For Wallace, less change pays off

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 25, 2000

Rusty Wallace's road to victory in the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway didn't start with the green flag Sunday.

It began one month earlier at the 2.5-mile track.

Wallace led a race-best 107 laps in the Pocono 500 in June, but a slow pit stop for four tires late in the race probably cost him a victory.

With a strong car again Sunday, the No. 2 Ford team didn't make the same mistake.

Wallace's crew changed two tires during a pit stop with 32 laps remaining. The faster stop kept him near the front and in position to capitalize when Jeremy Mayfield had a flat tire on the final lap.

"This time I hit pit road and we took on two (tires), and I looked over, and I saw (Dale Jarrett's team) taking on four. And I'm thinking, ' Man, why are they doing that? I tried that one, and that didn't work,' " he said. "Finally we got everything right and got all the right calls, and the car ran super."

NO-SHOWS MISSED A GOOD SHOW: The Michigan 500 featured 52 lead changes and the third-closest finish (0.040 seconds) in a CART race.

But only an estimated 35,000-50,000 saw the race at Michigan Speedway, which seats 136,000.

"It's great racing," driver Dario Franchitti said. "Why the stands aren't full, I don't know. You come in for some other (NASCAR) races here, which aren't half as interesting, and the stands are full. Explain it to me, somebody, please."

CART officials may consider leaving the two-mile oval when its contract expires after next year's race.

"We put on a good show, so I don't know why people aren't out here," said Michael Andretti, who finished second to Juan Montoya. "It's a shame. They're missing a great show. I've got to go wherever they say we're going to go. But, yeah, in some ways it would be a shame to lose it."

UP IN SMOKE: Long straightaways, high speeds and constant shifting took their toll on engines during the Pennsylvania 500.

Ten cars, including Mark Martin's, retired before the end of the race because of engine failure.

His No. 6 Ford lasted 25 laps when his engine blew. Martin, who has never won a Winston Cup championship, finished last (43rd) and fell from sixth to ninth in the points standings.

"Yeah, our (championship) chances were already killed after five (finishes of 10th or worse) in a row, but we got back on track, and things kind of looked better," he said.

"It doesn't matter if we're racing for a championship or not, if a championship is not meant to be for me, then I can live with that."

AN OLYMPIAN TASK: Texas Motor Speedway's executive vice president and general manager, Eddie Gossage, is on a committee trying to lure the 2012 Summer Olympics to Dallas.

Part of the group's plan is to hold an international auto race at the speedway.

"This could be the biggest thing to happen in auto racing, ever," Gossage said.

Gossage is in charge of selecting the kind of cars. He settled on the course that would present a level playing field for the world's best drivers.

FARR UPDATE: Shaun Farr, the 17-year-old sprint driver injured during a Tampa Bay Area Racing Association event July 15, remains in critical condition at a Jacksonville hospital.

The 1999 association rookie of the year sustained multiple injuries when his car flipped over a concrete retaining wall and into a catch fence on the last lap of a race at Florida Speed Park in St. Augustine.

Farr, who is in a coma, has a closed head injury and two collapsed lungs.

Don Rehm, the association president, said Monday that Farr's condition is slowly improving and that doctors are trying to wean him off a respirator and medication.

"He is moving his feet, his toes and stuff," Rehm said. "He's moving his left arm and hand. He's a long way from being out of the woods, but there's some positive signs."

-- Information from other news organizations was used in compiling this report.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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