All Revved Up

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

Ask Rhonnie Partridge what she likes best about NASCAR's Winston Cup series and a chill runs through her body.

A fan of stock-car races, she keeps Winston Cup sheets on the guest bed in her Henderson home, and framed posters and photographs on the wall.

Partridge has a cabinet filled with Winston Cup collectibles she has accrued over the past 18 years she's been a fan.

So enthralled is Partridge, 37, by the sport she even wanted to name her children after her favorite driver, Bill Elliott.

"If I had my way, my first son would be William Elliott, but my husband said, 'No way,'" Partridge said. "He wouldn't go for it.

"If my second one would have been a girl, it would have been Elliott Amanda," she added.

Additionally, Partridge has two Ford Thunderbirds the car Elliott used to race parked in the driveway of her home.

"It broke my heart when he switched to Dodge" two years ago, she said.

However, Partridge added, "I can't quit on Bill. He's still my favorite even though he's not driving a Ford."

It's no surprise, then, that Partridge will be at this weekend's NASCAR events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"Oh, yes," she said with a laugh. "Qualifying on Friday, the Busch race on Saturday and the race on Sunday."

Such fanaticism for the Winston Cup series is not unique on the popular racing circuit. Devoted fans follow the sport religiously, regard their favorite drivers as they would family members and make a conscious effort to purchase the products that their favorite drivers endorse.

Such as Ford Thunderbirds.

But Partridges presence in the grandstands and television audiences represent the changing face of the Winston Cup: dedicated women fans.

While the sport has always had its share of female fans, the number of women following the sport has grown from 25 to 40 percent in the past 10 years, according to NASCAR statistics. Roger VanDerSnick, NASCAR's director of brand marketing in Charlotte, N.C., said that between 2000 and 2001 the number of female fans grew from 25 million to 35 million nationwide.

Changing tides

Some in racing circles speculate that the growth came with the change in marketing and corporate sponsorships of the drivers that has shifted over the years from oil and automotive products to domestically related products, such as Tide laundry detergent, Kellogg's cereal and such retail stores as Target and Home Depot.

Some fans say younger women are drawn to the races by such youthful, handsome drivers as Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Others say the faces and cars of drivers turning up on products in stores, such as on laundry detergent boxes and coffee cans, creates familiarity with the sport.

Whatever the reason, the sport that was born in the late 1940s in Daytona Beach, Fla., and held the reputation for decades as a good-old-boy sport for Southern males, has spread to the living rooms of viewers throughout the country.

NASCAR's new contracts with networks Fox and NBC, which alternate airing the races during the Winston Cup season, mean even more exposure for the sport.

"A lot of people might think it's kind of boring watching the same cars go around and around," Kelly Pearson of Boulder City said."But it's adventurous. If you really realize the concentration that has to go into (driving) for three to four hours. You've go to hand it to them. They're on the edge constantly.

"It's pretty awesome to go wide open like that for a long period of time."

Pearson said that she was drawn into the races about 15 years ago, after her husband made her sit through them on television. Shortly after she was hooked on the sport.

"The rest is history," the 41-year-old said. "After a while, I'm watching Dale Earnhardt and Tim Richmond.

"Dale Earnhardt was my man," Pearson said of the legendary driver, who died last year while racing in the Daytona 500. "He was awesome. Now his son's my man. But nothing's the same when your favorite driver isn't there anymore."

Loyal fans

Driver dedication is common among Winston Cup fans. Unlike other sports, where fans might give up on a failing team, NASCAR fans will support drivers who may not have won a race in years, Jeff Motley, public relations representative for Las Vegas Motor Speedway, said.

Sometimes entire families will embrace a driver and the products he endorses. What creates Winston Cup fanaticism may seem like a mystery to those who don't follow the sport, but fans and NASCAR representatives speculate that driver accessibility is the draw of the all-American sport.

Fans turn out in droves at autograph sessions at sponsors' locations in different cities to meet their favorite drivers, get autographs and have pictures taken with the drivers.

"They're a little more fan-oriented now than they used to be," longtime race fan Patty Earhart said.

Last year Las Vegan Earhart and her husband, Rodney, won a drawing at a local Outback Steakhouse restaurant to have lunch with driver Steve Parks, who was in town for a race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"The drivers are relatable, down-to-earth role models to our fans, talking to our fans on a routine basis," VanDerSnick said. "That's really where the bond is driven, where it's formed. There's a sense of attachment and emotional belonging in our fans.

"They really feel a part of the NASCAR family."

Motley said being able to identify with the drivers is another draw to Winston Cup, while other sports' stars have become superhuman.

"We see car drivers as being much like the rest of us," Motley said. "We can all relate to driving fast. We can all relate to be the first one wherever we're going."

But actually getting behind the wheel of race car is a different story.

"I've been on a ride-along. That was enough to scare me to death," said Marge Higley, a Las Vegas resident who has been following the races for decades. During ride-alongs, people pay to ride shotgun while a professional driver speeds around a race track in a stock car.

Higley has family ties to motor sports. Both her father and her husband have raced cars professionally. She uses her vacation days from her job as a purchasing agent to go to races in Phoenix and at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In NASCAR, Higley said, "It's like you absolutely love it or you don't love it."

Learning the game

For 24-year-old Tara Kurth, a diehard Winston Cup fan who lives in Boulder City, her interest in the sport came after learning about the details of racing.

"It really is an acquired taste," Kurth said.

"Before, I would just watch it and say, 'This is the most boring thing.' Every time I was flipping channels and would see NASCAR I'd flip right through it."

Then she met her husband, Steve, who explained the intricacies of the sport, the efficiency required by teams during pit stops, the relationship the pit team has with the driver and the danger of speeding around a track at more than 150 miles per hour.

"That's when I saw how there really is a rhyme and reason to this sport," she said.

Kurth and her husband follow drivers of Chevys -- Gordon, Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harrick.

"We call it a Chevy family," she said.

Kurth said she began to respect the athleticism of the drivers after she participated in a ride-along a couple of years ago at the Richard Petty Driving Experience at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"If I didn't think that these people were athletes before, I do now," she said. "Once we got about 150-plus miles an hour, I couldn't even hold my head up. The next day my head was sore, and they have to do it for 500 miles. They don't even get a break.

"These guys are just pushing it the whole time."

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