Speedway Fast Becoming Super-Sized

FONTANA —  They keep building more seats at California Speedway and NASCAR fans keep filling them.

Since Jeremy Mayfield’s controversial victory last year before a sellout crowd, 5,875 grandstand seats have been added, increasing the seating capacity to 92,109. Add an additional 20,000 or so in the infield and today’s Winston Cup NAPA Auto Parts 500 will have the largest attendance of any sporting event in California this year.

It also will be the loudest.

At 11:30 a.m., 43 cars, each with an 8,000-horsepower engine, will begin a 500-mile, 250-lap race around the D-shaped two-mile oval on the grounds of a former Kaiser steel mill.

At stake will be victory in the 10th race of the Winston Cup season, a purse of nearly $4 million and precious points toward the season’s $13-million payout.

Defending Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte, winless in nine races, showed he may be ripe for a victory when he put one of Joe Gibbs’ Pontiacs on the pole with a 182.635-mph qualifying lap.

“I don’t want to jinx myself [by talking about winning], but man, it sure would be nice,” said the soft-spoken Texan. “We’ve finished third and second here two races in a row. It would be great to come out with a win.”

Labonte isn’t the only NASCAR standout without a victory.

Mark Martin, a winner here in 1998, wants to break out of a losing streak and join Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler as winning Ford drivers.

“Winning at California is no different from everywhere else, you got to get through the corners fast and have a car that is secure,” said Martin, who drives the No. 6 Viagra Taurus. “By secure, I mean it has to turn well. The straightaways are long and you’ve got to get down those, too, but where you really win and lose is going through those turns.”

Jarrett, the 1999 Winston Cup champion, is the season’s only multiple winner, having taken the checkered flag at Darlington, Texas and Martinsville. His best finish here was a fifth in 1999. Today, he will be in the car that won at Darlington and Texas.

“Everywhere we’ve taken this car, we’ve run well,” Jarrett said. “We had the pole and could have won.”

Jarrett was in the middle of a five-car battle at Atlanta with two laps to go and finished fourth.

If past performances at California Speedway are significant, Jeff Gordon and Mayfield are candidates for victory.

Gordon won in 1997 and 1999. He has finished in the top five three times in four races. Even though Gordon is starting from the 17th position, the three-time Winston Cup champion is enthusiastic about his chances.

“We have a great car, I just messed up a little in qualifying, but Jeremy [Mayfield] showed you can come from way back here,” Gordon said.

Mayfield started 24th last year and fell a lap behind before beginning a remarkable run to victory. Today he will start third, his highest start of what has been a disappointing season.

“I feel like it’s a place that we like, a race track we feel good about, so if we just play our cards right and be there at the end, hopefully we’ll have a shot to win,” said Mayfield, who has two third-place finishes, but also six of 22nd or worse.

“We’re 28th in points, but we have the potential to be a good, up-front race team week-in and week-out.”

Mayfield will be in a different car from last year. It has been raced only once, at Las Vegas, where he qualified 14th and after colliding with Penske Racing teammate Rusty Wallace, finished 42nd.

Wallace, the other Penske team driver, is sixth in season points, but hasn’t been close to a win since finishing third in the tragic Daytona 500 where he trailed Michael Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

“I’m running ‘Mad Max’ and hope it does better than it’s done this year,” Wallace said. The car got its name from Wallace when he drove it to a second-place finish in the Brickyard 400, a race he felt he should have won. The Ford redeemed itself when Wallace won at Michigan.

Waltrip has been in a slump since winning the Daytona 500, but if it’s true that lap time is important, he should do well today.

Waltrip has logged more miles around California Speedway than any driver in today’s race. He has completed 3,496 miles, 1,988 in Winston Cup, 1,196 in the Busch series and 312 in Craftsman Trucks.

Since Daytona, however, Waltrip has not finished better than 13th in eight races.

Also prominent in today’s race will be three West Coast rookies, Kevin Harvick of Bakersfield, Kurt Busch of Las Vegas and Ron Hornaday of Palmdale. Harvick, the replacement for Dale Earnhardt on Richard Childress’ team, has a win at Atlanta and is leading in rookie points.