CART Champ Cars, NASCAR Trucks in Miami Twinbill

Something new in the way of racing doubleheaders will be run at the Miami-Homestead Motorsports Complex in Florida this weekend when CART opens its champ car season Sunday and NASCAR opens its Craftsman Truck series Saturday on the same Grand Prix of Miami program.

It is the first of seven combination open-wheel and truck twin bills, the trucks racing four times with CART and three with the Indy Racing League.

“We like the idea,” said Mike Helton, NASCAR’s new chief operating officer. “It gives open-wheel fans an opportunity to see our brand of racing. And it helps introduce NASCAR into different market areas. At the same time, it helps the promoter by giving him more to show for his weekend.”

CART will open its 21st season with a number of question marks, but with a golden end-of-season carrot dangling in front of its drivers. After an expanded 20-race season, 16 drivers will be invited to a $10-million non-points race in Honolulu on Nov. 13, $5 million going to the winner.

First, though, is the task of winning the FedEx championship and its $1-million bonus. Among the questions:

* Who can replace Alex Zanardi, the little Italian dynamo who made watching CART races so enjoyable the last three season?

Zanardi has returned to Formula One, leaving car owner Chip Ganassi to seek an unprecedented fourth consecutive CART championship with 1996 champion Jimmy Vasser and a Colombian newcomer, Juan Pablo Montoya.

Montoya, 23, won the European Formula 3000 series last year and will have Zanardi’s winning crew intact.

“I don’t want to be one more driver, I want to be the best one here,” Montoya said after testing in Ganassi’s Reynard-Honda. “I want to win races.”

That has been a Ganassi trademark since 1996. In the last three seasons, Zanardi and Vasser won 23 CART races. All the rest won 29.

* Will Bobby Rahal be as successful a car owner as he was a driver?

Rahal retired after last season and signed Max Papis to drive the No. 7 car as a teammate to Bryan Herta.

“People keep kidding me, saying that I’m out of uniform,” said Rahal, who won 24 races, among them the 1986 Indianapolis 500, and three CART championships. “As for my drivers, there’s no No. 1 or No. 2. Bryan and Max are like a couple of scorpions. There’s kind of a turf battle, and that’s good. The only rule I have is that they don’t run into each other.”

* Will becoming a one-driver team help Roger Penske and Al Unser Jr. regain their winning ways?

Unser, a two-time Indy 500 winner, has a 55-race losing streak. Penske has been waiting since early in the 1997 season for his 100th victory as a car owner. Since Paul Tracy won at St. Louis, Penske drivers have failed to win in 30 races.

“Andre Ribeiro [who has retired] was a wonderful teammate, but all drivers want to have the whole team to themselves, so I’m looking forward to the 1999 season,” Unser said. “We had a totally new Penske car last year and it takes some time to sort things out, but I think we will be very competitive this year, starting with Homestead.”

* Can Michael Andretti continue his Homestead winning streak?

The veteran Newman-Haas driver, winner of 37 CART races, more than anyone else, has won the season opener at Homestead two years in a row--but nothing else.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Andretti said. “We’ve had every conceivable kind of problem, accidents, engine failure, mechanical breakdowns, you name it. Some years it seems everything goes wrong. Maybe it’s our turn for something to go right.”

* Is this the year for Toyota to break through with its first victory?

Starting its fourth season in CART, Toyota Motorsports has beefed up its presence with the addition of Richie Hearn and the Della Penna Motorsports team, which has switched from Ford power.

Also, Scott Pruett, one of racing’s most respected test drivers, has replaced Robby Gordon on the Arciero-Wells team. Gordon has formed his own team with help from IRL team owner John Menard and will continue with Toyota power.

* With Zanardi gone, who will become No. 1?

Dario Franchitti, a Scotsman of Italian heritage, is the best bet. The Team Kool Green driver won three times last year and said, “Anything short of winning the championship in 1999 would be a disappointment.”

Other contenders include Canadians Tracy, Greg Moore and Patrick Carpentier, and Mexico’s Adrian Fernandez.

Tracy, 29, is Franchitti’s teammate, but will miss Sunday’s opener because of a suspension for rough driving held over from last season. IRL veteran Raul Boesel will sit in for him at Homestead.

“Paul is disappointed not to be racing, but Raul is a good replacement,” said Franchitti. “Every point he scores is one less that someone else will get. With all that money coming in Hawaii, every point becomes very important.”

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS

Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague will take up Saturday in the Florida Dodge Dealers 400 where they left off in their rivalry last year. Hornaday edged Sprague by three points--one of the narrowest margins in NASCAR history--in a battle of Chevrolets to win his second truck title.

There will be one major change. Instead of the C/K model that Hornaday, Sprague and other Chevy drivers used last year, they will be in new Silverados.

Hornaday and Sprague have won 36 series races, $4.7 million in prize money and the last three championships--Hornaday in 1996 and 1998, Sprague in 1997.

“We both want to win and when we go out there, we’re definitely going to knock some fenders,” said Hornaday, who began his career racing stock cars at Saugus Speedway.

Ford’s main effort is expected to come from Mike Bliss, who has replaced the veteran Joe Ruttman in Roush Racing’s truck. Ruttman, who finished third in points last year, was Ford’s first winner in the five-year-old truck series.

SPEEDWAY MOTORCYCLES

Former world speedway champion Billy Hamill will race Saturday night at Costa Mesa Speedway for the first time since breaking his back in a world Grand Prix final last September in Poland. Hamill has been rehabilitating at his home in Monrovia.

He will be riding in the Coors Light Spring Classic, a prelude to the weekly speedway season which will open April 10 on the Orange County Fairgrounds track.

Also riding will be Mike Faria, three-time U.S. national champion.

LAST LAPS

Las Vegas’ racing brothers, Ed, Tim and Troy Herbst, headline entries for Saturday’s 13th annual Tecate SCORE San Felipe 250 desert race in Baja California. Ed and Tim won the Trophy-Truck opening race in a Ford F-150 at Laughlin, Nev., and Troy is two-time defending series champion in the unlimited class. He drives a Ford-powered Smithbuilt open-wheel desert race car. Racing will start at 6 a.m. from the landmark San Felipe Arches.

Racing legends Mario Andretti and Dan Gurney will share grand marshal duties during the April 16-18 Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Both will have sons competing, Michael Andretti in the CART main event and Alex Gurney in the Toyota Atlantic race.

Formula Fords will be featured in a 30-year reunion of the racing class March 27-28 at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. The Vintage Auto Racing Assn. is hosting the anniversary of the first Formula Ford race in California. . . . Ken Clapp, a longtime West Coast executive with NASCAR, has retired. He will continue as a consultant on NASCAR special projects.

Twelve former winners of the 24 Hours of LeMans are entered in Saturday’s 12 Hours of Sebring in Sebring, Fla. Favored is the Doyle-Risi Racing tandem of two-time World Sport Car champion Wayne Taylor and two-time International Motor Sports Assn. champion Juan Manual Fangio II, driving a Ferrari with former Formula One driver Alex Caffi.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

This Weekend’s Race Facts

NASCAR WINSTON CUP, TranSouth Financial 400

* When: Today, first-round qualifying (ESPN2, 12:30 p.m.). Saturday, second-round qualifying, 8:30 a.m. Sunday, race (ESPN, 9:30 a.m.).

* Where: Darlington Raceway (egg-shaped oval, 1.366 miles, 25 degrees banking in turns 1-2, 23 degrees in turns 3-4), Darlington, N.C.

* Race distance: 400.238 miles, 293 laps.

* Defending champion: Dale Jarrett.

* Last week: Gordon won the Cracker Barrel 500, finishing 2.5 seconds ahead of Bobby Labonte.

* Next race: Primestar 500, March 28, Fort Worth, Texas.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL, Diamond Hill Plywood 200

* When: Today, qualifying, 11 a.m. Saturday, race, 1 p.m. (ESPN, tape, 11:30 a.m.).

* Where: Darlington Raceway (egg-shaped oval, 1.366 miles, 25 degrees banking in turns 1-2, 23 degrees in turns 3-4), Darlington. S.C.

* Race distance: 200.802 miles, 147 laps.

* Defending champion: Bobby Labonte

* Last week: Dave Blaney was initially awarded the win in the Yellow Freight 300 over Mike Skinner when an unapproved engine part was discovered in Skinner’s car during a post-race inspection. After an appeal, however, NASCAR gave the victory and the first-place points back to Skinner on Wednesday. But instead of getting the winner’s prize money, he’ll get the last-place purse as a fine, nearly $19,000 less.

* Next race: Coca-Cola 300, March 27, Fort Worth, Texas.

CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS, Florida Dodge Dealers 400 K

* When: Today, qualifying, 9:15 a.m. Saturday, race, noon (ABC, tape, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex (oval, 1.5 miles, 8 degrees banking in turns), Homestead, Fla.

* Race distance: 250.5 miles, 167 laps.

* Defending champion: Rick Crawford.

* Last week: No event scheduled.

* Next race: Chevy Trucks NASCAR 400, March 27, Phoenix.

CART, Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami

* When: Saturday, qualifying, 9:30 a.m. Sunday, race, 11 a.m. (ABC, tape, 10 a.m.).

* Where: Miami-Dade Homestead Motorsports Complex (oval 1.5 miles, 8 degrees banking in turns), Homestead, Fla.

* Race distance: 225 miles, 150 laps.

* Defending champion: Michael Andretti.

* Last week: No event scheduled.

* Next race: Japan 500, April 10, Motegi, Japan.

NHRA, Mac Tools Gatornationals

* When: Today, qualifying, 10:45 a.m. (ESPN2, tape, 11 a.m.). Saturday, qualifying, 8 a.m. Sunday, final eliminations, 8 a.m. (ESPN2, tape, noon).

* Where: Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, Fla.

* Defending champion: Kenny Bernstein.

* Last week: No event scheduled.

* Next race: O’Reilly Auto Parts Nationals, April 8-11, Houston.