RACING EXPANDS ITS ROOTS; HORIZONS EXPAND FOR DRIVERS, FANS.

Byline: Louis Brewster

Stock car racing, specifically NASCAR Winston Cup, has long been considered a province of the Southeast. The sport has roots dating back to moonshine runners and races on the beach. Of the current 34-race schedule, 19 events are held in that particular corner of the United States.

Although the sanctioning body is located in Daytona Beach, Fla., the true hub of the sport is Charlotte, N.C. Virtually every Winston Cup team is headquartered in the immediate area, and nearly a third of the races are conducted within a few hours' drive.

So it's not startling that 25 of the drivers who will run in Sunday's NAPA California 500 are from Southern states. Of that total, five - Elliott Sadler, Rick Mast, Ricky Rudd, Jeff and Ward Burton - hail from Virginia and another four - Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jarrett, Kyle Petty and Richard Pressley - are from North Carolina.

What is surprising is that 12 other states will be represented in Sunday's feature race at the California Speedway, including a pair from California. Mike Skinner was born in Ontario and Ernie Irvan is a native of Salinas. Other racers are from such diverse locations as Maine (Ricky Craven), Colorado (Wally Dallenbach), Vermont (Kevin Lepage) and Washington (Chad Little and Derrick Cope). The Bodine brothers, Geoffrey and Brett, are from New York, along with Steve Park. Jeff Gordon is among the four drivers from Indiana, although he was born in California. Dick Trickle is among four drivers from Wisconsin, while Jeremy Mayfield is one-third of a trio from Kentucky. Rusty and Kenny Wallace hail from Missouri while Darrell Waltrip is one of three from Tennessee.

``There were days when I guess you could say me and other guys from outside the South were a minority,'' said Park, who drives the No. 1 Pennzoil Chevrolet owned by Earnhardt. ``But if you walk through the garage anymore, you can hear all kinds of accents. Racing is a national sport and I hope it keeps growing.''

Dale Earnhardt Inc. has embraced that idea. In addition to hiring Park, Earnhardt also selected Palmdale's Ron Hornaday as the driver for his Craftsman Truck Series team. Hornaday is the two-time defending series champion.

``Dale Earnhardt goes out and hires a guy from Long Island,'' said Park. ``That tells you there isn't any regional bias in this sport.''

But there was when Skinner was growing up. His journey to the driver's seat of the No. 31 Lowe's Chevrolet was an odyssey that took him from the Golden State to the South. After his birth on June 28, 1957 in Ontario, Skinner's family moved to various places throughout the state, including Palmdale and Susanville, where he raced on a half-mile dirt oval and won the first of his three driving titles in 1976. However, the lure of racing was so great that Skinner eventually moved to North Carolina in 1983. Wife Beth, tired of hearing the talk, gave her husband an ultimatum: Race or be quiet.

``It looked so easy on television, I said to myself `I can do that,' '' said Skinner. ``But I found that it was a lot tougher than I ever imagined.''

Skinner landed a driving job with Gene Petty, Richard's cousin, and won championships in late-model stocks. His style attracted the attention of Winston Cup owner Richard Childress, who put him into a Chevrolet truck when the series started in 1995.

``A couple of people behind me gave me the opportunity to prove myself, and fortunately, I did,'' Skinner said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Mike Skinner, who was born in Ontario, Calif., moved to North Carolina in 1983 so he could participate in NASCAR events.

Chris O'Meara/Associated Press