He Doesn’t Think Marshal Was So Grand

Richard Petty, as part of his farewell tour of NASCAR stock car racing, has driven his No. 43 Pontiac in front of the starting field for at least one parade lap before every Winston Cup race this season except one. After acknowledging the cheering crowds, Petty drops back to his qualifying position for the start of the race.

At Darlington, S.C., however, he notified race officials that he did not wish to be part of the Southern 500 parade festivities as long as Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton was riding in the pace car as the grand marshal.

Petty, a staunch Republican who has already served as a Randolph County commissioner in his home state, is rumored to be interested in North Carolina politics after his retirement as a driver.

Add Petty: At his final race Nov. 15 in Atlanta, Petty will not only drive in front for the parade lap, but after the race is completed he will take one slow lap around the 1.5-mile course by himself. And what if he crashes, or his car breaks during the race?

“Don’t worry, we will have a backup car ready for him,” publicist Harvey Duck said.

Trivia time: How many Pacific 10 Conference football coaches played college ball where they coach?

One man’s view: Toronto Argonaut owner Bruce McNall, who also owns the Kings, says his football team is a disgrace. The Argonauts won the Grey Cup last November but have a 3-7 record after being shut out by Calgary, 31-0, last Sunday.

“The team is disgraceful,” McNall told Associated Press. “They should be ridiculed, humiliated, right from management down to the coaches and players.”

Their praise: Two female athletes were among People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people in the world--volleyball star Gabrielle Reece and skater Katarina Witt.

Taking no chances: Eric Lindros will play in the Philadelphia Flyers’ exhibition opener against the Quebec Nordiques in Philadelphia on Saturday night but will not accompany the team to Quebec for Sunday’s rematch. Flyer officials are fearful that Nordique fans have not forgiven him for his yearlong holdout and refusal to sign with Quebec.

“I play when I’m told to play and I guess that comes from upstairs,” Lindros said. “I don’t care. I’ve been there before. . . . The food’s good.”

Watching tennis: John Nelson of the Associated Press had this to say about the Stefan Edberg-Michael Chang U.S. Open semifinal tennis match: “Five and a half hours for one tennis match? There can’t be anybody in the whole world who watched all of it on TV without getting paid. If there is, someone’s missing a great career opportunity: Night watchman at a Prudhoe Bay summer camp for insomniac sumo wrestlers. No previous experience required.”

Fish story: Greg Gumbel, after fishing on the pond that is part of CBS colleague Terry Bradshaw’s 400-acre ranch near Shreveport, La.: “The worms are bigger than the fish.”

Trivia answer: Two, Terry Donahue of UCLA and Mike Price of Washington State, although Price did most of his playing after transferring to Puget Sound.

Quotebook: The late Hall of Fame golfer Jimmy Demaret: “Golf and sex are about the only things you can enjoy without being very good at it.”