NASCAR WCUP: Floyd Is This Week's Opponent; Storm Won't Stop Preparation for Loudon, Dover
15 September 1999
(Mooresville, N.C.) -- The Pennzoil Monte Carlo team knows success at New Hampshire this weekend depends on beating 42 other competitors, but there's a new name on the NASCAR circuit- Floyd. The powerful Category 4 hurricane is expected to bear down on the Carolinas Thursday and already the Dale Earnhardt Inc. team is busy making preparations. Racing veterans have been through hurricanes before and know they can make an already hectic schedule even worse. The team must be ready for New Hampshire on Sunday and Dover on Sept. 26. Keeping the 108,000-square-foot Pennzoil shop, a 75,000-square-foot-Budweiser shop, a gift shop, Busch and truck shops as well as several other buildings is quite a task at DEI. Steve Hmiel, DEI Technical Director: "When Hugo came we were never out of power up in Liberty N.C. but when Fran came through in 1996 we were without power from Thursday until about Tuesday. We had to be at the next race on Thursday so we kind of had to jump through hoops all week just to get our stuff ready. I can think of a few hurricanes in that have messed up racing. I remember in 1979 when David came through it was neat because David Pearson won the Southern 500 that weekend and they kept calling him Hurricane David. We are kind of used to it but it sure can mess you up if it were to knock out power for too long. Thankfully, Dale has our Pennzoil shop secure with the big generator so we should be OK, but it's looking pretty rough for the folks around here." Nathan Sims, DEI's Vice President of Building Development: "How serious are we taking this? Let's put it this way we began our hurricane meeting this morning with 'Our Father who art in heaven...' " Cindy Sims, DEI Property Manager: "We had a meeting this morning with our security and facilities people. We are moving everything that could possibly be blown by the wind or that could go through the glass of the buildings. That includes sheet metal, trashcans, barricades, anything off the roof, and just about anything that isn't tied down. We have a 500-Kilowatt generator that has 2,000 gallons of fuel. It can power a small town so if the storm were to knock out power like Hugo did a few years ago we will be OK. We can keep power supplied as long as we have fuel. We have to have power to keep the shop guys working and getting the Pennzoil cars ready for Dover right after New Hampshire when the road crew gets back in the shop Monday morning. Water shouldn't be much of a problem either. We have our own water system and supply tank so we could go for days and days. The only thing we really have to worry about is our personnel and making sure they can get to work." Ty Norris, DEI Director of Motorsports: "The Pennzoil team is supposed to fly out at 3 p.m. on Thursday and I don't know if that is going to change. Its tough because you want to leave early to beat the storm, but you also have to remember that all these guys have family and property that they want to make sure is going to survive anything that happens. Right now we are just in a wait and see mode." Race Information Race: Sunday, September 19th, 1999 in Loudon, NH TV: TNN 12:30pm/et 1998 Race Winner: Jeff Gordon Track/Race Length: 1.058 mile oval, 300 laps, 317.4 miles Practice: Friday, Sept 17th, 12:30 - 3:30pm/et; Saturday, Sept 18th, 8:30 - 10:30am/et Happy Hour Practice: Saturday, Sept 18th, for 1 hour after the BGNN race, TV-? First Round Qualifying: 1 lap for positions 1-25, Friday, Sept 17th at 4:00pm/et, TV-? and live via MRN radio Second-Round Qualifying: Saturday, Sept 18th at 11:00am/et for 1 lap, positions 26-36 Event Qualifying Record: Kenny Schrader, September 1997, 129.182mph Track Qualifying Record: Schrader, September 1997, 129.182mph Last Year's Pole Sitter: Jeff Gordon, 129.033mph
Editors Note: For hundreds of hot racing photos and racing art, be sure to visit The Racing ImageGalleries and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.