Irate Stewart Hopes Blocking Is a Passing Fad

If Tony Stewart had his way, NASCAR’s Winston Cup series would be run the way races are run for midget and sprint cars--without spotters or rear-view mirrors.

After last weekend, during which the outspoken Stewart won a U.S. Auto Club sprint car race at Altamont Park on Saturday night and finished second to Ricky Rudd in a Winston Cup race Sunday at Infineon Raceway near Sonoma, he minced no words in blasting the blocking tactics of fellow NASCAR drivers, Rudd among them, indicting CART and IRL racing in the process.

“There were a lot of damn ‘Indy car drivers’ out there and all they wanted to do was block,” he said. “There weren’t any of them that wanted to race you clean. If they can’t beat you in the corner, they would just as soon block you in the corner.”

Blocking has become a favorite tactic since the duties of spotters were expanded. When posting spotters high up in or atop the stands and putting them in radio contact with drivers became popular, it was to inform drivers of accidents, to warn them of trouble ahead and to help steer them through the debris.

The need for such help is more important in Winston Cup than in any other racing series because of NASCAR’s rule that when a yellow caution flag appears, drivers race back to the finish line--even if the accident is between them and the line.

As spotting became more sophisticated, however, the men in the stands became coaches, telling their drivers who was behind them, if another driver coming up on the outside or the inside, which was the best way to block a potential pass.

“It’s getting worse and worse,” Stewart said. “Hopefully, that’s going to change. The way it is, we’re going to have Indy car racing with stock car bodies on them before long, unless someone decides to make some changes. If not, we’re going to start punting guys out of the way.”

Even if one of them happens to be the eventual race winner.

“We got up to Ricky [Rudd] when Ricky was behind Bill Elliott,” Stewart added. “Every time he got in a braking zone, Ricky wanted to block. I’ll tell you what, he’s ready for Indy car racing. He’s learned how to do that. I think he’s missed his calling, he’d be a great Indy car driver.

“Drivers are doing it at every racetrack we go to these days and it’s getting frustrating. If they want to go Indy car racing and block, go Indy car racing. This is a stock car series and if a guy gets a run on you and has done a good job, it’s your job to do a better job the next lap and try to figure out why he got a run on you instead of blocking.”

Both CART and IRL spokesmen said that blocking, although it sometimes happens, is not condoned in open-wheel racing.

“Blocking was a problem back in 1994-5-6 in CART, but not anymore,” said Adam Saal, CART director of communications. “If the steward feels he sees unwarranted blocking, the driver gets a warning, or if it’s flagrant, he can be black-flagged.”

Fred Nation, IRL public-relations vice president, said, “Maybe Tony’s been away too long. He ought to come back and race with us again and see how we race.”

Stewart was the IRL’s first champion, in the 1996-97 season, before leaving for NASCAR.

When Stewart won the sprint car race at Altamont with a last-lap pass, it made him a winner in a record nine USAC series--Silver Crown, national sprint, national midget, western sprint, western midget, TQ midget, 16th Street Midget, Speedrome midget and western regional sprint.

Winston Cup has a weekend off but Stewart isn’t waiting for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona on July 6 to go racing. He will team with veteran Elliott Forbes-Robinson in a Judd-powered Crawford in the Jani-King Paul Revere 250 in the sports racing prototype class on the infield course at Daytona July 4.

“Some guys play golf, some guys fish for relaxation,” said Stewart. “Driving a race car is my relaxation. Last Saturday night, I drove in front of about 6,500 fans and when I came to the track Sunday I had a good fresh outlook. It was a great pick-me-up before the Winston Cup.”

Perris Auto Speedway

Motorcycles will take over the half-mile clay oval Saturday night when former grand national champion Gene Romero brings his West Coast Flat Track series to Perris for a tourist trophy race. The infield course will include eight turns and one jump. It will be the first such race in the area since 1986 at Ascot Park.

The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will hold a special Fourth of July race Thursday night, featuring its new all-time winner, Cory Kruseman. When the Ventura driver made a daring last-turn pass of Damion Gardner in Saturday night’s main event, it gave him a record 56th SCRA win, one more than Rip Williams.

After the July 4 race, Perris will host the dwarf car and lightning sprint car nationals on Friday and Saturday nights.

Irwindale Speedway

Fourth of July fireworks will come early at Irwindale, which has its annual celebration Saturday night after a busy night of NASCAR stock car racing featuring super late models, Grand American modifieds and super trucks, plus a demolition derby postponed from June 15.

Infineon Raceway

A remarkable transformation occurred between 10:30 and 11 a.m. Saturday when Sears Point Raceway became Infineon Raceway.

While track owner Bruton Smith was making the announcement in the winner’s circle, every sign on the property was changed, even the brick one at the track’s entrance, and course workers, security personnel and the cleanup crew switched shirts to ones with the Infineon logo. The pace car for the Winston Cup weekend, which had been on the track earlier in the day with Sears Point Raceway on its sides, had the new name in place when Smith dramatically lifted the curtain covering it. Even the Ford, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Dodge manufacturers’ media center stationery, which carried quotes from their drivers, was changed.

It was as if Sears Point had never existed.

Infineon, which has a 10-year contract with the race site, is a German semiconductor manufacturer with North American headquarters in San Jose. If Infineon sounds at least slightly familiar, that may be because it sponsored the winning car at LeMans earlier this month.

Last Laps

Triumph motorcycles will celebrate the manufacturer’s 100th anniversary Sunday in Pasadena when the Triumph Ride Across America ends at 2 p.m. at the Elks lodge, about a block from where the original Johnson Motors shop opened in 1936 to distribute the British-made cycles. The ride started June 16 in New Hampshire. Among the riders expected to be on hand are Eddie Wirth, who went from cycles to winning a CRA sprint car championship; Skip Van Leeuwen, Eddie Mulder, Sammy Tanner, Dick Hammer and Bud Ekins.

A plaque in memory of Jeff Krosnoff, the CART driver from La Canada who was killed in a race in 1996 at Exhibition Place in Toronto, and track worker Gary Avrin will be unveiled Wednesday, replacing a makeshift memorial that has stood at the site of the accident.

The site was an elm tree that Krosnoff’s car struck, resulting in the two deaths. When it became known that the elm tree was dying of disease, the new memorial plaque was planned.

Chris Carmody of Valencia clinched the USAC Russell Racing pro series championship with a third-place finish Saturday at Infineon Raceway.... The Desert Sprint, an 80-mile race for motorcycles as part of the Corky McMillin Company Superstition Championship series, will be run Sunday east of Plaster City, Calif. Aaron Tuck of Brawley is the points leader after three of six events.

Les Richter, former Riverside International Raceway operator and current vice president of special events for International Speedway Corp., will receive the “Friend of the Hungry” award at California Speedway during the “Taste of the Inland Empire--Your Passport to End Hunger” day. The event benefits the Second Harvest Food Bank of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Passings

Bud Thompson, a fixture of the California Racing Assn. for many years as owner of son Dean’s sprint car and a mechanic with Bruce Bromme, has died at 83 of heart problems.

Survivors include his wife, Marge, a daughter, Barbara, and son, Dean, a three-time CRA champion in the 1980s.