Engine Restrictions Don’t Keep Kyle Petty From Enjoying Daytona

Kyle Petty never had a choice about Daytona International Speedway.

The third generation of stock car racing’s royal family--father Richard is known as the King--made his 550th NASCAR Winston Cup start in the Pepsi 500 in Daytona Beach, Fla.

“I’ve always liked Daytona,” Petty said. “Going to Daytona from the time I was born twice a year for the February and July races, I had to like Daytona.

“But I guess it was pretty easy. I like the people. I like the city. I just like everything about it. The racetrack is just a bonus.”

Some of the fun has been taken out of Daytona racing for Petty because of the NASCAR engine restrictions for that track and Talladega, the two biggest and fastest ovals on the Winston Cup circuit.

“It’s still an OK place,” he said. “I enjoy it more than I enjoy Talladega because your car still has to drive pretty decent at Daytona. If you can make your car drive good at Daytona, then you can run good.”

Carburetor restrictor plates, which restrict air flow to the engine to cut horsepower, were mandated after Bobby Allison nearly flew into a packed Talladega grandstand at 210 mph in 1987.

The plates have slowed the cars, but they also have tightened up the fields at Daytona and Talladega. With everybody about equal, nobody can break away, passing is very difficult and crashes usually involve more than one car.

“You have to remember the way it was,” Petty said. “The thing that made it so good running without restrictor plates is you’d have six cars in the first draft, two or three in the second draft, three or four in the draft after that, and it made it easier to race.

“It’s hard to race when you’re racing 40 guys and you don’t know where all of them are. That’s the reason you have accidents that are 20-car pileups and all of that. It’s because everybody runs all over each other.

“The way it is now,” he added, “you race awhile, dodge a big wreck and race awhile again.”

ANDRETTI’S SURGE: John Andretti had the most impressive run on the road course at Sears Point Raceway last Sunday, going from 31st at the start to third at the finish line.

Andretti maneuvered his No. 43 Pontiac past road specialist Rusty Wallace on the second-to last lap in the Save Mart/Kragen 350.

“I don’t know what happened to Rusty, but I was going to have a tough go getting around him. He locked up a right-front wheel and gave me a Christmas present,” Andretti said. “I was pretty fortunate with that.”

Andretti, who also finished third in the race last year, made his move after a red flag came out on lap 108 of the 112-lap race in Northern California’s wine country.

Wallace, who has won twice at Sears Point, said the red flag threw him off.

“Everything went bad then,” he said.

Andretti won this year at Martinsville. His only other top-five finish came at Bristol.

After Sunday’s showing, it seems that he’ll be pretty happy once Watkins Glen comes around and he’ll have another shot at right turns.

“I love road racing, I guess,” he said. “NASCAR should add some dirt ovals and we’d have it all.”

JUNIOR’S CHAT: Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going high-tech.

The younger Earnhardt is to be the host for an online chat with race fans on Exite’s Web site on June 30.

The chat will come just as he attempts to qualify for the Jiffy Lube 300 on July 11. If he qualifies, it will be Earnhardt’s second Winston Cup start: He drove his No. 8 Chevrolet to a 16th-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.

“We’re ready to get the Budweiser car back on the track in New Hampshire,” he said.

To participate in the online chat with Earnhardt, race fans must register at www.Excite.com in advance.

Earnhardt, the son of Winston Cup driver Dale Earnhardt, is the defending NASCAR Busch Series Champion and current series points leader.

SCHRADER’S WRECK: It looked a lot worse than it was.

Ken Schrader flipped his No. 33 Chevrolet on the 94th lap of the Save Mart/Kragen 350 at Sears Point last Sunday--then walked back to the pits.

The accident looked scary, but a similar accident flipped Steve Park’s Pennzoil Chevrolet earlier in the day and he also walked away.

“The car came around. It just got a little bit too high,” Schrader said. “I knew there wasn’t going to be any gathering it up. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.”

Schrader, who started 33rd, ended up 39th on the twisting road course, one of just two on the Winston Cup circuit.

“The scariest moment was driving by Schrader’s car and seeing it upside down,” third-place finisher John Andretti said. “Typical Schrader, he goes walking back to the pits.”

STAT OF THE WEEK: Last night’s Pepsi 400 is the 44th time the July 4th holiday weekend has meant a major race for the top division of NASCAR.

For the three years before Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, there was a 250-mile race on the 1-mile banked oval at the Raleigh, N.C., Fairgrounds.

The Raleigh track was also the first superspeedway to be lighted, although none of the July 4 events were run under the lights.