No Way 1999 Can Measure Up to Last Year

Motor racing had its most successful year in 1998, highlighted by NASCAR’s season-long celebration of its 50th anniversary, but as the 1999 season approaches, there are questions to be asked, such as:

* Can Jeff Gordon and the Rainbow Warriors of NASCAR be stopped?

* Will CART and the Indy Racing League find a way to return open-wheel Indy car racing and the Indianapolis 500 to their former stature?

* It’s another year away, but will Indianapolis and Midwest racing fans take Formula One to their bosom when Tony George hosts his U.S. Grand Prix in 2000?

* Will Dale Earnhardt, now that he has won the Daytona 500 after 20 years of trying, win another Winston Cup race?

The answers are no, no, no and probably not, unless you add Jr. to the Earnhardt name.

* Gordon, voted motor racing’s driver of the year for the second year in a row, won 13 Winston Cup races to easily win his third series championship. Gordon, 27, was the youngest driver in last year’s roster and is two years younger than the 1998 rookie of the year, Kenny Irwin.

Over a 33-race season, Gordon averaged a 5.8 finishing position, three positions higher than series runner-up Mark Martin.

In his previous two championships, Gordon and his team had been criticized for not winning late in the season, sort of staggering home to the title. Not last year. The Rainbow Warriors, so named for the colorful DuPont paint job on car owner Rick Hendrick’s No. 24 Chevrolet, clinched the $2-million bonus by winning at Rockingham, N.C., in the next-to-last race--then won the finale at Atlanta.

“Winning the championship by being strong at the end of the season was what we were really after this year,” Gordon said. “Winning at Rockingham and Atlanta put an unbelievable ending to an unbelievable season.”

So how about the 1999 season, which opens Feb. 14 with the Daytona 500?

Ray Evernham, the team’s crew chief, had this answer: “The way we look at it, there’s always room to improve. If you win 13 of 33, there’s 20 you didn’t get. We don’t expect to win them all, but it’s something to shoot for.”

* Some day Al Unser Jr., Michael Andretti, the Penskes and the Patricks and the other CART favorites may be in the Indianapolis 500, but not in the foreseeable future.

The IRL made what it advertised as concessions to the rival organization when it announced new, more compatible engine specs for 2000, but when CART sniffed around to see if it was an opening, the prospects for compromise closed.

CART engine manufacturers were invited to build Indy power plants, but they would have to make them available for sale--a concept unacceptable to Ford Cosworth, Mercedes Ilmor, Honda and Toyota, all of which lease their engines and, to protect their secrets, do not allow anyone to tamper with them.

So, for 1999 and into the 2000s, CART will go on its merry way as an international prep series for Formula One, and the IRL will continue to run its oval race series before shrinking crowds in the United States.

The big loser will be those who have always treated the Indy 500 as the ultimate racing attraction. It’s no longer the main attraction even in its own town, playing second banana to NASCAR’s Brickyard 400.

And in 2000, George will further water down the impact of the 500 by bringing Formula One to Indianapolis. The track once considered sacred to open-wheel, open-cockpit racing fans is becoming just another commercial enterprise with a variety of events.

* Although no date has been announced, Formula One’s return to the United States after a nine-year absence and a remarkable lack of interest will take place on a 2.53-mile road course built inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track.

Indianapolis seems a strange site for Grand Prix racing, which has already proven a disappointment in Phoenix, Dallas, Detroit and Las Vegas since Chris Pook abandoned it in Long Beach for more profitable Indy car racing.

“We plan to assist Formula One in reestablishing the Grand Prix in the United States,” George said.

George might be better off working to “reestablish” the Indianapolis 500 as the premier race in the United States.

* To say that Dale Earnhardt may not win another Winston Cup race is not to say that the seven-time champion is not driving just as hard as ever. It’s that, only a few months shy of 48, “the Intimidator” has other things on his mind, including the career of Dale Jr.

Junior, 24, was a surprise winner of the Busch Grand National season and was so impressive that he landed a six-year sponsorship contract from Budweiser--taking it away from the Rick Hendrick camp.

Dale Jr. will defend his Busch crown and is also scheduled to drive in a few Winston Cup races before moving up to racing full-time against his dad in 2000.

The desire is still there, but there are too many distractions for the senior Earnhardt-- wife Teresa’s Craftsman Truck and Busch teams, schmoozing on his yacht, running his many business enterprises, hunting and fishing, as well as keeping tabs on his son--to make winning Cup races the same priority it once was.

IRWINDALE SPEEDWAY

An ambitious 68-night racing schedule for the new Irwindale Speedway has been announced by General Manager Ray Wilkings. The half-mile paved oval will open March 27 with an open-wheel tripleheader featuring U.S. Auto Club midgets and sprint cars and supermodifieds.

Irwindale will be the third racing facility to open in the booming Southern California motor racing market in the last four years. Perris Auto Speedway, a half-mile dirt oval that has become a home base for the Sprint Car Racing Assn., opened in 1996. California Speedway, Roger Penske’s two-mile superspeedway, opened in 1997.

Although Irwindale will open with a USAC program, it will feature a variety of NASCAR stock car events on 54 of the 68 racing nights. All of the races, some of which will be held on a third-mile oval inside the main track, are scheduled for Friday and Saturday nights, except for the season finale Nov. 25, the 59th annual Turkey Night Midget Grand Prix.

Tickets for opening night go on sale Feb. 15.

The facility will include 6,500 seats, 12 corporate suites and parking for more than 3,000 vehicles. It is located on Live Oak Avenue, adjacent to the 605 Freeway.

LAST LAPS

On the move: Chris Powell, for three years director of media relations for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s motor sports program, is leaving to manage the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for its new owner, Bruton Smith. . . . Denny Darnell has resigned as director of communications at the Glendora-based National Hot Rod Assn. to return to his home in Tennessee.

Honored: Three-time world road racing champion Kenny Roberts, who later won four more world titles as a team owner, received the first lifetime achievement award from the American Motorcyclist Assn. Motocross champion Doug Henry was named 1998 AMA athlete of the year after being the first rider to win a national motocross championship on a four-stroke motorcycle, a Yamaha.

Arie Luyendyk and Tony Stewart were voted the most popular drivers in the IRL--and both are leaving the series. Luyendyk will drive only in the Indy 500, and Stewart will drive for Joe Gibbs’ NASCAR team in Winston Cup and Busch Grand National races. . . . Jay Drake, runner-up to Jason Leffler in the U.S. Auto Club midget series, has passed his IRL driver’s test.

NECROLOGY

Bill Cuddy, former Can-Am driver during the heyday of sports car racing, died Dec. 16 of heart failure at his home in Sun Valley, Idaho. Cuddy, 65, lived in Woodland Hills during his racing career.