Friday, June 20, 2003 | 10:39 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
Nextel Communications' entrance into NASCAR racing as the title sponsor of what is now the Winston Cup Series could prove to be a blessing for local racing fans.
Nextel not only will replace Winston as the sponsor of the series' 36 points races, it also will take over sponsorship of NASCAR's all-star race, The Winston, which has been in Charlotte, N.C., for 18 of the past 19 years.
NASCAR president Mike Helton said that The Winston will be renamed the "NASCAR All-Star Presented by Nextel" and hinted that the race might be rotated among different tracks each year -- a la Major League Baseball's All-Star Game.
"When NASCAR and Winston first came up with the idea (of The Winston), the idea was to move it around," Helton said after Thursday's press conference in New York to formally introduce Nextel as the new series sponsor beginning in 2004. Helton did not elaborate on his comment other than to say the sanctioning body would release its 2004 schedule "in a couple of months."
Although Nextel officials did not address the issue directly, company president and CEO Tim Donahue made it clear that he liked NASCAR's trend of expanding the series into bigger markets outside the southeastern portion of the United States.
"I think from an overall perspective, we are extremely pleased with how NASCAR has expanded in terms of the series beyond just the Southeast -- frankly, across the entire country now," he said. "We will be working with the NASCAR folks in the future to better understand if there are other opportunities for more expansion or change of venue."
As host to one of NASCAR's highest-rated races each of the past three years, Las Vegas Motor Speedway surely would be considered a possible site for an all-star race if NASCAR decided to start rotating the event among its member tracks.
NASCAR officials last year began to float the idea of The Winston going to different venues, but the idea was met by resistance from drivers, R.J. Reynolds, which is headquartered in North Carolina, and, naturally, Lowe's Motor Speedway officials.
After the first all-star race in Charlotte in 1985, the event moved to Atlanta Motor Speedway the following year as part of NASCAR's desire to rotate the event. The race was on Mother's Day and poorly attended, and it was moved back to Charlotte the following year.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway general manager Chris Powell said he had not heard "any rumblings" about NASCAR's all-star race being moved and added that he believed Lowe's Motor Speedway should continuing to be the site of the event. Lowe's Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway are owned by Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Helton said Sunday in a interview on Fox's pre-race show that "by next spring, you'll see more and more of the SAFER barriers in play@the NASCAR racetracks that the national tours run on."
But H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, president and chief operating officer of LVMS parent company Speedway Motorsports, Inc., doesn't anticipate the Las Vegas track having the SAFER barriers in place for next year's race.
"I don't think it's going to be 2004," Wheeler said this week. "I think (NASCAR) will probably mandate soft walls, but it's definitely not going to be 2004 -- it'll be down the road."
NASCAR spokesman Mike Zizzo also said he did not believe LVMS would be required to install the energy-absorbing barriers in time for next year's race.
"Right now, the tentative plan is to have (the soft walls) in at a couple of venues this season and use those as actual-race test sites to gather more date in race conditions," Zizzo said.
"I feel like I really have improved my road racing skills in the last two years," Busch said. "I have definitely struggled in the past, but in 2003 we ran very strong at Sonoma. Road courses in general are about maintaining tires because it's easy to lock the front up and easy to spin the rear tires. So if you manage your tires correctly, the big thing is to be able to work yourself into a not-as-aggressive fuel situation.
"But if I had to put an asterisk next to what is really the most important thing about road racing, I'd say it is track position, which makes qualifying very important."
Busch, who won last weekend's race at Michigan International Speedway, is fifth in points.
Franchitti missed three races while recovering from a fractured vertebra he suffered in a motorcycle accident and returned last weekend for the IndyCar Series race at Pikes Peak International Raceway. Despite finishing fourth in the race, Franchitti complained of back pain.
"I'm really disappointed that I will not be able to compete for the remainder of the IRL season," Franchitti said. "After assessing the options available, I feel that to do the surgery now is the best thing for me. By having the surgery, I can be back to 100 percent fitness at Andretti Green Racing for the 2004 IndyCar Series Championship and the Indianapolis 500."
Andretti Green Racing has not announced who will replace Franchitti for the final 10 races of the season.
Burke has won all six of his starts this season at The Bullring. Irwindale Speedway's Todd Burns is second in the standings and David Hutchins Jr. of Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., is third.
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