AUTO RACING : Points Lead Takes Toll on Childress

Richard Childress is happy his team is leading the Winston Cup standings as the season approaches its halfway point. But he is quick to realize the toll it has taken.

So, this week is vacation time for driver Dale Earnhardt, crew chief Andy Petree and the rest of the Goodwrench Chevrolet crew.

“We’re going to take a full week off and let everybody spend some time with their families,” Childress said. “We want them to regroup and be ready for the second half of the season.”

Normally, vacation is tied in with the Fourth of July at Daytona, said Childress, a former Winston Cup driver.

“Everybody has put in so many hours getting through the first half. I want them to be fresh with a good attitude heading into the second half,” he said.

After finishing an uncharacteristic 12th in the Winston Cup standings last year, Earnhardt h!s been solid all this year, winning three times and finishing nine times in the top 10 in 14 starts. He leads the season points by 213 over runner-up Dale Jarrett.

JIM PERKINS, general manager of Chevrolet, has confirmed the Monte Carlo will return to NASCAR, probably in 1995.

“We’ll introduce the new Monte Carlo to the public in the spring of 1994 as a 1995 model, but we don’t anticipate the car’s return to NASCAR competition until the 1995 Daytona 500,” Perkins said.

The Monte Carlo SS recorded 95 victories in 183 starts--a winning percentage of .519--from 1983 through 1989, making it the winningest nameplate in Winston Cup history.

That model was replaced in May 1989 by the Lumina, which has won 46 of 122 races, a .377 percentage.

WITH THE POPULARITY of Nigel Mansell still high, the IndyCar circuit has been invited to take part in two non-points races at Britain’s Silverstone and Brands Hatch tracks at the end of the 1994 season.

However, a quick survey of team owners came up with mostly negative responses.

FISA, which runs the Formula One series, has decreed that the Indy cars will be welcome in Europe, South America and Asia only if they run on ovals.

The British press has reported that the absence of Mansell, the 1992 Formula one champion, has cost Silverstone more than $1.5 million in advance ticket sales for the British Grand Prix in July.

In addition, the Grand Prix of Europe in April at Donington in Britain lost an estimated $2 million without Mansell, the current Indy car points leader.

THERE WAS NEVER really much question about which business the sons of 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones would go into. P.J., 24, and Page, 20, both are race drivers.

All three were in cars last weekend, with P.J. making his third NASCAR Winston Cup start, Page debuting in an ARCA stock car, and Parnelli running in the FastMasters Competition, a new senior series.

“Page is a hustler,” said Parnelli, 59, after watching his sons practice at Michigan International Speedway. “I remember as a kid, he wanted to go to the grand prix race at Caesars Palace (in Las Vegas). One night while we were playing pool, Page made a deal with me.

“He said that if he could sink the four balls remaining on the table that I would have to take him to the race. I really didn’t think he could sink the balls. He was only nine at the time. So I agreed to the bet. Well, he sunk all of the balls.

“As things turned out, I couldn’t take him to the race, but I bought him a go-kart instead. Of course, P.J. instantly asked where his go-kart was.”

Parnelli, who retired from major competition before his 40th birthday, said, “Our entire family is extremely competitive. I remember one year we drove to Palm Springs for vacation and we had to take four separate cars because no one wanted to drive with each other.”

This month, P.J., a star in IMSA’s Camel GTP sports car series, competed in the Miller Genuine Draft 400, and Page drove in the ARCA race. In two weeks, Parnelli will take part in the Fast Masters Championship for drivers over 50.

SCHEDULED TO MAKE his Indy car debut this weekend in Portland is Johnny Unser, the nephew of Bobby and Al Unser Sr.

Johnny, the son of Jerry Unser, who died in a crash during practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1959, has had some success in sports car racing. But he says, “My goal has always been to get to drive Indy cars.”

He reportedly will follow Portland with races at Toronto, New Hampshire and Vancouver.