BRIEFLY : FEDERAL DRUG OFFICIAL WANTS ANDRO PROBE.

Byline: - Daily News Wire Services

President Clinton's drug policy adviser wants the federal government to investigate the health effects of androstenedione, the over-the-counter supplement Mark McGwire made famous. Barry McCaffrey wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Trade Commission urging that they study recent Canadian and Swedish laboratory analyses of the product, known as andro.

Androstenedione is classified as a dietary supplement that the body metabolizes into testosterone, which is considered a steroid. It is banned by the Olympics, the NCAA, the NFL, and the men's and women's tennis tours.

Baseball is studying the effects of the product before making a decision.

MOTOR SPORTS: Sports Illustrated writer Ed Hinton has been denied credentials for the Indianapolis 500, partly because the magazine ran a photograph of a sheet-covered body after three fans were killed at a race earlier this month. In response, SI said it would not cover the event.

The Indy Racing League was angered by the photo and accompanying story in which Hinton wrote that such accidents could be avoided. The article in the May 10 issue was headlined ``Fatal Attractions.''

Texas Motor Speedway will raise its protective catch fence by about six feet before the June 12 Longhorn 500, general manager Eddie Gossage said.

Speedway Motorsports Inc., parent company of TMS, said it is increasing the height of its fences at four of its tracks to 21 feet and replacing the three-foot, 45-degree overhang atop the fences with a curved, six-foot overhang.

FOOTBALL: After years of stalemates and some last-minute tinkering that threatened to kill the deal, the Massachusetts House and Senate approved a plan for a new $225 million stadium for the New England Patriots.

OLYMPICS: If Salt Lake City's sports venues are to open for pre-Olympics training, then outside financial help is a must, the chief organizer of the scandal-plagued games said. Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Mitt Romney said budget cuts - including $5 million from funds to operate ski jumps, bobsled and luge runs and a speedskating track before the start of the 2002 Winter Games - were painful reminders of the worst corruption case in Olympic history.

The chief financial officer of the Salt Lake Olympics resigned, a move that comes about two months after his budget was criticized by the head organizer. Mark Tanner is quitting to become chief financial officer at Mrs. Field's Cookies, which is based in Salt Lake.

HARNESS RACING: For the first time in the 146-year history of Freehold Raceway in Freehold, N.J., the call of a live harness race for on-track patrons and the track's television simulcasting audience was made by a female track announcer.

Gen Sullivan, a staff member of Harness Racing Communications, was at the microphone as Fanta Lauxmont won the fourth-race trot.