Making racing fun again
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Dave Rodman
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By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
January 21, 2002
11:49 AM EST (1649 GMT)
COMMENTARY
Ron Hornaday was having fun. It wasn't hard to tell, hanging around the Hendrick Motorsports garage stall at Daytona International Speedway, that he and veteran mechanic Doug Richert had something special going on.
The fact that they had a very fast Chevrolet truck to tune had something to do with it, but not everything.
A lot of it probably comes with having nothing to prove to anyone. Hornaday and Richert have multiple championships on each of their resumes, so the fact all they have working is a one-shot, one-race deal for the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 is somewhat shocking.
But there was no mistaking the smiles -- even though neither has anything solid to look forward to later this year. Just getting back into a garage area and getting hands on steering wheels and wrenches, out in the field, is the best medicine anyone in racing could ask for.
Sunday was a quiet day in the Winston Cup garage, which was filling with a trickle of Busch Series cars and equipment throughout the day, readying for Monday's testing. Jack Sprague strolled about, chatting with crewmen, competitors and bystanders alike.
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Tim Fedewa
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He was in his element and he was enjoying it.
"I think everybody's excited just to be back at the race track," Sprague said, two months removed from winning his third Craftsman Truck Series championship and ready to get back at it. "Everybody wishes the years would be over and then when they're over two weeks later everybody wishes we were still racing. Include me in that number."
From the fans' standpoint, some heavy salivating started last weekend with the Busch Series Preview in Charlotte and the T. Wayne Robertson NASCAR Winston Cup Preview in Winston-Salem. Hey, it's only 26-some days until the Daytona 500.
And holy smokes -- that means the beginning of stock car Speedweeks is only two and a half weeks away. So it's no surprise there were a lot of smiling faces at Daytona.
Back in the truck garage, Bobby Hamilton was having fun. Heck, he had four trucks at his disposal and no matter how much he had promised his three drivers he would stay out of their seats -- well, he's the owner, and if he wants to have fun he's entitled.
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Ron Hornaday (left) with Doug Richert
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Tim Fedewa was having fun for the moment, getting to test one of Jack Roush's top-notch Ford trucks before getting back to the real world activity of beating the phone lines looking for sponsorship.
Ted Musgrave had a lot of fun last season. Even though he and truck series newcomer Robert Pressley and the rest of the Dodge boys might struggle a little with a new body package, no doubt they will find out how much fun it can be, racing at the front week in and week out.
Even evergreen Joe Ruttman was having a ball, after a last-minute phone call brought him to Daytona to test a truck, sight unseen, that has the potential to contend for Ruttman's second straight Daytona win.
Fedewa, on the other hand, is in the camp that goes back to reality this week, and that's no fun. The brutal hunt for funding is no thrill, and everyone -- from highly credentialed entities such as Roush Racing to race-winning hopefuls like RDS Motorsports, which tested Ruttman; and dozens of drivers that hope to have fun again -- is beating the bushes.
Just ask Geoffrey Bodine, who has struggled to have more than a smidgen of fun the last couple years after a wild crash in the Daytona Truck Series inaugural put his career virtually on hold.
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Joe Ruttman
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And Morgan Shepherd, who has so much fun racing he reportedly took to selling off some of his stock of collectible cars to fund his habit last year.
Who knows how much fun this week's Busch testing will be? For some, such as Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose first run on the race track netted a speed of more than 182 mph, it'll be nothin' but a party.
And how will it be for everyone else? Check back in two and a half weeks, when the gates will be open and the wide smiles will be numerous.
And unfortunately for those whose hunt is unfulfilled, their faces will be absent, or eclipsed by broader grins.
NOTE: Dave Rodman is a staff writer for NASCAR.com and his column appears every Monday. The opinions listed here are those solely of the writer. To provide feedback to Dave, email him at dave.rodman@turner.com.
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