Truck Tests at Martinsville for Hanes 250
18 September 1997
TWENTY-TWO CHEVROLET TRUCKS TEST AT MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY FOR HANES 250 Martinsville, VA- It was almost like race day at Martinsville Speedway on Tuesday as 22 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chevrolet teams tested for the Hanes 250 on Saturday, Sept. 27. The gathering included the top three teams in the Craftsman Truck Series points standings Jack Sprague, Rich Bickle and Ron Hornaday, Jr. Bickle, however, never got in the truck as he was recovering from an appendectomy last Thursday. Dave Rezendes tested for Bickle. "I'm on injured reserved. I'll make a couple of laps tomorrow and that will be it for me," said Bickle who was still experiencing discomfort from the operation. "It's kind of different standing on the inside watching your truck go around the track." Bickle, with 2,966 points, is 95 points behind leader Jack Sprague in the Craftsman Truck Series standings. Bickle thinks the DieHard Batteries team has a shot at narrowing that gap at Martinsville. "This is one of our better shots at running well. I like the race track," he said. "I ran good in my All-Pro car and everything I've been here with. It's kind of a finesse and driver's track." Hornaday had good times in practice despite not making any qualifying runs as he spent the day testing brakes. "We've done everything we need to do chassis-wise and now we are trying different brake pads and stuff like that," Hornaday said. "This is the truck we wanted to bring last year and we got to bring it this time, so we are pretty excited." Martinsville is one race Hornaday said he really looks forward to. "It's good fun. It's short track racing. Dale (Earnhardt) already warned me about this truck going in the museum, so I can't tear it up too much. We are going to have to make clean passes all day and qualify up front." Others testing were Brad Teague, Kirk Shelmerdine, Bobby Hamilton, Jay Sauter, Wayne Grubb, Bill Sedgwick, Ernie Cope, Butch Miller, Kelly Denton, David Green, Jeff Spraker, Mike Wallace, Kevin Grubb, Randy Tolsma, Blaise Alexander, Andy Houston, Rick Markle, Philip Morris and Jamie Skinner. Points leader Sprague and the Quaker State Chevrolet team spend the day choosing which of two trucks they would run in the Hanes 250. Sprague said the truck they ran at Richmond has finished good everywhere it's been, but the team was hoping to save it for the next trip out west. But it was the fastest truck. "We haven't really been working on anything. We are just trying to figure out which one we are going to run," said the 33-year-old native of Spring Lake, MI. Sprague finished third a year ago in the Hanes 250 so he's hoping his performance this time will preserve his points advantage after Martinsville. "I don't think it will hurt, but I don't know that it will help," he said of racing at Martinsville. "The two guys we are racing for this thing run good here too. We run good here and we finished third here last year." Hornaday finished fourth and Bickle was seventh a year ago. Testing included a couple of Winston Cup drivers who will pull double duty on the Hanes 500/250 weekend. The Hanes 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race begins at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28. Green, who injured his shoulder at Bristol's Winston Cup race in August, turned good laps today in the Redman Chevrolet. "I think I'm going to be OK with my arm, but I don't want to jeopardize anything. I wish the race was a couple of weeks farther away," said the past Martinsville winner in the All-Pro division. "I failed to make the Winston Cup race here in the spring, so I'm using this as a little extra practice time. So far so good. The 'ol track hasn't changed. It's still the animal it's always been." Hamilton, driver of the STP Pontiac on the Winston Cup Circuit, set the Martinsville Craftsman Truck Series qualifying record at 92.101 miles per hour in 1996, but said that doesn't mean anything this year. "We just hope to qualify," said Hamilton, who will drive the Southern Pride Trucking Chevrolet in the Hanes 250. "The truck is driving good, and Martinsville is a pretty unique place if you get it driving good you can usually pull off a good lap." The Hanes 250 Truck Series race begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 27 and tickets are $25 each for adults and tickets for children ages six to 12 are $5. Children under six years of age are admitted free with a paying adult. The speedway still has $35 seats available for the Hanes 500. The 8,000 unreserved seats that go on sale race morning at 7:30 for the Hanes 500 are $30 each. Children ages six to 12 can sit in the unreserved section for $5. By Martinsville Speedway Public Relations
