AMBUSCHED

Are too many Winston Cup drivers double-dipping in feeder series?

Winston Cup drivers have always had carte blanche to drop down

to the Busch Series. Trouble is, they're doing it in large

numbers this year and, as a result, could hinder the feeder

system that produced Jeff Gordon and is currently the proving

ground for young drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Matt

Kenseth and Adam Petty.

Until this season the average number of Winston Cup drivers

competing in a Busch race was three. At Las Vegas on March 6, a

whopping 17 Cup drivers participated in a field of 43. A week

later 14 muscled into the race at Atlanta, and last Saturday

eight ran at Darlington. "There are too many Cup guys," says

Busch regular and two-time points champion Randy LaJoie. "It's

sending some of our regulars home, and it's hurting the young

guys in gaining seat time." That is, drivers trying to work

their way up through the system are being displaced because they

can't qualify ahead of the better-equipped Winston Cup drivers.

Jimmy Spencer, who carpetbags in Busch as a driver and is also

owner of the Busch car driven by Dick Trickle, counters, "If the

Busch Series draws good crowds on Saturdays, it's because Mark

Martin, Jeff Burton and especially Jeff Gordon are in those

races." Gordon, who has been off the Busch circuit since 1993,

plans to run in five of the 32 races this year, primarily

because he and his Winston Cup crew chief, Ray Evernhan, formed

their own Busch team during the off-season and secured a $1.5

million sponsorship from Pepsi for Gordon's appearance in a

handful of races.

The downside to competing in the Busch races for Gordon and

other big-name drivers is the risk of an injury that could

hamper or ruin their Winston Cup title prospects. Last Friday,

Bobby Labonte broke his right collarbone while qualifying for

the Busch race and had to shorten his time behind the wheel in

Sunday's Winston Cup race. In Gordon's case the marquee name for

all NASCAR racing could be knocked out of action. "They're

making [an extra] half-million dollars a year each, that's what

they're doing," LaJoie says of the stars. "What might put an end

to it is if one of them does get hurt on a Saturday."

Tennis and golf don't allow Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods,

respectively, to enter satellite tour events. "This is the only

sport that allows such a thing," says LaJoie. "Let us have our

series back."

Dale Earnhardt Jr.

CAN'T STAND SUCCESS

Dale Earnhardt's life as the most-heralded, best-financed

Winston Cup prospect in the history of NASCAR has become, he

says, "an overwhelming pain in the ass." Earnhardt, 24, is the

reigning Busch Series champion, where he won seven races last

year, but heading into Saturday's Coca-Cola 300 at Texas Motor

Speedway, site of his inaugural victory last April, he's winless

through five races this season.

"A lot of people say, 'You ought to be grateful, man. You've got

the opportunity of a lifetime, blah, blah,'" Earnhardt says,

"but they don't have to walk in these shoes. You can't eat, you

can't sleep, you can't do anything without thinking about

it--and dreading that life will never be like it was. A lot of

advantages and rewards come with this [situation], but hell,

you're so busy you don't have time to enjoy it. So sometimes you

wonder, what the hell good is it?"

On May 30, in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, Earnhardt will

make his Winston Cup debut under an eight-year, $80 million

sponsorship from Budweiser. A huge publicity

campaign--"Countdown to E-Day"--is planned. "Hell week" is what

he says he's anticipating.

"I'm not as good as I was last year," says Earnhardt, who has

finished 14th, 35th, sixth, third and 11th this season. "I'm not

as focused. Once the race gets going, I come around. But right

off the bat it's hard to go at it like I did last year. I'm not

burned out--just thinking about everything."

Little E, as the son of NASCAR driving legend Dale Earnhardt is

known, says the relentless travel and flesh-pressing

appearances, usually on behalf of sponsors, have left his head

spinning. "I'm carrying two loads," he says. "I'm doing Busch

sponsors and Cup sponsors. So I'm doing 60 to 70 appearances

this year." The younger Earnhardt also has his schedule of 32

Busch races and five Cup events. "As soon as I get home from a

race, I'm packing to go somewhere else," he says. "There's no

damn way I can remember all the people I'm meeting. It clouds my

mind, and I forget half of what I've learned about driving race

cars. Every time I get in a car to qualify, it's like I'm doing

it for the first time."

When asked if he talks to Big E about all this, Dale Jr.

replies, "If I try to talk to my dad about it, his answer to

that is probably that I'm not half as busy as he is, so I better

keep my mouth shut. He says I've got it easy.

"This is just a tough part of my life right now. Maybe it will

ease up next year," Dale Jr. says and then pauses, pondering

2000, his first full year on the Winston Cup circuit and all

that will be expected of the son of a seven-time Cup champion.

"Maybe next year might not be the time [when things ease up],"

he says, "but the year after that, maybe the vise will loosen

somewhat."

TranSouth 400

ALL WET AND HAPPY ABOUT IT

Another Jeff--Burton, not Gordon--is the hottest driver on the

Winston Cup tour. With Sunday's victory in the rain-shortened

TranSouth 400 at Darlington, Burton now has won two of the last

three races and sits atop the point standings heading into this

week's Primestar 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. His teammate and

kindred dour spirit, Mark Martin, won last year's Texas race.

Martin treats every visit to victory lane as if it were his last,

and Burton, who has never won back-to-back Winston Cup races,

likewise tends to expect the worst.

"We're always pessimistic," says Burton. "I'm this way by nature.

The better you get, the more you expect of yourself and therefore

the more you're open for disappointment. It's a miserable way to

live sometimes. My poor wife [Kim] wants to go out and celebrate

every time we win, and I won't let her. It's just the way I feel

I have to be."

So imagine Burton's reaction on Sunday when, with rain clouds

moving in and threatening to shorten the scheduled 293-lap race,

his front-running Ford Taurus got caught in a five-car pileup.

The right side of his car suffered extensive damage when it

smacked the wall, but he kept the car under control long enough

to stay in the lead after the caution flag came out. He then

steered to the track's apron, climbed out and began gesticulating

and fuming at himself. He knew that if the race resumed, he'd

fall off the pace. But then he felt the raindrops and began

gesturing skyward, pleading for the clouds to burst. They did.

"Hell, yes, I was waving for the rain to come on," he said. "I

was mad because I was afraid it wasn't going to rain very long. I

knew we'd had the best car [he led for the most laps, 59 of the

164 completed], and we'd done the best job in the pits. We would

have finished last if it hadn't rained. So I was mad at myself."

Even in victory, Burton didn't get overly optimistic. "We had

this car [the one he'd just wrecked at Darlington] slated to take

to Texas," he said. "Now it's torn up badly. We're very

disappointed that we can't take it." He drove his backup car to a

fourth-place finish at Atlanta on March 14.

"We're on a roll right now," Burton conceded, "but things can

still go wrong. They can go the other way even quicker than they

came this way."

COLOR PHOTO: GEORGE TIEDEMANN Gordon, who's co-owner of a Busch car and backed by a $1.5 million sponsorship, plans to run in five of the series' races this season.

COLOR PHOTO: NIGEL KINRADE Ordinarily comfortable behind the wheel, Dale Jr. feels as if he's behind the eight ball this season.

THE Deal

63

Days between the IRL's season-opening race, on Jan. 24 in

Orlando, and its second race, scheduled for March 28 in Phoenix.

Formula One's longest layoff this season is 35 days, CART's is

21 days and NASCAR's is 14.