OPINION, SPECULATION AND RUMOUR ON NASCAR & NASCAR MODELLING - BY Mr. NASCAR

I got to a race at MIS, first in 5 years. Lot more seats, now it takes five hours, rather than three, to get out... Racin' was good...The souvenir thing is huge, these days - even in '93, it was still only 8 - 10 trailers... now it rivals the midway at Toronto's CNE! (Bought a Tony Stewart souvenir... more on that below...)

When I began puttin' NASCAR Corner together back in 1993, for the Group 25 NEWSLETTER, I had no idea I'd still be doin' it six years and 29 columns later... Welcome to "V30.0" of NASCAR Corner.

The 1999 Season - Summer Slammin':
A good season of racing just gets better, but, Man! It's goin' by fast! Thirty-two races in, two to go... In spite of five wins, Gordon is mired in fourth, just ahead of Rookie phenome Tony Stewart. Tony won his first ot Richmond, then Sunday at Phoenix - the world is unfolding as expected... My buddy DJ still has the Ford Credit/Quality Care Taurus thingie out front of Bobby Labonte and perennial bridesmaid Mark Martin. Labonte and Martin keep stringin' together Top Tens, but DJ keeps finishin' in the top five, and looks unstoppable.

Dale punted Terry, all Hell broke loose...

Earnhardt took Bristol in very controversial fashion, punting final lap leader Terry Labonte out of the way to take the win, then, a few weeks later, flat-out outgunned and outdrafted everyone at Talledega. Thet boy ain't ready to be wrote off yet!!. Rusty and Jeremy (Penske-Haas) are hardly a factor this year, and Joe Gibbs continues to have the best one-two punch on the track. Look for him to become the New Millenium's Rick Hendrick, folks...

The Biggie , of course, was Evernham and Gordon parting ways, as Ray has left Hendrick, to develop Chrysler's 2001 return to NASCAR (hooray!!). It's even said he'll come away from that with his own two, or three, car team under the Pentastar. Petty Enterprises is a natural to switch to Chrysler, but Penske-Haas and Joe Gibbs' Racing also keep getting mentioned...

Five of these guys won't be here in '00...

FLASH!! Just heard (Nov 2nd) that FIVE of Gordon's "Rainbow Warriors" over-the-wall pit crew were hired away by Yates, to provide pit road service to DJ! Poor Gordon, a couple went with Ray Evernham earlier, now this... Hard to believe a team that strong is now faced with a MAJOR restaffing chore! Wonder what happened? More money from Yates?... vs Hendick?? not likely... Sensing the dynasty comin' apart, and its best to bail early?? maybe... Hendrick team environment???... ain't nobody sayin'....

Driver changes began in earnest over past several weeks, as fallout from disappointing results, injuries, and repositioning due to "Y2K Silly Season" antics are in swing:

• Ernie Irvan had a bad hit in practice at MIS, and Nadeau has been piloting the M&M's ride. Sadly, but, I believe for the best, Ernie has since announced his retirement. Here's hopin' he can parlay his experience into a successful career as an owner!!
• David Green has been released from the #41 KODIAK ride... Dick Trickle will supposedly finish out the '99 season here...
• Rich Bickle has been released from the 10-10-345 ride... David Green named new driver named as of Sept 15th..
• After signing with Hendrick for 2000, Nadeau was released from MELLING, and replaced by Steve Grissom at Michigan in August.
• Grissom, in turn, has just been replaced at MELLING by Rich Bickle, who had been released by the 10-10-345 team (above)... and the Musical Chairs continues...
• After a season-and-a-half of mutual frustration, Derricke Cope was released from the #30 ride, formerly Bahari, now owned by Eel River. Todd Bodine entered the 30 car in several races, and did pretty good, Mike Bliss has also filled in....
• Junie Donlavy (90) and Joe Falk (91) have not been makin' the trek to all the tracks... still strugglin' for sponsors... and nuthin' in place for 2000...

• Kenny Irwin will not return to the Havoline car of Rabert Yates in '00, Ricky Rudd will be Robert's new shoe...
• Wally Dallenbach will not return to the Hendrick-owned #25 BUD car in '00. Nor will Budweiser. Jerry Nadeau will pilot the 25 car, with a new sponsor to NASCAR, Holinger Homes.
• Kenny Schrader shook up the troops, opting out of his "iron-clad" contract with Andy Petree's 33 team, and will take over the M&M's car in '00...
• Joe Nemechek, in spite of getting his first win, will not be retained at SABCO. He will resurface in the #33 Oakwood Homes car of Andy Petree.
• Kenny Irwin has bounced back, and will take over in the ex-Nemechek SABCO #42 BellSouth Chevy.
• A.J.Foyt is gettin' into the NASCAR owner role in '00. He has just signed Mike Bliss to drive the 14 car with CONSECO sponsorship.
• Derricke Cope has resurfaced in the #15 Fenley-Moore (formerly Bud Moore) ride, still sponsor-huntin'.
• As we all know Dale Earnhardt Jr ("Little E") will jump to WC fulltime in the #8 BUD-sponsored car, as a team mate to Steve PArk on his dad's team...
• Matt Kenseth will give "Little E" a run for the Rookie thing, in the #17 DeWalt Tools car. Entire crew is movin' up with the team from BGN - thy've looked impressive in some runs this year...
• Scott Pruett has bolted from CART ranks to be the '00 shoe for Cal Wells' shiny new #32 TIDE team... (After what happened to poor Greg Moore on Oct 31st, I'd be lookin' to follow his move if I were a CART driver...)
• Dave Blaney will move up in the #93 AMOCO car as a team mate to Ward Burton, and go for RotY. (Say... can Scott Pruett get in on this RotY thing??)
• Hut Stricklin's dreams for a little security were dashed,when MotorSports Safety Technology, who'd been announced as the 2000 sponsor for the Scott Barbour-owned #58 team for which Hut was slated to drive, did not come through with any cash. Barbour has closed down the team, and laid everyone off... (So ya wanna be a race crew member, huh??)
• Car owner Larry Hedrick (#41 Kodiak in '99) is facing 2000 with no sponsor, and no driver to replace David green, whom he released earlier.

  New duds fer The King's cars...

• The familiar STP colours on The King's #43 will give way midseaon to a yellow/Blue Cheerios/STP scheme... John Andretti looks set for life there...
• Brett Bodine is ready to pack in the owner-driver thing, and is selling his team, reportedly to Richard Hilton. Brett is planning to stay on as driver in the 11 car, but PAYCHEX is gone. (Remember, brother Geoffrey did same last year, and was on the street by year-end...) Butch Gilliland may be his team mate in the #38, as yet unsponsored also, car...
• Johnny Benson has asked for his release at the end of the season, and is job-hunting. The 26 team will fold.
• Wally Dallenbach has signed a 3-year deal to drive the 75 car in '00, bumping Ted Musgrave. This is the first time Wally has ever had a deal this early, and his first multiyear deal - he's pretty excited....

Tony-mania!!
Tony Stewart has become the biggest name in NASCAR this year. Hotshot driver, fiery temper - he's a change from the cookiecutter drivers that we're used to... His numbers to date surpass those set by Jeff Gordon six years ago by half, and he has one win, something JG did not accomplish in his rookie year. I accompanied Group 25's Three Amigos to the Woodward Cruise and the August Michigan race, and, at the race, Stewart's trailer was as mobbed as those of Gordon and Earnhardt.

I picked up a spiffy little (actually XX-large) Tony Stewart T-shirt, resplendant in orange and black, with lotsa splash graphics... seemed like a good idea at the time.. but it sure gets funny stares in the local malls.. from people who make me nervous.... Now I know how my daughter felt when she came home from Toronto to Oshawa for summer vacation with orange and purple hair.... WHAT WERE WE THINKING???...and my wife won't be seen in public with me wearing it...

SLIXX released the Stewart decals halfway thru the summer. I tried a number of local shops, and mail order houses in the US, but they had sold out as soon as they'd come in... Went on E-Bay and watched in amazement as the first set to appear got bid up to US$25.00! Things did settle down after a couple weeks, however, and I snagged 2 sets off E-Bay for about US$14.00. Quite nice.. and Dave Evans has pointed out that Tamiya's TS12 Aerosol is an excellent match to HOME DEPOT orange. Grabbed me a can of that before IT all disappeared... Now I'm ready.... Have heard subsequently from Dave that the decals do not hide well, looks like i may need both sets to the orange bits... we'll see...

What's new, Revellogram??:
This is what I'd written in Mid- October to cover this part of the column:
"Here we are, into the tenth month of 1999, and there has been no new NASCAR release from Monogram of any '99 season cars. Things are lookin' a mite ugly for the NASCAR scene. The reason given for no new releases was quite remarkable, according to an e-mail I got from someone who is well-connected in the hobby:

"...a close-in source at R-M told me that the problem is that after they got the OK for the ambitious '99 release schedule, they got shut down by managment when they tried to hire on some new designers, and most importantly, pattern makers. So, they have about 50% greater new releases, but no new help to get the engineering and tooling done. Got caught between the proverbial rock and hard place.

My source, who's up there, says that they plan to continue with all the announced models, but they just won't be able to get them out as fast as they hoped. So far, there are NO cancellations except the John Mazmanian '41 Willys coupe . ...As far as the NASCAR kits are concerned, the problem is that Racing Champions and the other diecast companies tied up a lot of the licensing, and Revell was left at the grid... Big SNAFU..."

Add to this the information from Bill Coulter's column at MODELCARHUB that Monogram has laid of 1/3rd of their staff, and the situation is bleak, bleak, bleak..."

As I said above, that was I'd written in about mid October, when I started this column. But I'm glad I got delayed in puttin' it out, 'cause I'm feeling MUCH BETTER NOW... Just looked at the Chicago Show write-up atMODELCARHUB and they may be late, but its GONNA BE GREAT!!! Looks like REVELLOGRAM got their act together, and besides them there are a few other companied puttin' out stuff that will be destined for NASCARification....

Here are Monogram's announcements for Jan - Jun 2000:

• "Next Generation" Dupont Monte Carlo #24 - 1/24th scale
• "Next Generation" Goodwrench Monte Carlo #3 - 1/24th
• "Next Generation" Lowes Monte Carlo #31 - 1/24th

  Revell ARE doin' a Taurus!!

• "Next Generation" Valvoline Taurus #6 - 1/24th
• #20 HOME DEPOT Pontiac - 1/24th (current body carries over)
• #18 INTERSTATE Pontiac - 1/24th (current body carries over)
• #22 CATERPILLAR Pontiac - 1/24th (current body carries over)
• #28 HAVOLINE 1988 T-Bird - 1/24th (with Davey Allison figure!)
• Generic LUMINA Stock car - 1/24th (Reissue with SLIXX coupon!)

And here's another biggie!! Accurate Miniatures, are planning 2000 Taurus and Monte stockers. Here's a note from Marc Brzezicki from Randy Ayer's Modeling Forum:

"The NASCAR kits from Accurate Miniatures looked so good. They are releasing a snap tight version as well as a glue together. The glue together kit has:

• 1. An all new seat that has those extensions to protect the drivers legs and ribs.
• 2. A battery in the battery compartment.
• 3. detailed fuel cell with the fuel fill hose as well as overflow.
• 4. The new cool box aircleaner.
• 5. new detailed radiator and air intake assembly.
• 5. Rods included for the wedge and panhard bar adjustment.
• 6. Correct front suspension with seperate anti-roll bar.
• 7. Rear suspension with limit chains, snubbers, shocks and springs.
• 8. New style oil cooler behind the drivers seat.
• 9. A better detailed window net.
• 10. The dashboard is clear. You apply decals for the gages to the back of the dashboard. Mask the dial front then paint the dashboard, remove the masking and you have a dashboard that looks like it has glass in front of the instruments.

Wow! Competition for REVELLOGRAM! General belief is that it will be same scale as R-M (1/24th) for two reasons: first, that is the scale A-M have always used, and second, it would permit good fit for aftermarket decals, like SLIXX, which are dimensioned for REVELL stockers.

There are also some new street vehicles comin' out that will serve as the basis for some great vintage stockers. Revell have committed to the '67 Charger, that got held in '99, as well as the '70 Torino GT. There is also a new line of snap kits, called "Wheels of Fire" that will include a '77 Monte Carlo! Not too excited about WOF, but if the body is presentable...

AMT/ERTL are claimin' they'll have a '57 Chrysler 300 on the shelves, along with a '71 Charger..., and finally, the 1960 Ford Starliner! Woo-Hoo!! These are all very good developments and, if they all come about, it'll be a god year to be a NASCAR (or normal) modle car builder... Of course, seems to me we had this kind of thing dangled before us about this time last year....

Bootleg Decals: U Make 'Em??
(Formerly "Decals we'd Really Like to See, but Likely Never Will, Because of the Damn Lawyers and Royalties...")(aka "Summer Building")
Remember back in NASCAR Corner 29 I was lamenting the great decals we'd likely never see, due to the Great Crackdown on Decals by The Powers that Be? Three Stooges, Dupont Superman, etc, etc. - we'd likely never get to build 'em. Well, I obviously underestimated the talent and determination of the NASCAR modelling fraternity!!

No sooner had I made that lament, when a little "packet" arrived via E-mail! I opened it, and, lo and behold! There were my wished-for "3 Stooges" graphics! Seems a fellow in Mexico City, Sam Lopez, was workin' to fill some gaps in the line-up. as luck would have it, a fellow Group 25'er, Alex Kung, had the ALPS peinter needed to print these babies for me! Before you could say: "Copyright? What Copyright??" I had my very own "3 Stooges Monte Carlo gracin' the modle case!! (As I understand it, as long as you don't SELL the printed sheets, but only use them for your own personal collection, you're ok...). You can see the result at my website posting for this car.

Building models using decals made from Sam's graphics has made for an intersting new set of models. As well as the Stooges car, I also was able to make Dale Earnhardt's "Bristol Stomper", with a new Hood graphic from Sam, and I'm just putting the finishing touches on the 1999 Dupont/Gordon SUPERMAN car from this year's WINSTON SELECT, replete with "Steel Blue Prizm paint, even! Kinda nice to know that you have a model that's likely quite unique!

On a more mundane level, I got a second set of DUPONT decals and by double-decalling the 1998 NO-BULL car, finally got something workable... And i'm rarin' to go on Tony's car... And what's comin' next off Sammy's computer??

Other stuff...Edsels.... Research
So there wasn't a lot of new issues this summer of interest to a NASCAR phile. Picked up the AMT 1958 EDSEL(!), and it's a dandy. Best as I can tell, according to The Bible (aka "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing") a '58 Edsel only ran once, and that was in the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959. The car was an Edsel convertible, number 45, driven by Paul Bass. Started 40th, finished 46th. Thus ended the Edsel's racing career. Of course the big questions: colour? sponsor?? remain unanswered, and I got a feeling thisun'll be hard to track down...

It's like the 1950 Olds fastback resin kit I bought this spring in Toledo. Searched high and low for some references, found some shots of a "Restored" Buck Baker car in CIRCLE TRACK, but it had been severely modified, no longer representing the Strictly-Stock version I wanted to built. But I finally found a picture of car number 14, a fastback '50 Olds, being driven by Fonty Flock at North Wilkesboro. Shot was black and white, so no clue on colour. But in "40 Years..." there is a reference in the results of the race the photo came from to Fonty driving the #14 "Red Devil" Olds, so I think I know what colour to make it... And that's what you call research... kinda.

Research, computer-generated graphics.... it's all part of the great world of NASCAR modelling. Speakin' of which, I got a multi-hued Dupont Monte waitin' for final detail painting... gotta go....

Yours in left turns,

Mr. NASCAR

All information and opinion expressed in this column is derived thru a unique combination of research, rumour and wild-assed speculation, and should be treated as such. Read, enjoy, but don't take too seriously - this is, after all, a hobby!