AUTO RACING : A Two-Day Preview of NASCAR at Indy

Most race fans are unaware of when their favorite teams do test sessions, but that’s certainly not the case with the open test Monday and Tuesday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This two-day session is open to the top 35 teams in NASCAR’s Winston Cup points. It also is open to the public and could draw the biggest stock car crowd of the season, giving everyone a preview of the excitement expected Aug. 6 when NASCAR’s top series makes its debut on the historic 2 1/2-mile oval.

Attendance for each of the two days of testing could top 100,000, with crowds of more than 150,000 possible--at $5 apiece.

The Indianapolis 500--the world’s premier auto racing event that is run the last Sunday in May--routinely draws crowds estimated at 450,000. The sprawling track has about 300,000 permanent seats.

“This could be real big,” said Kyle Petty, who took part in a brief tire test at the speedway a year ago. “I mean, the fans are excited, the drivers are excited, the crews are excited. It’s going to be some show. And just wait until we race there.”

NINETEEN RACES into the 30-race NASCAR Winston Cup season and there are still only two drivers who have won more than a single event in the hotly competitive series.

That is, however, a bit misleading, since five-time series champion and current points leader Dale Earnhardt has six victories and 1989 Winston Cup champion and this year’s third-place driver Rusty Wallace has five.

Mark Martin, who finally turned around the ill fortune that has seemed to haunt him since late last season, is the latest to take the checkered flag, winning last Sunday at Watkins Glen International.

He joins the late Davey Allison, Geoff Bodine, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty, Ricky Rudd and Morgan Shepherd on the list of one-time winners this season.

Still looking to reach Victory Circle in 1993 are some big names and, usually, big winners. They include three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, who is tied for third with retired Bobby Allison with 84 victories on the all-time win list.

Also winless this season is Bill Elliott, 13th on the all-time list with 39 wins; Harry Gant, tied for 26th with 18; and Terry Labonte, tied for 37th on the list with 10 wins.

There are no first-time winners this year, although rookie Jeff Gordon has come close with two second-place finishes.

TO SEE JUST how good a season Dale Earnhardt is having, you have to look a little closer at the statistics than simply at race victories, where he leads with six, and points, which Earnhardt leads by 281 over Dale Jarrett.

Earnhardt, heading into Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway with a 281-point lead over runner-up Dale Jarrett, has led in 15 of the 19 races so far this season, taking the top spot 69 times for a total of 1,294 laps. That’s 23% of the 5,687 laps of competition this season.

Surprisingly, however, Rusty Wallace, who has led in only 10 races, is tops in laps led with 1,412, which translates to just under 25% of the total laps.

JACK ROUSH, who owns the team for which Mark Martin and Wally Dallenbach Jr. drive, is beaming over his first one-two finish in Winston Cup racing.

Dallenbach, in his best season in two years of running on the Winston Cup circuit for Roush Racing, followed Martin across the finish line last Sunday at Watkins Glen International--one of only two road courses the top NASCAR series runs on.

Roush has built his reputation as a team owner, car builder and engine builder with his successess on road courses, where he has eight series championships--five in IMSA and three in the SCCA’s Trans-Am series.

“Well, you know we’ve been impotent on (NASCAR) road courses,” said the happy Roush. “I was ready to win the first year at Sears Point (in Sonoma, Calif.), and of course we haven’t been able to do that. We were real good at Sears Point this year and didn’t win.

“One thing after another has struck out road racing program in the two (stock car road) races a year, and they’re not even on the same track. So we’ve had a string of things that aren’t average. This time, we were fortunate.”

HARRY HYDE, the 68-year-old Winston Cup crew chief who has helped a string of young drivers, is trying to do it again with 24-year-old P.J. Jones.

Hyde recently joined Harry Melling Racing as team manager and will work with Jones, who is a star on IMSA’s GTP sports car circuit but is practically a novice in stock car racing.

Jones was more in his element on the road course at Watkins Glen, and showed it as he finished eighth.

“Finishing eighth is like a victory for us. Having Harry Hyde was a definite plus for the team. Our finishing this high in his first race with the team shows that. We’re still working on getting the team straightened out, and things are getting better ever week.”

Hyde was the inspiration for one of the leading roles in the stock car move “Days of Thunder.”