Motorsports

Smoother ride rattles Cup drivers

By BRANT JAMES
Published May 28, 2005

CONCORD, N.C. - Officials at Lowe's Motor Speedway have had great fun with the word levigation this week. Those familiar with track president and resident showman H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler might assume it was a hybrid word that infuses NASCAR speak.

Levigation - grinding down bumps and smoothing out the 1.5-mile racing surface at the 45-year-old track - increased the possibility of side-by-side racing, Wheeler said.

The process made the track faster. Twenty-two drivers broke the year-old record in qualifying Thursday. But several said faster does not mean better.

"(Cars are) going too fast to put on a good race as far as I'm concerned," said Jeff Gordon, who qualified second with a lap of 191.925 mph. Matt Kenseth, who qualified third (191.259), said speedway officials had levigated the character off one of his favorite tracks. Lowe's is where he made his first Busch series start in 1996, won his first Nextel Cup race in 2000 and the all-star event last season.

"I thought before when you caught somebody you could always pass them, it seemed like to me," Kenseth said. "You could get up close to them and get them off the bottom and get underneath them and you really had to hit a good line getting into 3 because of the bumps, and there was a lot of character to it.

"Being smooth and fast is cool for qualifying night and for everybody to watch, but I don't think that necessarily translates into a better race. ... I don't think when all the cars get together that the fans know the difference or we know the difference of 3 or 4 or 5 miles an hour, but the cars know the difference and it does make it tougher to pass and race around each other."

OPPORTUNITY: Plying his trade in Charlotte has a lot of benefits for a budding driver such as Aric Almirola. The 21-year-old Tampa native and member of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver development program got the chance to impress last week during a Truck series test for General Motors.

"They came to us and they were testing some of their guys," said J.D. Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing president. "We said put him in and see how it goes. It went excellent. We were really excited. They did tell him to keep it confidential, but I say (why not tell)? He did great."

Gibbs is pleased with Almirola's progress racing NASCAR Weekly Series Late Models at various tracks in the southeast. Almirola has two wins.

"Aric's the man," Gibbs said. "Maybe down the line we ramp it up with some ARCA stuff, see where he goes. He's done everything we've asked for so far."

SELL OUT: Jason Leffler' s failure to qualify for Sunday's Nextel Cup race allowed Interstate Batteries to sell its space on Bobby Labonte's No.18 Chevrolet to FedEx, which sponsors No.11. Leffler and Labonte are Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.

Interstate Batteries purchased full-season rights to Labonte's car but wants to sell eight to 10 races a year to recoup part of its investment.

Labonte's crew will be allowed in the garage at 12:30 p.m. today, before its scheduled opening, to apply the full-car FedEx sticker.

[Last modified May 28, 2005, 00:09:12]