape now than when I went to Boston, because I've rededicated myself to running and preparing for the next marathon." . . . NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Andy Houston will drive the No. 82 Channellock Chevrolet for Team Sabco in the NASCAR Busch Series Die Hard 250 at the Milwaukee Mile Sunday. It will be Houston's second career Busch start in the event at Indianapolis Raceway Park; in 1996, he finished 24th. "I love racing anything that has wheels on it and take advantage of any chance I can," said Houston . . . Pfizer Inc. announced Friday it was stepping up as primary sponsor of Martin's No. 6 Ford Taurus, replacing Valvoline, which declined to pony up the money Roush Racing was demanding to run the 2001 Winston Cup season. Martin will now drive the No. 6 Viagra Ford. "It's a perfect fit for me," said Martin, who served as a spokesman for Pfizer's Men's Health Tune-Up For Life Program. "I've been an advocate for men's health concerns. Now I have a sponsor whose company goal is to help people live longer and healthier lives." . . . While many teams unveiled new paint and logo schemes for Saturday's race, the most notable was the significant switch at Petty Enterprises, whose No. 43 Pontiac is no longer sponsored by STP. Saturday night, John Andretti piloted the blue and yellow No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Pontiac. "We were talking about that in Sears Point with my sister Rebecca," said Kyle Petty. "I was 14 when she was born and Rebecca has never seen that car painted any other color but blue and orange with the No. 43 and STP on it. There's a lot of Winston Cup fans who have never seen that car any other way. In a lot of ways, it's like Coca-Cola changing their logo. It was almost like 43 STP was the logo, now it's 43 Cheerios. I think it shows how the sport has changed. There's not many sacred cows left in this sport." . . . The Tyler Jet Motorsports crew took a different tack, switching back to the plain white paint scheme it had on Johnny Benson's sponsorless Pontiac in the Daytona 500 after Lycos reneged on its sponsorship deal after 16 races. So instead of applying new decals to Benson's No. 10 Pontiac, the team spent Friday afternoon removing them. "There's the good ol' saying that wider is better with Pontiac," Benson said. "But now this team has its own saying that, 'Whiter is better.' We're just hoping that it works out well."

Marquis triumphs

Jerry Marquis of Broad Brook, Conn., was able to negotiate lapped traffic in the final laps of last Saturday's Carquest 150 at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway to win his second NASCAR Featherlite Modified event of the season over Mike Ewanitsko of North Babylon, N.Y. In other Seekonk races last week: Wayne Dion of Warrick, R.I., took the NASCAR Weekly Racing Pro Series event over Bryan Souza, the pole-sitter from Somerset, Mass.; James Lawrence, also of Somerset, captured the checkered in the 25-lap Exide Sportsman Division feature over Ken Spencer of Taunton, Mass.; Kevin Casper of Fall River, Mass., won the Seekonk Sports Truck 25-lapper over Mike Brightman of New Bedford, Mass., and Jason Heroux of Johnston, R.I., won the Mini Cup feature over rookie Josh Lima of Cranston, R.I. . . . Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway has rescheduled its July 20 NASCAR Featherlite Modified race to Aug. 17. The Pepsi 125 was moved to August after it was preempted by the May 21 rainout of the Bud Kick Off, which will now be held July 20. After staging the Pepsi 125, Thompson will host the Busch North Series Aug. 27.

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