A severe late-winter ice and snowstorm throughout the central United States has all but paralyzed some transportation hubs — and has delayed several NASCAR Winston Cup transporters trying to make it across country from the Carolinas to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Teams have a couple options to travel across the country, including Interstates 40 and 20, from their bases near Charlotte, NC, to reach the site of this weekend’s Winston Cup UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and Busch Series Sam’s Town 300. But Roush Racing transporter driver Bart Starr, who hauls driver Mark Martin’s Viagra Fords, said while on I-40 in Western Arkansas he altered his trip plans to account for the weather — which had Dallas locked Tuesday in an ice storm while it snowed further to the north. Starr was driving in a convoy with Roush teammate and usual traveling partner Fred Swim, who transports Matt Kenseth’s DeWalt Fords. He said he was not aware of any trucks that had gone near Dallas, but if they had that they might be trapped by ice. Reportedly, Robert Yates Racing’s haulers had planned to take the southerly route while Tuesday afternoon Jasper Motorsports’ hauler was outside Alabama on I-20. An entourage from Richard Childress Racing was caught in the ice storm. Kevin Harvick’s transporter driver Jim Baldwin was stuck for some three hours near Terrell, Texas, east of Dallas. But by Tuesday afternoon they were all moving again, albeit at only 15 mph due to the conditions. Busch Series haulers are due to enter the garage at Las Vegas on Thursday morning. Winston Cup trucks are not scheduled to enter until Friday morning.(more to the story at NASCAR.com )(2-26-2003)
