When Ford announced Thunderbird production would be suspended at the end of the '97 model year, Winston Cup fans fretted about what would become of the blue oval in NASCAR Winston Cup racing. NASCAR and Ford were also more than a little concerned: Ford didn't relish the idea of promoting an out-of-production model, and NASCAR was afraid of Ford staying home until the next Thunderbird debuted in '00. The answer arrived in the form of the Ford Taurus. Or at least the Winston Cup interpretation of the Taurus. Similar versions of the car pictured above will initially appear in competition in the '98 Daytona 500.

Ford says this is the first time a "four-door" (or more accurately, since no part of a Winston Cup car is stock and it has no doors, a "race car loosely based on a four-door street car") has been permitted in NASCAR's premier division since the '50s. The racing Taurus body fits on existing Thunderbird Winston Cup chassis so, compared to the production car, the racer has a longer hood, a higher decklid, and repositioned wheel openings, among other major differences.

From the Thunderbird's reintroduction to Winston Cup in '78 until mid-'97, the model had won 176 Winston races, including five Daytona 500s. NASCAR will continue to permit Thunderbirds through the '99 season, but Ford's contingency program will focus strictly on the Taurus. Chevrolet says it has no plans to switch from the Monte Carlo to the Lumina.

Spiral GyrationsTradition says many oval tracks were designed by laying two silver dollars side by side and penciling around the edges. This cocktail-napkin blueprint was then presented to a bulldozer operator, along with payment of a case of his favorite carbonated malt beverage. The result, especially if the Cat driver was sampling his compensation, could be anything from egg-shaped to a near-circular trapezium with four subtly but diabolically distinct radii. Add in banking variations and some ovals-Cajon Speedway in California comes to mind-seem more like road courses without right turns. Even if the track was perfectly symmetrical, abrupt transitions between straights and single-radius corners often choked the racing groove to a single lane.

However, three new tracks-California Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Pikes Peak International Raceway-employ a fresh theory in track design. Called "spiral curves" by its designers, FRP Engineers/Architects of Indianapolis, it replaces sudden transitions with progressive radius changes. Designed to mellow the change in centrifugal force, the new corners are similar to the arc race drivers take when negotiating a straightaway-to-corner transition on conventional ovals: Progressively tighter to the apex, then of increasing radius onto the straight. As a result, the new tracks are more like true ovals than are traditional speedways.

Whether the new designs will produce multi-groove side-by-side racing, as was the main purpose, remains to be proven, but an undeniable side benefit is improved spectator viewing. At a traditional oval, the main grandstand is as straight as that at a high-school football field: When looking down track from the Turn Four end to Turn One, spectators find themselves examining the backs of other fans' heads. The new design pulls the straights away from the infield and helps produce curved grandstands that allow unobstructed viewing.

Full-Scale Monopoly GameSome of the best competition in auto racing occurs off the track, like the full-scale Monopoly game being played by Bruton Smith, Roger Penske, and the France family. Instead of acquiring Park Place and Reading Railroad, the goal in this game is to see who can own the most racetracks. Having a Winston Cup race at a track is like owning Boardwalk loaded with hotels.

At the beginning of the year, the score had the International Speedway Corporation (ISC-largely owned by the France family which also owns NASCAR) holding Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Darlington Speedway, Watkins Glen International, and Tucson Raceway Park (in addition to MRN Radio and a notable interest in Penske Motorsports). Penske Motorsports had Michigan and Nazareth. Smith's Speedway Motorsports boasted Charlotte, Atlanta, and Bristol Motor Speedways, as well as half of North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Then Smith opened the new Texas Motor Speedway, and Penske countered with the just-minted California Speedway. The next move saw Smith acquiring operating rights to Sears Point International Raceway.

Since early this year, Penske and Smith have battled for control of North Carolina Motor Speedway, commonly called Rockingham. For its move, ISC purchased Phoenix International Raceway, besting Smith's bid with a reported offer of more than $60 million. Then Penske Motorsports and ISC each purchased a 40-percent interest in Homestead-Miami Speedway. It's been said ISC is also investigating building speedways near Kansas City, Sacramento, and Chicago, the latter possibly in partnership with Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp. and IRL team owner and hardware-store magnate John Menard.

Wait, there's more: Penske and ISC combined to purchase 7 percent of stock of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach, Chris Pook's group, which owns Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis and Memphis Motorsport Park, in addition to its namesake street race.

Together the ISC/Penske/Speedway Motorsports triumvirate now controls two thirds of NASCAR Winston Cup tracks.

Fourth TurnSpec Tire Rule Goes Big Time: "Spec" tire rules have long been popular for low-budget classes: Regulations that limit competitors to a single tire supplier usually reduce racers' costs and improve competition for the fans. Now, NASCAR's top divisions-Winston Cup, Busch Series, and Craftsman Truck Series-have adopted a spec tire rule: Goodyear is the "Exclusive Tire Supplier" for these three series for the next three years. This rule will allow Goodyear to focus on producing reliable, long-lived (but not necessarily the quickest) tires without concern that another maker (say, CART, IRL, and Formula One supplier Bridgestone/Firestone) might suddenly show up with stickier, faster tires.