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NASCAR-BGN: St. Patrick's Day Not the Luck of the NASCAR Driver

17 March 1999

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 17) - This week we celebrate St. Patrick's Day in honor of the death of Saint Patrick, the missionary who brought Christianity to Ireland. To participate in the tradition means wearing green. However, it might be difficult to find a NASCAR driver wearing green.

Just as we have our tradition of donning green clothing on this day, green has become a sign of bad luck to drivers. This superstition has been looming over motorsports for as long as NASCAR Busch Series driver Glenn Allen can remember.

"I know everyone in racing says green is bad luck," Allen said. "That's just what I was told as a child. I don't know who started it. But I have raced in green cars and won in green cars so I don't think it's bad luck for me."

Don't expect Team Barbasol to don green colors on St. Patrick's Day. The crew is as superstitious as any. For example, the team made weekly trips to a local Chinese restaurant from the beginning of the season through the Sam's Town 300. A rough showing in Daytona and the failure to make the starting grids in Rockingham and Las Vegas made the team think twice about visiting the restaurant prior to the Yellow Freight 300.

The team did skip its weekly visit, and Allen finished eighth at Atlanta, posting the team's first top-10 finish of the season. The Barbasol crew believes the food was the jinx, but Allen still snuck out for an egg roll or two.

"I was craving Chinese last week and had to take my wife with me because I knew the guys just wouldn't go."

The team obviously does not believe the car it was going to field at Rockingham had bad karma because it will use that car again.

"We are bringing our Rockingham car that didn't get to see the race because of the qualifying rain out," Allen said. "But when we practiced we were 14th fastest and only getting better. I think this Barbasol Ford will have a good qualifying run and be very competitive for the race at Darlington."

There will be only one round of qualifying for the Diamond Hill Plywood 200, and it will be Friday at 2 p.m. The race begins Saturday at 1 p.m. MRN will provide live radio coverage, and ESPN will air the race at 5:30 p.m.