Friday, March 3, 2000 | 10:11 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand's motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4089.
Whether it's on the race track or at a public appearance, 19-year-old Adam Petty carries himself with the ease of a veteran driver twice his age.
At an appearance on behalf of his NASCAR Busch Series sponsor, Sprint, at the new NASCAR Cafe at the Sahara hotel-casino Wednesday night, Petty appeared equally comfortable conversing with fans and holding court for the media.
Although he still is a teenager, Petty pointed out that all this attention is hardly a novelty. The fourth-generation driver (the son of Kyle Petty, grandson of the legendary Richard Petty and great-grandson of NASCAR pioneer Lee Petty) has been attending autograph sessions since he was old enough to walk.
"This is something I've always done almost my whole life," Petty said. "It has only been a couple of years that I've been going to (autograph) signings on my own, but when we were kids growing up, about the only time we could spend time with my father was to go to autograph sessions with him."
Petty, who will drive the No. 45 Sprint Chevrolet in Saturday's Sam's Town 300 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, said he learned at a young age the importance of dealing with fans and the media.
"You walk into the garage area and you see drivers brush off an autograph here and brush off an autograph there," Petty said. "My grandfather and my father always put the media and the fans first."
Although he is trying to follow in the footsteps of his famous grandfather (who won a record 200 races) and father and make it to the Winston Cup Series, Petty said he feels no outside pressure to live up to the family name.
"I'm lucky to be able to drive for my father because he puts no pressure on me at all," Petty said. "Look, nobody's ever going to live up to what Richard Petty did, so that (pressure) is not even there for me.
"When my dad started driving, the media was hard on him, (writing) that he should be the next Richard Petty. Finally, they realized that there is never going to be another Richard Petty and they eased up on him."
* NASCAR: Although several local sports books are posting odds on this weekend's Busch Series and Winston Cup Series races at LVMS, don't look for Jeff Burton to be putting any money down on himself to win either one.
Burton, the defending CarsDirect.com 400 winner who also is competing in Saturday's Sam's Town 300, said he would refrain from wagering on himself even though NASCAR and the Gaming Control Board reportedly have no problem with drivers betting on themselves.
"Gambling on an event you're involved with is not a good idea," Burton said. "It's just not something I want to get involved with." ...
Tony Stewart, the 1999 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year, has experienced the best and worst of times at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
In his first IRL race at LVMS, in 1996, Stewart was involved in what he called "the worst crash I've had in 21 years of racing" when he backed his car into the outside retaining wall at 215 mph. The following year, Stewart clinched his only IRL championship at the 1.5-mile superspeedway.
In last year's Winston Cup race here, Stewart limped home to a 36th-place finish after making contact with Johnny Benson early in the race.
"Vegas has been one of those places that has either been really good or really bad," Stewart said. "I either wreck there or win a championship. It's a place where I haven't found a happy medium yet."
* CART: Della Penna Motorsports owner John Della Penna had Argentine Noberto Fontana test the team's Toyota-powered Reynard this week on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway, but that doesn't mean Henderson resident Richie Hearn's job is in jeopardy.
"As many are aware, I am very interested in expanding Della Penna Motorsports to a two-car effort in the future," Della Penna, also a native of Argentina, said. "I have followed Noberto's career for some time now and am excited to see what he can do in a Champ Car.
"This is just a test, though, with no immediate plans for a second seat."
Hearn got back behind the wheel of his Champ car today for two days of testing on the Homestead-Miami oval. ...
"Star Wars" creator George Lucas, actresses Ashley Judd and Rachel Hunter, actors Christian Slater and Antonio Sabato Jr. and former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway are among the personalities scheduled to take part in the 24th annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race to be held in Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday, April 15.
The 10-lap race, held on the 1.99-mile Champ Car track, will be part of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach race weekend.
* IRL: Stephan Gregoire posted the fastest lap during a two-day test session at Phoenix International Raceway last weekend -- a test that saw both defending IRL champion Greg Ray and 19-year-old rookie Sarah Fisher avoid injuries in separate crashes.
Gregoire's lap of 174.359 mph was nearly two miles an hour better than Ray's 172.712. Mark Dismore was third fastest at 172.010 and Fisher was seventh fastest at 170.810.
Ray backed into the wall in turn four Saturday morning and Fisher hit the wall in turn two later in the day. Both drivers were uninjured. ...
Las Vegas resident Davey Hamilton has signed a contract to drive for TeamXtreme for the remainder of the IRL season. Hamilton is the only driver who has competed in all 35 IRL events.
TeamXtreme general manager John Lopes also announced that the No. 42 car driven by John Hollansworth will be sidelined until additional sponsorship can be secured. Hollansworth finished third in the IRL Rookie of the Year standings in 1999.
* NHRA: Nine-time NHRA Winston champion John Force dedicated his Funny Car victory last weekend in the Checker Schuck's Kragen Nationals at Firebird International Raceway to the late Funny Car competitor Trip Shumake.
Shumake was a Phoenix resident who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident late last year. Force wore a button with a picture of Shumake on it on his fire suit throughout the final day.
"I had a lot of friends riding with me," Force said. "You need help when everything else is screwing up. I'm giving Trip's wife and daughter this trophy. I was able to come back here to Arizona in front of the fans where it would mean something.
"It just got into my head that I'd like to win and when I was given the button I think it gave me some extra motivation. It was just really a shocker when Trip was killed. He was one heck of a guy and a great race car driver. It makes you value every day."
Force's 82nd career victory leaves him three behind Bob Glidden's all-time win record of 85. It also was Force's sixth victory in the past seven NHRA events at Firebird. ...
In this column last week, the item on Warren Johnson contained some erroneous information. Johnson advanced to the finals of the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona and is the defending Winston Pro Stock champion.
* BACKMARKERS: The NASCAR Winston West Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been moved from Friday, April 21 to Saturday, April 22 and will be run as part of a unique tripleheader with the Indy Racing League event.
The IRL Las Vegas 500 will start at 12:30 p.m., rock group Smash Mouth will perform in concert at 4 p.m. and the Winston West race will take the green flag at 6:15 p.m.
Tickets are on sale now at the LVMS ticket office and also can be purchased on the Internet at Tickets.com. Reserved seats for the daylong event are $40, general admission tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for children ages 6-12.
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