Pre-Atlanta Meanderings

One of the traditional big dates in the first half of the season is the
Atlanta 500, historically the first superspeedway race after the Daytona 500,
and for many years the first race televised on over-air television after Daytona
– those of you who remember the days without cable will understand the context
here.

Atlanta’s troubled past isn’t as well known as some other tracks, the track
bouncing between several owners – one such, Larry Lopatin, almost got the track
axed when he didn’t post the 1970 Dixie 500’s purse – before getting some
stability under L.G. DeWitt and then getting some serious sex appeal under
Rootin’ Tootin’ Bruton.

Atlanta has been the scene of some great competition, such as A.J. Foyt’s race-long
battle with Richard Petty in April 1971, Petty’s torrid 500-mile shootout with
Bobby Allison that August, David Pearson’s rally from a lap down in March 1976,
Dave Marcis’ low-groove shootout in November 1976 – told there was no low groove
at Atlanta, Harry Hyde retorted, "There is now" – Buddy Baker’s
comeback in 1979, Dale Earnhardt’s superspeedway breakthrough in 1980, Neil
Bonnett’s 500-mile slugfest with all comers in November 1981 – the first live
ESPN NASCAR race – Bobby Allison’s even more exciting November 1982 dogfight,
Benny Parsons’ three-man dance in 1984, Morgan Shepherd’s dark-horse win in
1986, Rusty Wallace’s 1988 capper, the immortal 1992 Dixie 500, Rusty’s Pontiac
send-off in 1993, Mark Martin’s season-capper in 1994, Bobby Labonte’s brother
act in 1996, Bobby’s Hotlanta win in 1999, Earnhardt’s photo finish in 2000, and
Kevin Harvick’s photo finish in 2001.

Some comments about the Atlanta 500 upcoming –

– GM is in serious trouble right now with sub-par efforts all season long to
date – only Jeff Green at Rockingham and Tony Stewart at Vegas showed any GM
muscle after Daytona, a stunning difference from the universal view during
Speedweeks that Chevrolet might as well get all the trophies then and there. It
has been noted that John Darby’s template policy has been different, notably on
noses, but that’s just part of the deal, for what’s happened is that a
continuing flaw in GM’s whole approach has bit them yet again – their lack of
competitive depth. The depth they showed in 2001 looked too good to be true; now
we can see it was.

– Since the introduction of the W-body Monte Carlo in 1995, GM has owned
Atlanta; the last time a Ford won at Atlanta was when Dale Jarrett pulled the
trick in March 1997, the last race on the oval layout, and the penultimate
Atlanta race for Ford’s MN-12 Thunderbird; the Taurus has yet to win there and
curiously has shown less muscle there than at similar tracks like Charlotte and
Texas. Chevy has won nine of the last fourteen Atlanta 500 milers with Bobby
Labonte’s W-body Pontiac bagging four others. If GM’s fighters are as weak as
they look right now, Atlanta will show it.

– I have to laugh when I read sob quotes from GM honchos about the dismal
showing of the Pontiacs; Herb Fishel and company are more to blame for Pontiac’s
struggles than NASCAR. Not that Pontiac couldn’t use a kickout on its air dam,
but GM needs to quit treating Pontiac like a detestable stepchild and instead as
the legitimate partner it is.

– There’ve been more pieces on how NASCAR has to make racetracks spend the
money to rebuild their pit roads in the wake of more pit accidents – Mike
Mulhern has just about made this his life’s work of late with a piece
demanding what amounts to sport-wide pit road rebuilds.

What is so galling here is that, once again, the root cause is left aside –
the whole pit road closure policy enacted in March 1989 to redress scoring
problems long since redressed with the advent of electronic scoring supplemented
by the manual system. Going back to the system of leaving the pits open at all
times short of some catastrophic occurrence within would allow teams to pit at
naturally staggered intervals and thus reduce crowding; it would also allow the
end of pit speed limits, which have been problematic over the years.

– This may be it for Travis Carter as a team owner – I’ve yet to hear of a
team that laid off employees and then bounced back with a new sponsor. Andy
Petree may be in slightly better shape – if he gets an investor like Jerry
Jones. Not a good situation – if it happened to a team like Hendrick it would be
decidedly different.

– Did I hear Larry McReynolds right? I thought he said teams consider
shifting at Las Vegas because of the RPM differences. Shifting on an oval? Why
can’t they drive these tracks like ovals instead of like road courses?

– Jeannie Zelasko will take maternity leave after the Atlanta 500. I kind of
enjoyed her presence on FOX’s racecasts, and the story of how a pickup line
about baseball manufacture from the man who is now her husband led to their
relationship, marriage, and now their child is quite funny.

– Remember those stories about how Atlanta would not see more than 43 cars
entered? 45 entries have been filed. While short fields may hit in the summer,
right now it doesn’t appear imminent.