Sunday, February 21, 1999
Busch driver has places to go
BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
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Glenn Allen Jr. waits for his qualifying run during last week's race at Daytona.
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Glenn Allen Jr. is one step away from the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. But that jump, much like Triple-A baseball to the major leagues, is the hardest in stock car racing.
That is the situation facing Allen, a 28-year-old Lockland native who is beginning his fourth season on the Busch Grand National tour, one notch below the big-time Winston Cup.
Just as in baseball, reaching Triple-A does not guarantee a ticket to the majors.
“It's definitely the biggest jump there is,” said John Griffin, NASCAR director of communications. “And of the seven or eight rookies who might start a season, maybe 50 percent will still be in Winston Cup in three years.”
ALLEN FILE
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Glenn Allen Jr. (left)
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Born: Sept. 24, 1970.
Hometown: Lockland
Resides: Lake Norman, N.C.
Family: Wife, Katherine
NASCAR Busch career:
• 1992: 1 start
• 1995: 1 start
• 1996: 26 starts, 2 Top-10 finishes; Named Raybestos “Rookie of the Year”
• 1997: 29 starts, 6 Top-10 finishes, 1 Top-5 finish.
• 1998: 31 starts, 7 Top-10 finishes.
• 1999: 1 start (Daytona), 16th place
Best finish: 4th, at Homestead, Fla., Nov. 9, 1997
Biggest purse: $61,760, Las Vegas, 1998
Best season points finish: 11th place, 1998.
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Allen hopes to reach Winston in the next few years. He broke in big, as Busch rookie of the year in 1996. But he has yet to win a race in 87 career starts, including a 16th-place finish in the 1999 Busch opener at Daytona on Feb. 13.
“I feel like we're on the right track,” Allen said. “But we've got to reach the top five and win a race this year.”
He comes off a career-best 11th-place finish in the Busch season standings in 1998, but has switched gears for a potential run to Winston. Allen changed teams this year, from the No. 99 Luxaire Chevy to the No. 38 Barbasol Ford, largely because of better funding.
That, some racing luck, and a few well-placed connections can take a man far. Exhibit A is Jeff Gordon, reigning king of NASCAR at the tender age of 27. The average Winston driver is 38 years old, but Gordon is a once-in-a-lifetime case — a supremely gifted driver who was handpicked from the Busch series by the wealthy Rick Hendrick motorsports stable.
“He makes the rest of us look bad,” Allen said, bringing a laugh.
“Gordon did so well in Busch that owners were dropping everything to try to get him,” Griffin said.
For the non-Gordons, which is everybody else, money can help. Take the case of Roy “Buckshot” Jones, whose father has some money. Buckshot Jones was a top driver in Busch before moving up to Winston Cup fulltime this year, thanks partially to being well-heeled financially.
And also, the catchy name does not hurt. Aside from a driver's racetrack skills, owners also look for how he appeals to potential sponsors, Griffin said. Is he handsome (e.g. Gordon)? Can he sell (e.g. “Buckshot”)? Has he won anything big? (e.g., Tony Stewart)?
Stewart, the 1997 Indy Racing League season champion, was recruited by former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs — now a fulltime NASCAR owner — to race one of his Winston Cup Pontiacs for 1999.
Stewart, 27, was a man among older men on the Indy circuit, and clearly outgrew the less prestigious IRL in a hurry.
But the Gordons and Stewarts, even a Buckshot Jones, are rare. For most, such as Allen, it requires driving your way to The Show.
It can't help but be a positive that Allen is now on a two-car Busch team with Elton Sawyer, able to share information on his Akins-Sutton team.
“That's the wave of the future,” Allen said of the team setup. “You've got to do anything you can to move up.”
Allen could also benefit from everyone not being as eager as him to reach Winston.
Two-time Busch series champion Randy LaJoie, for instance, is content to make hay on the “Triple-A” circuit. LaJoie, 37, occasionally drives in Winston but wants no part of a fulltime Cup ride.
“I wouldn't mind running (Winston) five or 10 times a year, but I don't like the hassle and what your family goes through,” LaJoie said recently at Daytona.
A fellow can live well off Busch money, LaJoie said. He has won $2.7 million, the most in Busch history.
Allen, for his part, has made nearly $900,000 in his brief Busch career, quite above the average American male of his age.
Jeff Purvis, another top Busch driver, said, “If I had to race Busch the rest of my life, I wouldn't complain at all. There's a lot of drivers in this series who like it right here and aren't looking to move.”
There are differences some drivers don't care to tackle. For instance, a Winston car weighs 100 more pounds than a Busch car (3,400 pounds to 3,300), has 720 horsepower compared to Busch's 520, and has a five-inch wider wheelbase (110 inches to 105).
“That might not seem like much,” said Griffin, “but ask the drivers, and they tell you it makes a difference. The Winston races are also longer, usually 400 and 500 miles. The Busch guys may drive 200 or 300. The endurance is another thing you have to get used to.”
Should Allen make the jump, he won't find a red carpet. It's more a yellow one, as in the yellow stripe that Winston rookies must wear on their car's bumper during races.
To veterans, the yellow stripe is a neon warning that shouts, “Rookie on board.” Winston Cup drivers like to razz the freshmen, remembering their own days as nervous neophytes. A gentle ramming, not to mention an occasional shove into the wall, reminds newcomers who's boss.
“It's a clique out here,” NASCAR car owner Robert Yates told USA Today in a 1997 story about rookies. “These guys are like flying F-18s together. You're always going to be in trouble if you don't get that respect.”
Allen, who has raced with the big guys that occasionally drop down to race Busch (Mark Martin, Terry Labonte et al.) knows that well. Busch drivers always know when a Winston man is nearby, and sometimes have to stop themselves from giving the “Cup” guys too wide a berth.
“It's certainly a good experience to race with those guys,” Allen said. “For me, the biggest test is getting better on the superspeedways. That's where you have to prove yourself.”
Allen took another step toward that end in the season-opening Busch race, the NAPA Auto Parts 300 at Daytona last weekend. Allen, whose best asset is his cool head and lack of mistakes, largely skirted a crash-filled mess at Daytona to finish 16th, easily his best run ever there. He had previously never finished above 30th.
“It's a step in the right direction,” he said.
Allen, son of Arlington Heights mayor Glenn Allen Sr., now lives with wife Katherine near Charlotte, N.C., close to his race shop. He is trying to become the first Cincinnati native to race fulltime in Winston Cup.
Rodney Combs, formerly of Hamilton, ran 55 career Winston races but never a full season on the Cup circuit.
Allen, whose father was a successful stock car driver himself, cut his teeth at the old Queen City Speedway in West Chester. He raced there at age 13, three years before eligible for a regular driver's license.
But Allen, unlike some racers, did not drop out of school to pursue is dream. He is a former Lockland High School class president.
Allen first made his racing name on the ASA (American Speed Association) circuit. The ASA is a Late Model circuit that tours Midwest asphalt ovals.
Allen won five career ASA races, just two fewer than future Winston champs Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip won on that level. He won six ASA pole positions, one more than Wallace. He earned $437,775 in ASA, which is more than Martin, Wallace, and the late former Winston champion Alan Kulwicki.
That laid the groundwork for his leap to Busch, where Allen's best career finish was a fourth place in the final race of 1997.
And now, the push is on to prove he belongs upstairs. And even if he gets there, the battle would only have started.
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