Gordon Wants to Put an End to Ford Dominance in Las Vegas

By SHAV GLICK

March 5, 1999 12 AM PT

Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a Ford track last year when Winston Cup drivers raced on the 1.5-mile oval for the first time.

Mark Martin brought the new Taurus its first victory after it had replaced the venerable Thunderbird at the start of the 1998 season. And behind him came six more Fords before Dale Earnhardt finished eighth in the first Chevrolet.

Then came six more Fords. In all, 13 of the first 14 finishers were Fords, one of the most lopsided Ford-Chevy battles in NASCAR history.

And that didn’t include Dale Jarrett, who won the pole in his Ford but had engine trouble that knocked him out early.

“We don’t want that to happen again,” said Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon, who won 13 races en route to his third Winston Cup championship, but finished only 17th at Las Vegas.

Gordon spent two days testing in the desert last week. Although he was driving the Busch Grand National Chevy that he will debut Saturday in the Sam’s Town 300, he said the experience will serve him well Sunday in the Las Vegas 400.

“I’m glad to get in laps because I haven’t done that well here,” he said. “I can get to know the characteristics of the track. The car is similar to [the Winston Cup car] I’ve been driving. Other than the horsepower, the cars are a lot alike.”

Gordon’s wife, Brooke, and his crew chief, Ray Evernham, have formed a Busch team to run a five-race season, starting in Las Vegas.

“I’m just the driver,” Gordon said with a smile.

Gordon and Evernham first got together in the Busch series, in 1991 and ’92. Gordon was rookie of the year in 1991, and in those two years won three races, 11 poles and had 15 top-five finishes before moving up to Winston Cup in 1993.

Evernham called the Las Vegas finish last year embarrassing.

So was Gordon’s plight two weeks ago in the North Carolina 400 at Rockingham, where he finished 39th after dropping out with a blown engine, a rare occurrence for the Hendrick Motorsports team. It dropped Gordon 10 positions in the standings.

“Nobody who is competing for the championship can afford two bad races in a row,” Gordon said. “We just hope we’re as competitive in Las Vegas.”

Qualifying is set today for both the Busch and Winston Cup races.

Martin, runner-up to Gordon for last year’s championship, is not only the defending champion, but the Rockingham winner as well.

“I used to say, when someone asked me what’s my biggest win, . . . ‘It’s my last one,’ but I think that win in Las Vegas last year was a little special because we won it with a brand new team and a brand new car,” Martin said.

“With the exception of my crew chief, Jimmy Fennig, and my truck driver, everyone was new--the tire changers, jack man, engine tuner and everyone else who were just learning to work together.

“At first, I was afraid to tell people I had moved my shop and left behind a championship-caliber team to start something new, but after we won right away, I was proud to say this was all done by a new team, mostly a bunch of 25-year-old race-crew guys.”

Like Gordon, Martin will also drive in Saturday’s Busch race. Unlike Gordon, however, who has not raced a Busch car since 1992, Martin runs as many as he can and is the all-time series leader with 34 victories.

“I’m really looking forward to racing there again,” Martin said. “That track holds nothing but good memories for me. Last year, I flew home to Daytona Beach [Fla.] right after the race and by the time I got in bed, all I had going through my head was the song, ‘Viva, Las Vegas.’ I wouldn’t mind hearing it again this year.”

The NASCAR weekend will start today with the Orleans 150, a $166,687 race for Winston West cars. Jerry Nadeau and Ricky Craven, regulars on the Winston Cup circuit, and Ron Hornaday, two-time Craftsman Truck champion, are among the record 51 entries.

Kevin Harvick won last year’s race, and the Winston West championship, but he has moved to the truck series this year.

Sean Woodside of Palmdale won the series opener at Tucson.

IT’S NOT THAT EASY

Dale Earnhardt Jr. won seven races, finished 16 times in the top five in Busch Grand National races, earned a record $1.3 million last year and was rewarded with a $50-million contract from Budweiser for the next five years.

Then came the sophomore season. In his first race, at Daytona, the Little E finished a distant 14th. And two weeks ago at Rockingham, he was involved in a five-car accident and was 35th.

Earnhardt Jr. finished second, behind Jimmy Spencer, in last year’s Las Vegas race.

“It was Vegas where we started making our move,” he said. “Now we’ll be out to move one spot higher this year. Even with our bad finish at Rockingham, we’re in a better position than we were coming to Las Vegas last year.”

FORMULA ONE

The Australian Grand Prix, opening race of the Formula One season, will be run Sunday-- Saturday here--on the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.

McLaren, which uses Mercedes engines, and Ferrari have been the quickest in testing.

“Both have access to unlimited technology,” Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone said. “Ferrari has got the No. 1 driver [Michael Schumacher], but Mika [Hakkinen, defending F1 champion] is not far behind. Technically, Mercedes perhaps has the best power unit.”

Ferrari has not had an F1 championship since Jody Scheckter of South Africa won in 1979.

Williams, the dominant team of the ‘90s, has two new drivers. Two-time CART champion Alex Zanardi has returned to F1, and Ralf Schumacher, Michael’s brother, has moved over from the Jordan team.

Since 1990, with the exception of 1997, the driver who has won the F1 season opener has gone on to win the championship.

TEENAGE TRENDSETTER

Most winners of sprint car races are in their mid-30s or beyond. World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser is 43. His chief challengers are Sammy Swindell, also 43, and cousin Mark Kinser, 34. So don’t expect them to celebrate a win in the manner of Tyler Walker, the 19-year-old from North Hills.

After winning a World of Outlaws main event last Friday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, Walker did a cartwheel in front of the main grandstand, followed by a back flip.

The Outlaws will race tonight and Saturday night on Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s half-mile dirt oval.

LAST LAPS

The street stock season at Perris Auto Speedway will open Saturday night with Carla Laney, the only woman driver who has won a main event at Perris, facing her brother, Mike Kirby. Kirby is better known as one of the leading Sprint Car Racing Assn. drivers, but with the SCRA taking a week off, he will drive against his sister in one of the family street stocks.

Irwindale Speedway, after an open-wheel program on opening night March 27, will debut its NASCAR stock cars April 2-3. Six classes will be featured in 53 nights of racing at the new facility, which has both half-mile and one-third-mile paved ovals. Tickets will go on sale March 15 for the stock cars. The March 27 opener is sold out.

Karting champion Ryan Howe, 19, of Temecula, won a Skip Barber Racing School scholarship and will receive a full season in the 16-race Formula Dodge series, the largest amateur open-wheel series in North America.

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This Week

WINSTON CUP

Las Vegas 400

* When: Today, qualifying, 5 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 11:30 a.m.; Sunday, race, 11:30 a.m., Channel 7.

* Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

* Defending champion: Mark Martin.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

Sam’s Town 300

* When: Today, qualifying, 3:15 p.m.; Saturday, race, 1 p.m., ESPN2.

* Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

* Defending champion: Jimmy Spencer.