Sports: Drivers praise Kansas

Drivers praise Kansas

By JOANNE KORTH

For now, compliments.

Winston Cup drivers have nothing but nice things to say this week about Kansas Speedway, the latest in a string of new tracks with the same basic -- translate boring -- 1.5-mile configuration.

We'll see.

Kansas, which represents an important step for NASCAR into the Midwest market, is a sister track to Chicagoland, which made its Winston Cup debut in July.

"We tested for a day at the new Kansas track, and I really liked it," said Dale Earnhardt Jr., coming off a win Sunday at Dover Downs. "I think the Chicago track was poorly designed; the transitions to and from the banking are terrible there.

"But this place is much, much better. It's very wide and very smooth, so I hope that means we can race in more than one groove on Sunday."

Kansas is the sixth new track to land a Winston Cup race in the past five years, joining Texas (1997), California (1997), Las Vegas (1998) Homestead (1999) and Chicagoland. All are 1.5-mile ovals, fostering the term "cookie-cutter track."

The idea was to create fast tracks with plenty of seating and luxury boxes -- ka-ching! -- the prototype for which was remodeled Charlotte Motor Speedway, now Lowe's Motor Speedway. Problem is, most have turned out to be single-groove tracks that stymie the door-to-door paint swapping that made NASCAR popular.

"Most of the time, the biggest problem was that the surface was just so new that we couldn't work in two racing grooves," said veteran Rusty Wallace, a St. Louis native. "That's not going to be the case this weekend at Kansas. The track is already graying and I think when we get there and put all the rubber down before the race, it's going to produce a hell of a show.

"I know there's been a lot of comparison of this track to the other mile-and-a-half tracks ... but I think it's really a track with a personality all its own."

Located 10 miles west of Kansas City, Mo., Kansas Speedway set industry records for inaugural season ticket sales. Requests flooded in from every state and several countries when tickets went on sale Aug. 21, 2000. By April, ticket packages were sold out at the 150,000-seat facility.

"The new Kansas track should be a great addition to our series," said Mark Martin, who raced for many years in the Midwest as a four-time American Speed Association champion. "I know we have a lot of fans in that area who are looking forward to coming out to see us race."

Winston Cup teams will have two bonus practice sessions today to get a feel for the track before Friday's pole qualifying and Sunday's Protection One 400.

So, we'll see.

OLD MEETS NEW: Nine drivers have competed in all nine inaugural Winston Cup races since 1988: Brett Bodine, Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett, Terry Labonte, Sterling Marlin, Martin, Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader and Wallace. Elliott has six top-10 finishes, Martin and Wallace five each.

SIMPSON PLANS TO SUE: Racing safety pioneer Bill Simpson told the Orlando Sentinel he plans to sue NASCAR for defamation with regard to announcements the sanctioning body made about the role a torn seat belt played in Dale Earnhardt's fatal accident.

Simpson Performance Products manufactured the harness system used by Earnhardt as well as a partially torn belt found in Jeremy Mayfield's car after a crash Sunday at Dover Downs. Simpson, who resigned in July as chairman of the company he founded, said his attorneys will file litigation "soon."

SWEATING IT OUT: With in-car temperatures topping 115, Winston drivers are at risk for dehydration and heat illness. According to a study by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute during the recent three-hour race at Richmond, Martin lost an estimated 153 ounces of sweat, nearly equivalent to 10 pounds of body weight. Martin replaced 78 percent of his sweat loss by drinking 119 ounces of fluid.