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Wheeler seeking a medical director

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 17, 2001

Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns six tracks that play host to NASCAR Winston Cup events, could have a full-time medical director in place as early as mid-May.

Company president and chief operating officer H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler said last week that a medical director would oversee all events at its Winston Cup venues in Charlotte, N.C.; Atlanta; Bristol, Tenn.; Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Texas; and Sonoma, Calif.

"This would help us a great deal, because this person would work right here in Charlotte," said Wheeler, also president of Lowe's Motor Speedway. "I would have someone I could go to, and people within the safety industry could go to this person. This medical director that we are considering would also be someone who is involved in research."

CART and IRL have a traveling medical director and staff, but NASCAR does not. It instead allows each track to hire emergency personnel for NASCAR-sanctioned events.

"I think this thing could happen fairly quickly," Wheeler said. "We've been studying it for some time and we still are. We want to make sure we get the right person."

International Speedway Corporation, controlled by the France family that runs NASCAR, owns 12 tracks on the Winston Cup schedule this season, including Daytona and Homestead-Miami. It had a full-time medical director until last month, ISC spokesman David Talley said Monday.

Dr. Greg Bowman was retained when ISC merged with Penske Motorsports in 1999.

"He just kind of oversaw all the emergency operations for all the tracks," Talley said. "He would go to all of our events and kind of oversee."

Bowman resigned in March but was retained as a consultant for 12 months. "Whether we replace him or not, that's something that we'll look at as time goes on," Talley said. "We didn't have a medical director for the 50-odd years prior to merging with Penske so we'll just kind of have to sit back, evaluate whether we want to fill the position or not. We don't have a timetable or anything."

INDY REUNION: Robby Gordon, fired from his Winston Cup team last month, will drive A.J. Foyt's second entry in the Indianapolis 500.

"The deal came about pretty quick," Gordon said, "but I felt it was the right deal for me. A.J.'s cars always run good. With some of the new teams coming in, it's going to be very competitive this year, but with A.J.'s experience behind me, I'm looking forward to it."

Gordon has started six Indy 500s -- his first was in 1993 when he drove for Foyt -- and boasts four top-six performances. Eliseo Salazar will drive Foyt's first entry.

SECOND STEP: Greg Biffle had a three-step plan to stardom in NASCAR.

He completed the first step by winning the Craftsman Truck series championship last season and is now focused on the second: winning the Busch Grand National title. On Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway, Biffle gave team owner Jack Rousch his first victory of the season in either BGN or Winston Cup and moved to third in the series standings after eight races.

"If we can win a points championship this year, then I'm ready to go Winston Cup racing," Biffle said. "But that's kind of a stretch."

ODDS AND ENDS: More remarkable than Ralf Schumacher's first career Formula One victory at Monza on Sunday was the fact it marked the first time in 23 races that a Ferrari or McLaren driver had not won. It also was BMW's first victory since it returned to Formula One last season and Michelin's first this season. ... After its first weekend off since the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, Winston Cup teams return to Talladega Superspeedway Sunday for the Talladega 500. Dale Earnhardt won the most recent race at the 2.66-mile track.

- Information from Times wires was used in this report.

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