Columnist Ron Kantowski: Senators practice going left … in racecar

Thursday, June 2, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

It was just after 11 a.m. Wednesday when the senator from Virginia, his silver racing helmet barely visible from the cockpit of the bright yellow No. 19 Mario Andretti Racing School Indy car, negotiated turn 1 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway without incident.

Who says Republicans can't turn left?

"As long as it's fast and it means making progress," said Sen. George Allen, R-Va., after zipping around the track like Danica Patrick.

Well, he didn't go quite as fast as the new darling of the Indianapolis 500. But he went fast enough to get a bit of a feel for how the real guys -- and gal -- do it most weekends.

If nothing else, Allen and three of his GOP pals from Washington -- Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. and Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. -- proved that politicians not only talk fast, sometimes they drive that way, too.

As he unfolded himself from the low-slung Indy car, Allen, the son of the late NFL coaching legend George Allen, immediately began to filibuster.

"It's a completely different experience than stock car racing," said Allen, who has made some laps around Richmond International Raceway for a photo op that no doubt secured the NASCAR dad vote. "It's almost claustrophobic in there."

Allen, a former quarterback at the University of Virginia -- "I made the all-Academic team, probably because there was less competition" -- said he has been a race fan since his dad took him to the Indy 500 in 1965 when the elder George Allen still was an assistant with the Bears.

"Clark won," he said, referring to Jim Clark, the popular Scotsman who led the British Invasion at Indy.

But it didn't take long to figure out that Allen, like most of America these days, is a NASCAR fan at heart. The first thing he did upon unbuckling his safety harness was reach into a can of Copenhagen and load up a Talladega-sized dip.

"I love NASCAR," Allen said. "I always go to Richmond, Martinsville, I've been to Bristol and 10 years ago I was the grand marshal of the Charlotte race. Richard Petty has always been my hero but I drive a Durango with a big No. 3 (the late Dale Earnhardt's number) on back."

Much to the chagrin of his daughter Brooke. "She tells me, 'Dad, that's so redneck. Plus, it's getting old and fading,' " Allen said. "So I told her I was going to get another one."

Allen said he also is a big fan of Virginia constituents Elliott Sadler, Jeff Burton and Ricky Rudd, and of the Wood Brothers, whose roots also are in the Commonwealth. But nobody tops Petty on his speed chart.

"I followed Cale Yarborough and (David) Pearson and the rest of 'em," he said. "But Petty was just my hero. When I used to go surfing in California, my buddies (on shore) would listen to the race and flash me numbers, so I would know what position he was in."

Allen, a former Virginia governor, is being mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008. But he came to Southern Nevada to appear at the Hand Up charity event, benefitting women and children with learning disabilities, on Ensign's behalf.

But this was hardly Allen's first trip to Nevada. He said his love affair with the Silver State began when he was 21, when he took a summer off from law school to work as a buckaroo at a ranch in Winnemuca. More recently, he and his wife Susan spent a quiet afternoon at the Valley of Fire, which he called a near religious experience.

And he seemed absolutely delighted when I told him I had covered his dad's last game as coach, a 29-20 victory against UNLV that clinched a rare winning season for Long Beach State in 1990, a season before it dropped football.

"I love Nevada," he said. "You come out here and see the mountains and sometimes it seems like you can see forever."

That would be somewhere off in the distance beyond turn 4.