Pontiacs Pick Up Pace Through Cooperation

There appears to be a new era of cooperation among the seven teams that will field Pontiacs in Winston Cup racing this season.

Gary Claudio, manager of Pontiac Motorsports, said that the seven teams have been working closely together on the basics of preparation, including the sharing of wind-tunnel and other data in an effort to catch up to the Chevrolet and Ford teams.

Kyle Petty, whose new PE2 entry is one of the teams that will race the new Grand Prix, has benefited from the cooperation.

“Bill Davis Racing had a spot in front of us to get a body hung by a guy, and they gave it up to us, and the King (Kyle’s father Richard Petty) had one that he gave up for us,” he said. “If they hadn’t done that, we would have just had four cars ready instead of six, and we’d have been way behind.”

Pontiac won only one race during the 31-race Winston Cup season.

“I think we’re gaining on them, but I don’t think we’re even,” Claudio said. “If you compare us to the number of teams Chevy has and the count Ford has, we’re still the little guy - David and Goliath, you might say.

“But we’re focused. We know what we have to do and we’re very pleased with the car. NASCAR has been very cooperative and they understand a level playing field. They’re trying to do that with the rule changes, to make all three brands equal.”

Winter speeds

John Andretti, driving the Ford Thunderbird fielded by Cale Yarborough, was the fastest of the fast this winter in Winston Cup testing at Daytona International Speedway.

The former IndyCar star turned a fast lap of 189.458 mph on Jan. 15, and nobody in a Ford or General Motors car was able to top it on the 2.5-mile Daytona oval.

The closest to Andretti’s speed in January testing was Ron Fellows, a newcomer to NASCAR’s Busch Grand National series. The Canadian road racing standout, best known for his showing in the SCCA’s Trans-Am series, turned a lap of 189.135 in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo fielded by Jim Bown.

New and old

Ned Jarrett retired as a race driver in 1966 at the age of 34. The last time he raced a car was that year at North Carolina Motor Speedway, where he finished third.

Since then, the two-time Winston Cup champion has not even sat in a race car - that is until last week at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

At the behest of Ford, Jarrett drove a 1963 Ford Galaxy and son Dale Jarrett’s 1997 Ford Thunderbird on the speedway’s quarter-mile frontstretch oval.

The elder Jarrett said the newer car gave him confidence.

“The technology that has come along since then … when you start into a corner with the new car, you feel like you’re going to make it even though you’re going faster,” he said.

“Back in our day, you didn’t have that type of feeling. It was definitely a seat-of-the-pants type of feeling. This was neat.”

Dale Jarrett, the third-place finisher in last year’s Winston Cup championship, also got into the Galaxy for a brief spin.

“I never really got a chance to get in one of dad’s cars,” he said. “I was only 8, 9 years old when he retired. There’s a lot of things that really aren’t different, as far as the feel and everything. You can see how things evolved, and you also have a great respect for the guys and what they were able to do, the speeds they were able to run at the time.”

Streak ends

Ron Hornaday Jr., defending champion of NASCAR’s Craftsman Truck Series, saw a pretty amazing streak end Sunday when he was involved in a crash early in the season-opening event at Orlando, Fla.

Hornaday had finished each of the first 44 races in the history of the pickup truck circuit. In his 45th start, though, the crash relegated Hornaday to an early out and 30th place.

It also makes it a lot tougher for him to match last season, when he finished in the top 10 in all but one start.

Brewer’s back

Longtime Winston Cup crew chief Tim Brewer has signed on with Morgan-McClure Racing and driver Sterling Marlin as the replacement for Tony Glover, who left late last season to take a job with SABCO Racing.

Brewer, who has won three Winston Cup championships, is second among active crew chiefs in career victories with 53, trailing only Leonard Wood’s 96.

More coverage

ESPN will greatly increase its coverage of NHRA drag racing in 1997 with the addition of live or same-day coverage of nine events, including two-hour qualifying telecasts and two-hour race telecasts.

The qualifying coverage will be aired on Friday nights, with the races on Sunday.

ESPN will also televise 10 events from the NHRA Sportsman series.

Stat of the week

Rusty Wallace had only eight top-five finishes during the 1996 season, but five of those were victories.