Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Drivers unhappy, but Richmond won’t change

Tuesday, May 7, 2002 | 9:59 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

It's practically next to impossible to get more than two or three NASCAR Winston Cup drivers to agree on anything.

So when the drivers were nearly unanimous in their dislike of the track conditions at Richmond International Raceway for Sunday's Pontiac Excitement 400, track officials certainly took notice, right?

Wrong.

Even after the usually politically correct Jeff Gordon ripped the job track officials did in re-sealing the racing surface at the end of last year, track president Doug Fritz said RIR had no plans to correct the problem before the series returns to the speedway in September.

"We appreciate all of the feedback the drivers have given us about the race track," Fritz said in a statement released Monday. "We re-sealed the track in November, which is normally the time frame when the work is completed. We re-sealed the track in the same manner we always do, with two coats in the racing groove and one outside of the groove.

"... We have no plans to re-seal the track between now and our Indy Racing League event in June and our NASCAR tripleheader weekend in September."

The drivers' complaints stemmed from the sealant used to add grip to the track and, in theory, improve racing by adding a second groove. In reality, the track allowed only single-groove racing and led to a race-record 14 caution periods.

"They did a horrible job," Gordon said of the track conditions. "I don't know if they put too much (sealant on) or we just didn't get racing on it, but it was awful.

"This is such a great race track, we all love this race track. You never hear anybody complain about it. But, I tell you what, whatever they did they did the wrong thing. I hope that they rethink that the next time."

Ricky Rudd echoed Gordon's sentiments.

"Well, they took a good race track and screwed it up," Rudd said. "It was such a great race track for so long, but it never did come in like it needed to. There was something about the sealer process they did that they didn't do right."

"It was irresponsible reporting ... to make a ridiculous comment like that, when they asked me point blank and I said 'absolutely no way,'_thinspace" Norris told NASCAR.com in response to the report in The Sporting News. "That rumor is very, very false."

After finishing 37th in Sunday's Pontiac Excitement 400, Gordon flew to Indianapolis to take part in Monday's second practice for the Indy 500. When it looked as if rain would wash out Monday's practice in Indy, Gordon flew back to Charlotte in the afternoon to test the No. 31 Cingular Wireless Chevrolet at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Although the open-wheel cars finally made it onto the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway late Monday afternoon, Gordon missed only 77 minutes of practice. He is scheduled to return to Indy on Wednesday for the fourth day of practice.

The Luzerne (Pa.) County district attorney's office approved conspiracy charges last week against Edgar Spencer and Edgar Spencer Jr., who own and run Ed Spencer Auto Parts in Berwick, Pa. Also facing the same charges are the racer's uncle and cousin, Edgar W. Spencer and Edgar W. Spencer Jr. of Spencer's Auto Parts in Hunlock Creek, Pa.

Authorities said they received a complaint from officials at a Wilkes-Barre business alleging that truck tires from their plant were being sold at the Spencers' businesses. During an internal investigation by McCarthy Tire, service technician Raymond Balls admitted being involved in a conspiracy to steal tires and deliver them to the Spencers.

Balls was also named in the police criminal complaint and faces charges of conspiracy to commit theft.