Gentlemen, Start Your Racetrack

FONTANA — Roger Penske has had a long winning record in Southern California.

In 1963, a promising East Coast sports car driver not long out of Lehigh with a business degree, he came West and won the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside International Raceway.

In the 1970s, as a fledgling car owner, he put American Motors cars in the winner’s circle in 1973 at Riverside with Mark Donohue, 1974 at Ontario Motor Speedway and again in 1975 at Riverside with Bobby Allison.

Today, at California Speedway, a $110-million state-of-the-art racetrack only a few miles from where Ontario Motor Speedway disappeared 17 years ago, the Captain, as Penske is known, may have his biggest winner ever.

Where less than two years ago there were rotting timbers, rusting piles of abandoned steel and crumbling brick buildings overgrown with weeds and garbage, Penske has created a 71,000-seat stadium, a two-mile racetrack and a user-friendly atmosphere that his son Greg likes to call “the Disneyland of motor racing.”

“I’ve been out here [Winston Cup racing] for 25 years and I’ll say it again and again, this is the best track I’ve ever been on,” said Darrell Waltrip, stock car racing’s elder statesman. “Of course, I’ve always had a soft place in my heart for California. I won three Winston Cup championships [1981, 1982 and 1985] at Riverside.

“Maybe it’s the air out here. Back home I wear rose-colored glasses. Here I don’t have to.”

For the track’s main event on its opening weekend, the world’s fastest growing motorsport series, NASCAR Winston Cup, will showcase the California 500, 2 1/2 hours of high-speed racing among 42 Chevrolet, Ford and Pontiac stock cars look-alikes.

More than 85,000 fans, 71,000 in the grandstands and an additional 15,000 or so jamming the infield, are expected today.

Joe Nemechek, in a Felix Sabates-owned Chevrolet Monte Carlo, will start on the pole after posting a speed of 183.015 in Friday qualifying.

In a surprising development Saturday, another Sabates driver, Greg Sacks, bettered Nemechek’s day-old track record by running 183.753 mph in a Chevy originally prepared for Robby Gordon. When Gordon suffered head injuries in a crash Friday morning, Sacks was named to sit in for him.

Because his record run was on the second day of qualifying, Sacks will start 26th, behind Friday’s fastest 25 drivers.

Sacks, 43, has been a fill-in driver most of his 14-year career. Last year, he drove for four owners and this year has appeared in nine races. Only twice in those 14 years has he run a full season.

Sitting in for Gordon is nothing new for Sacks. While the off-road veteran was recovering from burns at the Indianapolis 500, Sacks drove his No. 40 car at Pocono and qualified fourth. He lasted only eight laps before crashing in the second turn wall.

With weather conditions a bit cooler Saturday morning than they were Friday afternoon, three other drivers also bettered Nemechek’s pole speed--Hut Stricklin (183.458), Mike Skinner (183.383) and Sterling Marlin (183.071).

Chevrolets were fastest both days of qualifying, but few will be surprised if Fords don’t prevail at the end.

“I don’t know if anybody can beat a Ford,” Sabates said. “The Chevys are fast for five or 10 laps, they they start to go away and that big spoiler on the Fords gives them more downforce. As the tires wear down, the Fords get better.

“When you get 10 laps on the tires, the Chevrolets are a handful. The more laps you put on a Ford, the better they drive.”

Sabates, who has Wally Dallenbach starting fourth as well as Nemechek and Sacks, has a novel idea of how to beat the Fords--and it has nothing to do with having his three cars draft one another.

“The only chance the Chevys have is to have a caution with 10 laps or so go to, so if we’re running in the top five or six with 10 laps to go, I’m going to take my clothes off and run naked across the track.

“I don’t know if that will bring out a caution, but it’ll bring out something.”

In 14 races this year, Fords have won eight, Chevrolets six--all by Jeff Gordon, the season points leader. Last week at Michigan, on a track similar to California, Ernie Irvan led a 1-2-3-4 Ford finish.

Ford leads the manufacturer’s race, 106-96, over Chevrolet, and Ford drivers have led 63% of the laps run this year.

Gordon’s success has blunted criticism of NASCAR officials for giving Ford a quarter-inch edge in their rear spoiler.

“Jeff Gordon and that race team are having a heck of a year, they can do no wrong,” said Larry McClure, owner of the No. 4 Monte Carlo driven by Marlin.

One problem facing the drivers is that because the track is so new, there is less rubber down than hoped for. The more rubber on the track, the more possibility of running two- or three-abreast.

“It’s a two-groove track most of the way,” Dale Jarrett said after a final practice run Saturday. “We were going two-abreast into the corners, but you had to awful careful coming out. I think by mid-race we’ll have plenty of room to race.”

To help get the new surface race-ready, NASCAR allowed teams an extra day of practice on Thursday. Normally, at Cup races, practice and qualifying don’t occur until Friday.

“That extra day helped, but about all we did that day was clean off the dust and stuff that had settled on the track during construction,” Dale Earnhardt said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

* 7 a.m.: NASCAR Winston Cup garage opens.

* 9 a.m.: NASCAR Winston Cup driver/crew chief meeting.

* 10:30 a.m.: NASCAR driver introductions.

* 11 a.m.: California 500, presented by NAPA (250 laps).

CALIFORNIA 500

* TV: Channel 7

* Pole-sitter: Joe Nemechek

* Qualifying speed: 183.015 mph