Their Relationship Has Its Bumpy Moments

By SHAV GLICK

Sept. 6, 2002 12 AM PT

Jeff Gordon is hot and Rusty Wallace is hot under the collar.

That combination could produce fireworks when NASCAR’s Winston Cup circuit hits Richmond International Speedway on Saturday night.

The closest thing to a NASCAR feud, although both drivers deny there is one, is the Gordon-Wallace bump-and-run rivalry.

It all started years ago at Richmond when Wallace was passed by Gordon, then almost immediately bumped Gordon, spinning him into the wall. Wallace termed it just “a racing incident.”

Gordon remembers it differently.

Two races ago, at Bristol--like Richmond a short track where bumping and grinding are matters of fact--Gordon nudged Wallace two laps from the finish as Gordon broke a 31-race losing streak. Gordon also won last Sunday at Darlington.

“What I did [at Bristol] was a lot different from what he did at Richmond,” Gordon said. “There’s a difference between bumping a guy, taking the air off a guy, or just flat-out wrecking him.”

NASCAR did not reprimand Gordon, but Wallace warned that the bumping was something he would “file away in my memory bank.”

Gordon jokingly said that NASCAR’s reaction gave Wallace a free hand to return the favor without thinking twice about bumping.

“I don’t know about that,” Wallace said when told of Gordon’s remarks. “I like Jeff. Don’t get me wrong, I like him a lot and I just want to win, real, real bad. You know, I needed the win too.

“I won’t ever do anything to hurt a driver, but if I’m close enough to win, he’s going to get the bump too. It’s gonna be fun.

“I know everybody is on the edge of their seats and if I do bump him and he does spin, they’re gonna say it’s a payback when it really could have been just a racing accident.

“I don’t want anybody to think I would spin anybody out and wreck him for a payback. If I get close enough to bump him and get past him, I’ll absolutely do that though.”

Stay tuned. It may not be a feud, but it should make for a great show Saturday night on that three-quarter-mile bullring at Richmond, Va.

Indy Racing League

Jaques Lazier, who won the IRL race at Chicagoland Speedway last year, will be at the Chicago race Sunday, but not as a driver. Lazier is still recuperating from a crash last April at Nazareth Speedway in Pennsylvania, where his back was broken.

“I’m not coming back to [drive] any races this year,” the Alta Loma driver told the IRL’s Dick Mittman. “I spoke to my doctors and they said I could get back in a car but that if I have another crash it could be detrimental to my career. It’s difficult to say to them, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ ”

Lazier, 31, younger brother of 1996 Indianapolis 500 winner Buddy Lazier, was in his second race with Team Menard in last year’s Chicago win. Since his injury, team owner John Menard has had several drivers, winding up with young Brazilian Vitor Meira, the South American Formula 3 champion two years ago.

Menard has promised Lazier his ride back in 2003 and Lazier expects to begin testing next month at Gateway Raceway, near St. Louis.

With only two races remaining, Chicagoland and the finale at Texas Motor Speedway on Sept. 15, only one point separates the Team Penske pair of series leader Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran. Defending champion Sam Hornish Jr. is only eight points behind Castroneves.

Drag Racing

Although team owner Don Prudhomme suffered a double setback Monday when two of his drivers, Larry Dixon in top fuel and Tommy Johnson Jr. in funny car, lost in the U.S. National finals to Tony Schumacher and John Force, the Snake got a bonus Sunday when his third driver, Ron Capps, won his third Budweiser Funny Car Shootout in a Skoal Chevy Camaro.

“That was awesome,” said Capps, who also won in 1998 and 1999. “I can’t believe we won this race again.

“Obviously, we struggled at our last race, but I learned a long time ago--and I learned it from Don Prudhomme--you just don’t give up on the people you believe in. The guys [on the crew] really worked hard and we had some tough times.”

Capps had failed to qualify at the previous event at Brainerd, Minn.

Formula One

Michael Schumacher’s remarkable record of 10 victories this season has overshadowed a tense battle for second place in the 2002 Grand Prix standings. With only three races remaining, Schumacher’s Ferrari teammate, Rubens Barrichello, leads Juan Pablo Montoya by seven points, with Ralf Schumacher two more behind and David Coulthard only 14 behind Barrichello.

Malaysian Alex Yoong, one of Minardi’s team drivers when the season opened, will return to his seat after a two-race absence for the Sept. 15 Grand Prix of Italy at Monza. Anthony Davidson of England failed to finish in two races as Yoong’s replacement.

Yoong’s return lessens chances for American Bryan Herta to drive in the U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis on Sept. 29.

“There is still some hope I could be in the car for Indy, but it depends on how Alex does at Monza,” Herta said from his home in Valencia. “I’m still talking with them about next year, though, and I have a two-day test planned after the season ends.”

Davidson, 23, and Nicky DeFazio, 18, who will drive in Saturday night’s NASCAR super late model race at Irwindale Speedway, were karting teammates a few years ago in Europe. DeFazio, whose father Bob is Irwindale’s general manager, finished third in his last super late model race.

Vintage Cars

The late Max Balchowsky’s legendary Ol’ Yeller II 1959 Buick Special, a favorite during sports car racing’s glory days in the 1960s, will race again this weekend at the Goodwood Revival meeting in England. It will be driven by its owner, Los Angeles dentist Ernie Nagamatsu.

“The world’s ugliest sports car,” wrote Bill Dredge of Ol’ Yeller in The Times in 1960, “has consistently made the sleekest imported machinery look slow.”

Also racing at Goodwood will be Jeff Kline of Malibu. He will be in a 1937 Alfa 12C Grand Prix car, the only one left in the world, and valued at $4.5 million.

Last Laps

Many of the nation’s finest motorcycle endurance riders will compete Saturday and Sunday in the fourth annual 24 Hours of Glen Helen. Honda’s Johnny Campbell will try to retain his crown against Kawasaki’s Shane Esposito and Teddy Mier, KTM’s Kurt Caselli, Yahama’s Ty Davis and Suzuki’s Ty Renshaw. Twice-around-the-clock racing will start at 10 a.m. Saturday.

The World Figure-8 championships being run Saturday night at Indianapolis Speedrome will have two Southland drivers in the three-hour enduro that pays the winner $10,000. Chris Williamson of San Bernardino will represent Orange Show Speedway and Barefoot Billie Ziemann of Rialto will carry Irwindale Speedway’s colors.

Steve Lewis of Laguna Beach became the winningest U.S. Auto Club midget racing car owner when J.J. Yeley won last week in Granite City, Ill. Lewis won his 100th midget feature with Bobby East last Saturday in Marne, Mich. The late Doug Caruthers held the record of 98 wins.... Jon Fogarty of Portola Valley, Calif., won the final Toyota Atlantic race and the series championship last week in Denver. Alex Gurney of Newport Beach, Fogarty’s Dorricott Racing teammate, finished third and Rocky Moran Jr. of Cota de Caza was fifth.

Danny Sullivan, 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner, will be inducted into the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame on Monday, joining such famous fellow Louisville athletes as Muhammad Ali and Pee Wee Reese.... Danny Grill, of Acton, director of NASCAR’s Featherlite Southwest Series for five years, has been named Winston West series director.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

WINSTON CUP

Chevy Monte Carlo 400

When: Today, qualifying (TNT, noon); Saturday, race (TNT, 4:30 p.m.).

Where: Richmond International Raceway (tri-oval, 0.75 mile, 14 degrees banking in turns), Virginia.

Race distance: 300 miles, 400 laps.

2001 winner: Ricky Rudd.

Next race: New Hampshire 300, Sept. 15, Loudon. *

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

Funai 250

When: Today, race (TNT, 5 p.m.).

Track: Richmond International Raceway.