MOTOR SPORTS : POPULARITY MAY CAUSE CHANGES IN NASCAR.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

It seems as if everybody who owns a race track these days would like to have a Winston Cup race.

And why not? The stock car division is the fastest growing sport in America.

But the Winston Cup series already is racing 31 times a season and, including the two-week stretch leading to the Daytona 500 and the weekend of The Winston Select all-star race, the teams are on the road for 34 weeks each year. How much more can it grow?

New races tracks are springing up all over the country, notably at Fontana, Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Homestead, Fla.

So far, NASCAR has promised an additional event only to Roger Penske's California Speedway, which is scheduled to open in the spring of 1997.

One theory that has made the rounds is that the Winston Cup series will eventually be split into two divisions, with the biggest stars of the sport being divided between them.

The divisions would race separately except for about a half-dozen major events, allowing NASCAR to spread its product around without expanding the season.

Nobody at NASCAR will admit such a plan is even in the thinking stages, but it has become a major topic of conversation in and around the Winston Cup paddock. And very few people are in favor of such a plan.

``I hope to heck we don't get into these divisions because I think the people always want to come and see the premier team,'' said former Winston Cup champion Rusty Wallace. ``I think if they start doing that, it will dilute everything.

``I think we've got a great division right now, and it is getting stronger and stronger. A lot of attention is being paid to it.''

So what's the answer?

Wallace, who drives for Penske South Racing, says the new Craftsman Truck Series, in only its second season of competition, may help satisfy fan craving for more NASCAR.

``I think the Grand National cars put on a pretty good race at Daytona and Charlotte and places like that, but I think these trucks are definitely a way to satisfy,'' he said.

``Right now, I think the pickup trucks are getting more attention than the Grand National division because it's different. The Grand National cars look just like the Winston Cup cars. They weigh almost the same. There are a lot of the same drivers in them. The truck division is so different, and they run so many different places in the country.''

The trucks, which are built on Winston Cup tube frames and also weigh 3,400 pounds, lack rear end downforce, which is one reason why NASCAR has chosen to race them on tracks no longer than 1 mile.

``I don't know if they can run 2-mile tracks,'' Wallace said. ``I don't know if they can run Charlotte (a 1-1/2-mile oval) or not. They've proven they can run great at 1-mile tracks like Phoenix.

``But that's no limit. The truck series is going up and up and up, stronger and stronger. There's tons of people out there with pickup trucks, and they'd like to pull for something different. They really like to get in the game.''

He knows the ropes: There haven't been many nervous moments for NHRA rookie Larry Nance.

After all, why worry about more experienced drivers intimidating you when you've experienced the pressure of the NBA playoffs and the all-star slam dunk competition?

``In the NBA, every night in and night out guys try to intimidate you,'' said this unflappable rookie, 13-year NBA player Larry Nance. ``It's intimidating for somebody to go up against a Warren Johnson or a Bob Glidden, but I don't think that would affect me.''

Neither did playing against Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.

Nance made his NHRA debut at Memphis last month. Although he didn't make the 16-car field, qualifying 32nd in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, he remains committed to carving out a spot in pro stock.

Nance will try to earn a spot this weekend at Topeka, Kan.

While Nance is confident, he realizes he has much to learn. He began racing only this spring after retiring following 13 seasons with Phoenix and Cleveland. He won his IHRA debut in the spring and decided to step up to the rigors of NHRA competition.

``You've got a lot of guys who have been doing this a long time, longer than I have, and I realize that,'' Nance said. ``I am determined to be good at it, and I'm going to work at it until I am.''

Nance won't be the only NBA player switching to drag racing this season.

Hot time: Saturday's Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway begins the toughest stretch of the Winston Cup season, with 14 races in as many weekends.

It's usually one of the hottest weekends of the season, but it also marks the halfway point in the 31-race schedule.

Going into the race at Daytona Beach, Fla., the three-car Hendrick Motorsports team was definitely the hottest on the stock car circuit with seven of the first 14 poles and six victories.

Jeff Gordon, the 24-year-old defending Winston Cup champion, had finished sixth or better in 11 of the past 12 races. He also was leading the series in laps led, with 1,268 of a possible 4,418, and miles led, with 1,429.19 of 5,480.99 run.

Teammate Terry Labonte was second in the points behind seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt. Gordon was third and Ken Schrader, the third Hendrick driver, seventh.

Coming back: As much as Ernie Irvan wants to put his serious crash in August 1994 behind him, people are always asking him how he was able to come back from near-fatal injuries.

And others wonder whether he is the same driver he was when the accident occurred.

``You can look at the rundowns of where Ernie Irvan has been finishing and you say, `Well, maybe Ernie is not as good as he was,' '' Irvan said. ``But then you look at a couple of other rundowns and you say, `Well, maybe he is as good.'

``I think I drive the exact same. I think I am just as aggressive. Hopefully, I'm smarter.''

Irvan was 16th in the Winston Cup points race going into Saturday's race at Daytona.

``It's a hard situation to actually compare what I am now to what I was before,'' he said. ``I was at the top of my game. . . . I think everybody had to be their own judge of it. . . . I guess the only story that is going to tell that is if I get back to racing Earnhardt for the championship sometime.''