This Driving Andretti’s No Johnny-Come-Lately

Some people may be shocked to find the name of John Andretti at the top of the speed chart for winter testing at Daytona International Speedway.

Don’t count Andretti among them.

“It doesn’t really surprise me,” said Andretti, whose RCA-sponsored Cale Yarborough Ford Thunderbird turned a lap of 189.458 mph on Daytona’s high banks earlier this month.

Andretti, who began last season driving Fords for Kranefuss-Haas Racing, swapped rides late last season with Jeremy Mayfield, who was the fastest in last winter’s testing.

“I think it would have surprised me more if we weren’t quick,” the 33-year-old Andretti said. “These guys work hard on their stuff. We’re not a huge team, but they wring every bit out of it that they can, and we’ve got a good motor program, too. A lot of people don’t give enough credit for that.”

In his first three seasons driving on NASCAR’s top stock car circuit, Andretti, a former IndyCar star who is a nephew of longtime Formula One and IndyCar star Mario Andretti and cousin of current IndyCar star Michael Andretti, has had a few successes and a lot of failures.

Among other things, he has developed a disturbing pattern of contending early in races only to fade or crash.

“I think I race pretty hard and I race every lap as hard as I can race,” he said. “That gets me in a lot of trouble in Winston Cup. But eventually I am going to learn how to do that, how to put a whole race together.

“Then we can go on from there and become someone who is not on the wrong side of all the comments.”

Freebies

Race sponsors will give away just about anything to get some publicity.

Pennzoil, a longtime sponsor, has released a list of what it gave fans, customers and charities in 1996 as Johnny Benson drove the Bahari Racing Pennzoil Pontiac to Winston Cup rookie of the year honors.

Among the items are 14,711 yellow Pennzoil hats, 311,950 Benson autograph cards, 159,330 Pennzoil Pontiac decals, 51,500 ear plugs, 6,361 “Pennzoil Welcome Race Fans” banners, 4,007 credential holders, 1,180 yellow rain ponchos, 1,148 yellow umbrellas, 1,941 inflatable Pennzoil Pontiacs and 601 6-foot Benson cardboard standups.

Swift test

Newman-Haas Racing teammates Michael Andretti and Christian Fittipaldi say they have been impressed with the first tests of the all-new Swift chassis they will use this year.

The Swifts, which will challenge new cars from each of the three holdover CART chassis manufacturers - Reynard, Lola and Penske - will be powered by Ford Cosworth engines.

“A lot of hard work has been put into the program,” said Andretti, a former PPG Cup champion. “There’s been a lot of good feelings about the project. But you never know until you get to a race track.

“I think the car is pretty good. It’s doing everything a good race car is supposed to do.”

Tough ticket

Reserved tickets for the Daytona 500 sell out every year, but Daytona International Speedway does have a method of giving people a chance to get them.

More than 100,000 sent in entries in December for a sweepstakes in which 14,000 will be given the opportunity to buy four tickets to the Feb. 16 race.