Friday, Sept. 12, 2003 | 9:34 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.
With each passing race, NASCAR Winston Cup racing is beginning to look more like a cross between professional wrestling and a bad soap opera.
The real actors, however, are the NASCAR officials at the head office in Daytona Beach, Fla. -- not the drivers involved in the seemingly weekly melodramatic, and often violent, off-track episodes.
Following the most recent postrace altercation, between Kevin Harvick and Ricky Rudd at Richmond International Raceway, NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter declared -- presumably with a straight face -- that the sanctioning body would not condone the type of behavior exhibited by Harvick. Hunter then vowed that NASCAR would react "swiftly and strongly" in order to curtail such antics.
Coming only two weeks after driver Jimmy Spencer was suspended for one race for punching Kurt Busch in the face following a race in Michigan, many believed NASCAR was primed to send a message to its competitors by making an example of Harvick -- who had been suspended for one race last season after intentionally wrecking another driver in a Truck Series race and then dissing NASCAR.
Instead of coming down hard on Harvick, NASCAR issued him a slap on the wrist in the form of a $35,000 fine and placed him on probation until the end of the year. The sanctioning body also fined five members of Harvick's crew, who joined in the postrace melee, and suspended two of them for a race.
As three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip noted in a nationally televised interview this week, "What's probation? I was on probation for 30 years. And these (drivers) make three, four, five million dollars a year; what's $35,000 to them?"
Good point. If NASCAR really wanted to put a stop to the brawls, it should start handing out race suspensions for what it likes to call "actions detrimental to stock-car racing."
But who's kidding whom? NASCAR can trace its meteoric rise from a relatively obscure Southeastern pastime to the second-most watched sport in the country back to the 1979 Daytona 500. That race, the first to be televised live by a major network, ended with drivers Cale Yarborough, Donnie and Bobby Allison fighting in the Daytona grass below Turn 3 after Donnie and Cale had wrecked on the final lap.
As much as NASCAR insists it doesn't condone such acts, they are replayed ad nauseam on sports highlights shows, fueling interest in the sport and driving up TV ratings.
And NASCAR knows it.
Tara Parker, 29, Megan Elizabeth Howell, 16, and Mysti Howell Poplin, 24, also died in the accident. All three were passengers in the limousine.
Jeffrey Niles McFayden of Greensboro, the driver of the pickup truck, was charged with driving while impaired and three counts of second-degree murder.
Tara Parker had undergone a life-saving heart transplant two years ago while her husband was serving as car chief for Winston Cup driver Kurt Busch of Las Vegas. Tara Parker was making a successful recovery from the transplant and the couple had adopted a baby boy, Jagger, in July.
Shawn Parker, who left Roush Racing at the end of last season to join Robert Yates Racing, was named crew chief for Jarrett's No. 88 UPS Ford in May.
"I can't put into words the grief we feel," Yates said in a statement. "We are all in shock right now. All we can do is support Shawn and what he needs to do, as well as Tara's family. Tara has gone through a lot in the last two years and was really an inspiration to everyone that knew her. Shawn and Tara were new parents and they had a lot of joy in their life.
"This is absolutely heartbreaking for me and (my wife) Carolyn, everyone at Robert Yates Racing and everyone that knew Tara."
Jarrett also released a statement that read, in part: "There are no words to adequately express the overwhelming sadness that (my wife) Kelley and I feel over the tragic loss of Tara Parker and her two sisters. Tara was a very special young woman who exemplified the true meaning of perseverance and determination. After battling heart problems that ultimately led to a heart transplant, Tara took on the challenge of helping others by promoting organ donation.
"Her persistent courage, engaging personality and infectious smile touched many lives and everyone she met was drawn to her. We will truly miss Tara and the inspiration she was to the Jarrett family."
The final stage of the 2003 Red Bull Driver Search will take place in October at the Estoril F1 circuit in Portugal. The six finalists will be assessed in F3 racecars and the winners will earn a ride with a leading European junior-series team for 2004.
Last year, Carmichael finished second to fellow Honda rider Mike LaRocco in the U.S. Open, which pays $100,000 to the winner.
Baldwin Motorsports, whose vehicles are prepped and whose pit crew is provided by Las Vegas-based Collins Motorsports, recently purchased the SCORE Trophy Truck originally built by Porter Race Cars of Orange, Calif., and raced by Damen Jefferies.
Baldwin's son, B.J., will move from Class 1 to the featured Trophy Truck division in the No. 97 Ford F-150.
Racing begins at 6 a.m. for classes 1-2/1600, 5/1600, 9, 3, 5, 4, 10, 11, SCORE Lite, Sportsman Buggy and Sportsman Truck and at 1 p.m. for Trophy Truck and classes 1, 8, 7, 7S, 7SX, Protruck, Stock Full and Stock Mini. Admission is free to the Buffalo Bill's Special Events Compound.
Registration and technical inspection will be Sept 18 at Sam's Town hotel-casino. Final inspection and a car display will be in Ely on Sept. 20. On Sept. 21, participants will parade 30 miles to Lund, where the 90-mile race starts with one car leaving the starting line every 60 seconds.
Chuck Shafer and Gary Bockman set the World Record open-road race record, which is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, in 2000 during the Nevada Open Road Challenge. They averaged 207.7801 mph in a Chrysler LeBaron-bodied former NASCAR Busch racecar.
archive
