AUTO RACING : Qualifying Woes Likely to Get Worse

Last weekend’s qualifying at Richmond International Raceway has some in NASCAR circles sweating.

After two rounds of time trials, nine teams--six of them with full-season sponsorship--had to go home. And that was after three teams were added to the back of the field as provisional starters.

Granted, the fields at short tracks like Richmond are smaller--generally 32 or 34 starters--but that fact doesn’t soothe a sponsor like STP or Camel, which spends millions of dollars on a team and doesn’t like missing races.

Camel was able to move its decals over to the non-sponsored team of Bobby Allison for Sunday’s race, but STP simply went home with Richard Petty’s team.

Things are likely to get worse, even at the big tracks with starting fields of generally 40 cars, because more and more teams are coming up with big-dollar sponsors as NASCAR’s top series continues to grow.

And even the little teams are getting better. The recent record spread in qualifying at Rockingham, just two-thirds of a second between first and 40th, shows how big a problem this could become. If even one of the top teams is just a tick off, it could wind up with its sponsor-covered transporter on the way home.

NASCAR is aware of the problem. One solution may be to paint in more pit boxes at the short tracks and start more cars. But sponsors may have to get used to the idea that their team could miss a few races during the season.

EIGHT OF NASCAR’S 31 Winston Cup races take place on tracks shorter than one mile. Just thinking about that makes Rusty Wallace smile.

In the eight 1993 short track events, Wallace won five times and finished second in the other three. Just to assure people that nothing has changed, despite his switchover from Pontiac to Ford over the winter, Wallace finished second, behind Ernie Irvan, last Sunday at Richmond in the first of the 1994 short track events.

“We’re right on schedule,” said Buddy Parrott, crew chief for Wallace’s Penske Racing South team. “We haven’t even tested a short track yet, but we’ve got one (test) coming up at Martinsville, and we’re taking three cars and three different motor combinations up there. We’re ready to defend ourselves on the short tracks.”

Of course, Wallace, who won two weeks ago at Rockingham after crashing in the season-opener at Daytona, also runs strong at the longer tracks. He certainly will be among the favorites Sunday on Atlanta Motor Speedway’s 1.522-mile oval, where he won the season-ending race in November.

RICKY RUDD, who started his own team last season, knows the frustrations of being a car owner.

Last week at Richmond, Rudd chose to stand on a disappointing first-round lap and barely held on to make the field, starting 34th in what was to be a 34-car field before a trio of provisional starters were added.

Since Rudd did not have a provisional available, because his new team does not have car-owner points from last season, one more fast car in second round qualifying and he would have missed his first start since Jan. 11, 1981.

“If it’s going to be like this every week, this team is for sale,” Rudd said. “I can’t take much of this.”

But, after finishing eighth at Daytona and 11th at Rockingham, Rudd was 18th at Richmond, and provisionals based on the current season’s car-owner points begin following Sunday’s race at Atlanta. He was 11th in points following Richmond.

“We have have to go another race or two with top-10s and we won’t have to worry about this when our car-owner’s points count,” he said.

THERE WERE A LOT of damp eyes after Ernie Irvan drove into Victory Lane last Sunday at Richmond, the same place where the late Davey Allison put the same team on the victory stand the previous year.

It was the final win for Allison, who died July 13 after a helicopter crash.

Larry McReynolds, crew chief for Allison and now for Irvan, said, “I still think about him every day that goes by, every race that goes by. Ernie Knows it, and he wants (Davey) to be a team member forever.

“When we won the 125 (at Daytona), Martinsville, Charlotte--this doesn’t feel any different than it did then. It’s always good to get that first win (of the season) out of the way, as tough as it’s getting.”

DALE EARNHARDT, hoping to make a real run at a record-tying seventh Winston Cup championship, has gotten off to a decent start, finishing seventh, seventh and fourth.

Going into Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the defending series champ trails leader Ernie Irvan by just 53 points.

But Earnhardt, who has faded from contention near the end of each of the first three events this season, would love to get that first victory of 1994 under his belt, and Atlanta’s 1.522-mile oval is a real possibility.

Earnhardt leads all active drivers with six victories at AMS, and he has 21 top-10 finishes in 31 career starts. That includes 19 top-five finishes.

Only three-time series champion Darrell Waltrip has more top 10s at the Atlanta track, with 27 in 43 starts.