Dodge Is Inching Closer to the Top

The last time a Dodge was driven to victory in a NASCAR Winston Cup race, it was 1977 and the late Neil Bonnett was driving a Charger at Ontario Motor Speedway.

Ontario has been gone for more than 20 years but now there is the California Speedway, only a few miles down the road in Fontana, and it wouldn’t be shocking if a Dodge won, for the first time since rejoining the stock car series this year after a 16-year absence, in Sunday’s NAPA Auto Parts 500.

“There’s no reason we can’t be good out there,” said Roy Evernham, the man given the job of returning the Chrysler product to the top of the NASCAR leaderboard.

“This is the 10th race in a five-year plan. I never promised them a win right out of the box, but Dodge has had a chance to win at Daytona, Atlanta, Talladega and a couple of other places.”

A Dodge Intrepid has led every race this year, twice Dodge has started on the pole--Bill Elliott at Daytona and Stacy Compton at Talladega--and five times in nine races has finished in the top five, a second by John Andretti at Bristol the highest finish.

It also has two drivers in the top 10 of Winston Cup standings, Sterling Marlin fifth and Elliott 10th.

Evernham has another reason for expecting success at Fontana.

The first time one of his cars ran at California Speedway, it won. And the last time one of his cars raced there, it won again. Of course, those were Chevrolets driven by Jeff Gordon, but the masterminding was done by Evernham.

“California Speedway is a textbook track,” he said. “There are no bumps, no jumps or anything. You can rely on your car working like it is supposed to. You need a car with good [aerodynamics] and a lot of horsepower because at this track both aero and horsepower are important.”

The Intrepids have had no trouble finding horsepower. At NASCAR’s two longest and fastest tracks, Daytona and Talladega, Dodges filled the front row--Elliott and Compton at Daytona, Compton and Marlin at Talladega.

“This deal is so new, but we’re growing every week,” Evernham said. “We’re not going to be too bad, especially with what we learned at Texas. California is a lot like Michigan, so Bill Elliott ought to be good there.”

Elliott has won seven races at Michigan, more than any other active driver.

“We’re still working together with the ‘one-team’ approach whenever we have a problem,” Evernham said.

Although there are five teams in the Dodge camp, they share information and test results. The teams are Evernham’s (Elliott, rookie Casey Atwood), Chip Ganassi’s (Marlin, rookie Jason Leffler), Bill Davis’ (Ward Burton, Dave Blaney), Petty Enterprises (Andretti, Buckshot Jones, Kyle Petty) and Melling Racing (Compton).

“We went to the wind tunnel and shared the data with all the teams,” Evernham said. “Kyle tested and shared information. At the same time, the teams are working on their own stuff. Our stuff is so new, we don’t always know how we’re going to perform the first time at a track. We should get better the second half of the season.”

Marlin, coming off a series of dismal seasons racing for Felix Sabates, has emerged as the Dodge team leader after Ganassi bought the team and switched from GM to Chrysler. Last Sunday at Talladega, Marlin led four times for 51 laps, the first race in which he led the most laps, although he has led in every race. Only Ford’s Mark Martin also has led in all nine races.

For Leffler, Fontana will be a homecoming of sorts. He grew up in Long Beach.

“My dad was a big race fan and I got started running quarter-midgets in the Pomona Valley Quarter-Midget Assn. and then ran USAC midgets at Ventura and Bakersfield,” said Leffler, 25. “I was going to get in another year on the Busch circuit [driving for Joe Gibbs] but things didn’t work out. This is going to be a learning year for me in Winston Cup. Sterling helps me a lot. He’ll go out of his way to make sure I understand things that I ask him.

“I wish I could have driven another year in Busch, but this is a great deal. My parents live in Palm Desert now, but they’ll be coming along with my brother Chris and about 20 people.”

FORMULA ONE

The resurgence of the Frank Williams team of Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya has pumped new life into the Grand Prix circuit, which has suffered for several years because there were only two competitive teams, Ferrari and McLaren.

“The desert crossing seems to have come to an end,” Williams said after Schumacher brought the team its first victory in more than three years at the San Marino Grand Prix.

Williams, who has won seven Formula One titles, has not won since 1997 with Jacques Villeneuve. The Ferrari-McLaren duo had won 22 consecutive races before the Williams breakthrough.

Schumacher won in the race after Montoya had muscled three-time champion Michael Schumacher aside during the Brazilian GP two weeks earlier and appeared on his way to his first victory when he was rear-ended by a lapped car. Ralf’s victory made him and Michael the first brother combination to win grands prix.

The season is coming up on only its fifth race Sunday in Barcelona, but already team lineups are changing. Argentina’s Gaston Mazzacane was dropped by the Prost team and replaced by Brazilian Luciano Burti, who had been dropped by Jaguar to make room for the team’s test driver, Pedro de la Rosa. Both will be with their new teams in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

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Bernie Ecclestone, major domo of the Formula One circus, was declared the third-richest person in Britain by the Sunday Times British “Rich List.” Sales of shares in SLEC, the company that controls broadcast and commercial rights to F1 events, to German media giants Kirch and EM.TV added $1.4 billion to Ecclestone’s fortune, raising his worth to $4.3 billion.

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Michele Alboreto, the former F1 driver killed Wednesday while testing an Audi in Germany for the 24 Hours of LeMans, drove twice in the Long Beach Grand Prix, finishing fourth in 1982. He also won the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in Las Vegas, driving a Tyrrell-Ford. He later won three GPs driving for Ferrari.

After ending his Formula One career in 1994, the popular Italian drove two seasons with the Indy Racing League. He was fourth in the inaugural IRL race at Disney World in January 1996, his first oval race. Later that year he drove as high as eighth in the Indianapolis 500 before dropping out after 43 laps because of a broken gear box.

He most recently won last month in the 12 Hours of Sebring.

HARD TIMES

Just when Andy Petree was celebrating his first Winston Cup victory as a car owner with Bobby Hamilton at Talladega last Sunday, along came news that his other car, driven by Joe Nemechek, was losing its sponsor.

Oakwood Homes, Nemechek’s sponsor, informed Petree that because of a “deep downturn in the manufactured home industry,” the company would be unable to sponsor the No. 33 car next season. Hamilton credited his teammate for helping him win the caution-free 500-mile race at Talladega, Nemechek furnishing an aerodynamic push that enabled Hamilton to pass Tony Stewart at the end.

LAST LAPS

U.S. Auto Club midgets and TQs will be at Bakersfield Speedway in Oildale on Saturday night with the TQs moving to Irwindale Speedway on May 5. . . . NASCAR super late models headline Irwindale’s program, and the wingless cars of the Sprint Car Racing Assn. return to Perris Auto Speedway in a pair of Saturday night attractions. Corona’s Steve Ostling and SCRA car owner Bill Pratt have parted company after having been a team since the mid-1980s at Ascot Park. Ostling, sixth in points, will drive for Fischer Motorsports.

Hila Sweet will hold her 10th annual California Racer’s Reunion Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. at Irwindale Speedway. Featured will be Indy 500 winners Rodger Ward and Parnelli Jones. . . . International Speedway Inc., operator of the Costa Mesa speedway motorcycle track, received the Notable Achievement Award during the Race Promoters Workshop convention in Reno. The award was shared by Brad and Laurie Oxley, who took over operation of the weekly series from their parents, Harry and Marilynn Oxley, who founded International Speedway Inc., in 1969.

Drag racer Pat Austin was honored as one of Washington’s 20 greatest prep athletes, but not for his National Hot Rod Assn. championships. Austin, from Tacoma, was a three-time state shotput champion and an all-state lineman in football.

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This Week’s Races

WINSTON CUP, NAPA Auto Parts 500

* When: Today, qualifying, 2 p.m. (FX, 5 p.m., tape); Sunday, race (Fox, 2:30 p.m.).

* Where: California Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 14-degree banking in turns), Fontana.

* Race distance: 500 miles, 250 laps.

* 2000 winner: Jeremy Mayfield.

* Next race: Pontiac Excitement 400, May 5, Richmond, Va.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, Auto Club 300

* What: Today, qualifying, 12:30 p.m.; Saturday, race (Fox, 12:30 p.m.).

* Where: California Speedway.

* Race distance: 300 miles, 150 laps.

* 2000 winner: Mark Martin.

* Next race: Hardee’s 250, May 4, Richmond, Va.

* On the net: https://www.nascar.com.

CART, Firestone Firehawk 600

* When: Saturday, qualifying (ESPN2, 10 p.m., tape); Sunday, race (ESPN, noon.).

* Where: Texas Motor Speedway (oval, 1.5 miles, 24-degree banking in turns), Fort Worth, Texas.

* Race distance: 360 miles, 240 laps.

* 2000 winner: Inaugural event.

* Next race: Lehigh Valley Grand Prix, May 6, Nazareth, Pa.

* On the net: https://www.cart.com.

INDY RACING LEAGUE, Atlanta Classic 500

* When: Today, qualifying, 5 p.m. (ESPN2, Saturday, 1 a.m., tape); Saturday, race (ESPN2, 4 p.m.).

* Where: Atlanta Motor Speedway (oval, 1.54 miles, 24-degree banking in turns), Hampton, Ga.

* Race distance: 308 miles, 200 laps.

* 2000 winner: Greg Ray.

* Next race: Indianapolis 500, May 27, Indianapolis.

* On the net: https://www.indyracingleague.com.

FORMULA ONE, Spanish Grand Prix

* When: Saturday, qualifying, (Speedvision 4 a.m.); Sunday, race (Speedvision, 5 a.m.).

* Where: Circuit of Catalunya (road course, 2.937 miles), Barcelona, Spain.

* Race distance: 187.968 miles, 64 laps.

* 2000 winner: Mika Hakkinen.

* Next race: Austrian Grand Prix, May 13, Spielberg, Austria.

* On the net: https://www.formula1.com.

NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSN., Mac Tools Nationals

* When: Today, qualifying, 1:45 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 9:45 a.m. (ESPN2, 6:30 p.m., tape); Sunday, eliminations, 8 a.m. (ESPN2, 2:30 p.m., tape).

* Where: Bristol Dragway, Bristol, Tenn.

* 2000 winners: Inaugural event.

* Next event: Advance Auto Parts Nationals, May 6, Commerce, Ga.

* On the net: https://www.nhra.com.