April 6, 1998
- Texas Motor Speedway announced today a reconstruction of the racing surface following Sunday’s Texas 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race. Bruton Smith said that it was obvious the changes made after the inaugural race were not adequate. Plans are to make it similar to Charlotte since it is the same size and configuration as Charlotte. Smith said the turns would be modified to make entrance and exits compatible for the big NASCAR Winston Cup cars. They will repave with a much smoother and tighter asphalt mix that will drain quickly and install a more complete drainage system to solve the seepage problem. Smith said he estimated the new revamping at $1 to $2 million. Completion date on the revamping will be decided upon soon. They expect to fix the seeping problem in the next few weeks. The next racing at Texas is the NASCAR Craftsman Truck/Pep Boys Indy Racing League weekend June 5-6. Smith said he will confer with a team of engineers and asphalt specialists, as well as NASCAR officials, drivers and crew chiefs to determine the exact changes to be made.(4-6-98)
- Junie Donlavey, the owner of the #90 Helig Meyers Ford driven by Dick Trickle, might be on hand at the Winston Cup circuit’s next stop: Martinsville, Va. Donlavey underwent heart surgery last month to replace a leaky heart valve. His recovery is going well, according to team manager Jeff Kirk, who added Donlavey has tentative plans to visit the Martinsville track during the Goody’s 500 weekend, April 17-19.(Times-Dispatch)(4-6-98)
- I hear NASCAR is considering a major rules change with the shock absorbers that will be a big factor at Daytona and Talladega. Because of the restrictor plates, and the spoiler angle rules, a lot of teams have been using shocks with zero rebound. (What this means is that they compress easily when they hit a bump, but do not spring back.) As most of us have noticed that during qualifying at Daytona and Talladega, the Cup cars seem to be dragging their tail ends almost on the track. This effectively lowers the spoiler angle, and makes the car go faster though it is extremely hard to drive, because the slightest bump can send the car all over the track. I also saw a JournalNow story(about Chad Little) that NASCAR may ask the teams to bring the shocks they plan to run at Talladega(4/26) to Martinsville(4/19) so they can be tested on a shock dyno which is a machine that bounces the shock through the limits of it’s travel and plots how it responds on a CRT. Most teams have one on their hauler.(4-6-98)
- Here is what I hear happened in the lap 2 crash at the Texas 500: 1) Two cars in front of the #78 Pilot Ford driven by Gary Bradberry(not sure who) collided, and he and everyone else began backing off. 2) David Green in the #96 Cat Chevy can’t check up quick enough and hits Bradberry in the rear which gets Bradberry sideways. 3) Bradberry dives low to save the car, and then the wreck happens behind him. Apparently this sequence of events was clearly visible from pit lane, and Richard Broome(crew chief for the #78) corroborated this story in a radio interview(PRN?). It was very hard to tell from the camera angles we saw on TV(4-6-98)
- Richard Childress wants his #31 Lowes Chevy driver, Mike Skinner to sit out the Martinsville race and heal as he has been hurt recently at Atlanta and on Sunday at Texas. Morgan Shepherd may drive the car at Martinsville(RPM2Nite)(4-6-98)
- Jeff Green tested the #30 Gumout Pontiac at Martinsville on Monday(4-6) and will also test there Tuesday in preparation for the Goody’s Headache Powders 500 on April 19th. He will sub for Derrike Cope who is injured from a qualifying accident in Texas(RPM2Nite)(4-6-98)
- Greg Sacks has been admitted to the intensive care unit at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas following an accident on lap 136. He is listed in fair condition and complaining of numbness and weakness in his left arm. He is scheduled to undergo an MRI and further tests.(GoRacing)(4-6-98)
- Five years after 1992 Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash, Kulwicki’s former crew chief Paul Andrews (who now is Jeremy Mayfield’s crew chief) endured another tragedy. Andrews’ 28-year-old brother, Rick, was lost at sea on Tuesday off the coast of Los Angeles. The search was called off on Wednesday, five years to the day of Kulwicki’s death.(Orlando Sentinel via That’s Racin)(4-6-98)
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