Saturday, August 03, 2002
No one wants to test Indy's soft' walls
NASCAR notebook
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS - There's a new safety feature at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but no one wants any part of it.
Energy-absorbing “soft wall” barriers will be used in a NASCAR race for the first time Sunday in the Brickyard 400.
“We need the testing, but nobody wants to be the first to test it,” two-time Brickyard winner Dale Jarrett said. “We want to get out of here without finding out any more about it than we already know.”
The Speedway installed the barriers in all four turns of the 21/2-mile oval in May for the Indianapolis 500. They took eight hard hits with no serious injuries to drivers.
“The soft wall technology is a pretty involved process,” Ricky Rudd said. “These walls have been tested with Indy cars, and it's nice to know you have a little added safety if you have a problem.
“If it doesn't hold up or doesn't work, the worst-case scenario is that it's back to the hard wall that we would have hit here in the past.”
The barriers consist of four steel tubes welded in 20-foot sections and bolted to the concrete walls. Between the steel and the concrete, pads of foam are placed 10 feet apart, allowing the surface to bend and reduce the force of a crash.
COORS COMING BACK: Sterling Marlin locked up a deal with his primary sponsor through 2005 when Coors Brewing Co. signed a three-year extension on the No.40 Dodge Intrepid.
LATE ENTRY: P.J. Jones, son of 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones, will drive a second entry for A.J. Foyt's Winston Cup team in the Brickyard 400.
“I considered hiring his dad, but I couldn't get him off the golf course,” Foyt said.
Jones will drive the No.50 Pontiac in place of Stacy Compton, who was fired by Foyt last week. Mike Wallace will drive the No.14 car in his second race for Foyt.
“I am excited about this opportunity to run at the Brickyard, even if it came at the last minute,” Jones said.
Jones drove in the CART series in 1996-99, with a career-best second-place finish at Nazareth, Pa., in 1999. Since then, he has raced in the NASCAR Busch Series and in the USAC Silver Crown Series.
RACING POLITICS: There's speculation Rudd is close to signing with Chip Ganassi's Winston Cup team, although he said nothing has been finalized.
“I'm looking for which operation is the best I can go to and win races right out of the box,” Rudd said.
Rudd currently drives for Robert Yates, and a possible hangup to the deal with Ganassi is the Texaco-Havoline sponsorship and the use of the Yates team's car number, 28.
“It's not a done deal,” Rudd said. “There have been some conversations trying to get the details worked out, but it may or may not happen.”
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No one wants to test Indy's soft' walls
