Winston Cup Series Returns To Lone Star State
Today the Winston Cup series makes its first appearance in Texas in 16 years with the Interstate Batteries 500 at the new Texas Motor Speedway.
The last appearance by NASCAR’s top division in the Lone Star State was at Texas World Speedway on June 7, 1981, when Benny Parsons held off Dale Earnhardt for the victory.
There have been nine Winston Cup events in the state, eight of them at the old 2-mile, high-banked speedway built in College Station as an almost-identical sister track to Michigan International Speedway.
The track, located halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, where the new speedway was built, never caught on, drawing small crowds and falling into disrepair.
Speedway Motorsports, led by entrepreneur O. Bruton Smith, hopes for considerably better with its new track, which is expected to draw more than 150,000 spectators for the opening event.
Among the Texas World Speedway winners, only 1979 champion Darrell Waltrip remains active. Defending Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte won the final pole at the old track.
The only other Texas event was run at a paved half-mile oval in Houston on June 23, 1971. That one was won from the pole by Bobby Allison.
This will be the biggest inaugural for the Winston Cup series since the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August 1994. That one was won by Jeff Gordon.
“Everyone wants to win every week, but everyone would like to win the first Brickyard 400, and that’s something I’ll never forget,” Gordon said. “Maybe we can get everything just right and win the first race at Bruton’s new track.”
Gordon said Texas Motor Speedway was “a nice place, but I think we’re going to have a little trouble passing on it. The corners are real tight, exciting, and it’s a real fast place.”
Wallace has interesting track record
If Rusty Wallace wins today’s race, nobody should be surprised.
Wallace, who won earlier this season at Richmond, Va., was the first driver to win at New Hampshire International Speedway, in July 1993, and also became NASCAR’s first modern-day international winner when he took the exhibition race last fall in Japan.
He also is in the record books as the last driver to win on the Riverside, Calif., road course, when that track closed in 1988.
Wallace has 47 Winston Cup victories.
Rookie ways
Mike Skinner, the leader in the Winston Cup Rookie of the Year competition, is 39 years old and has been racing professionally for 20 years.
“I’m definitely not a rookie in racing or to radial tires, but we’re rookies in Winston Cup,” Skinner said. “What you have to learn is a lot of etiquette, like when to race hard and when to fall in line - when to hold them and when to fold them.
“You have to get wise to the Winston Cup ways, and it’s going to take a little bit of time to do that. We’ve been competitive, but we’ve had struggles from one end to the other. We’ve had problems in the pits when I’ve done well, and when they (the crew) have done well, I’ve had problems.
“The tough thing about Winston Cup racing is you’ve got four or five guys who are out there in their own zone. Then you’ve got about 25 guys all running the same speed. Whenever you fall in that line it’s hard to go forward, but it’s easy to go back… . We’ve had a harder time with track position and when we lose it, we can’t get it back.”
Getting there
For a guy with 84 victories and three Winston Cup championships, Waltrip is pretty happy with a few midpack finishes this season.
The 50-year-old Waltrip, virtually uncompetitive last season, is much happier this year after finishing 10th in the season-opening Daytona 500 and adding finishes of 32, 16, 16 and 11 since.
He is 14th in season points, his highest position in the standings since he held the same spot in May 1995.
“We’re on a pretty good little roll,” Waltrip said. “We’re not getting the top-fives yet and maybe we’re not right there to win a race yet, but at least we’re making strides toward the front.”
xxxx OH MY DARLINGTON Just about everyone talks about how tough Darlington International Raceway’s 1.366-mile oval is. Following his 21st-place finish at the South Carolina track two weeks ago, Ernie Irvan was asked what the toughest part of the track is. His reply: “Everything after leaving the pits.”