Winter weather slowing down transporters

A severe late-winter ice and snowstorm throughout the central United States has all but paralyzed some transportation hubs -- and has delayed several NASCAR Winston Cup transporters trying to make it across country from the Carolinas to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Teams have a couple options to travel across the country, including Interstates 40 and 20, from their bases near Charlotte, N.C., to reach the site of this weekend's Winston Cup UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 and Busch Series Sam's Town 300.

But Roush Racing transporter driver Bart Starr, who hauls driver Mark Martin's Viagra Fords, said while on I-40 in Western Arkansas he altered his trip plans to account for the weather -- which had Dallas locked Tuesday in an ice storm while it snowed further to the north.

"Looking at the weather (reports) we thought it would be icy on 20 and that we would be better off in the snow than on the ice," Starr said at mid-afternoon Tuesday. "It is clear all the way to the Oklahoma line, but from Nashville to Little Rock (Ark.) it was really bad with the snow."

Starr was driving in a convoy with Roush teammate and usual traveling partner Fred Swim, who transports Matt Kenseth's DeWalt Fords. He said he was not aware of any trucks that had gone near Dallas, but if they had that they might be trapped by ice.

Reportedly, Robert Yates Racing's haulers had planned to take the southerly route while Tuesday afternoon Jasper Motorsports' hauler was outside Alabama on I-20.

An entourage from Richard Childress Racing was caught in the ice storm. Kevin Harvick's transporter driver Jim Baldwin was stuck for some three hours near Terrell, Texas, east of Dallas. But by Tuesday afternoon they were all moving again, albeit at only 15 mph due to the conditions.

Childress' coach driver, Steve Ramey, was at the head of the train by a couple hours and had cleared the worst of the conditions, a team spokesman reported. A time span of about two hours covered the team's three transporters, which were "taking it slow."

Starr said he had planned to be in Las Vegas -- a typical trip of more than 37 hours driving time to cover more than 2,200 miles from Concord, N.C. -- by Wednesday morning, but that he might have to adjust that due to the weather.

"There is a storm we're heading into that's about twice as big," Starr said. "It (travel time and plans) depends on how efficient Arizona and New Mexico are with moving the snow -- but they usually are pretty good about it.

"We will travel as far as we can before we make a decision on stopping or going ahead. We might just stop and wait for daylight. We had thought we'd get in early Wednesday, but now we might not make it until Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, but we still have plenty of time to get there."

He also said anyone that started much later than his teammates had might be in trouble, with the weather calling for between six inches to a foot of snow through the Midwest.

He said the transporters of teammates Kurt Busch and Jeff Burton had left before noon Tuesday while the truck of driver Greg Biffle had left just after lunch.

When reached Tuesday afternoon, several other team contacts said their transporter drivers had wanted to leave earlier Tuesday because of the weather, but had not been able to due to various issues involved in getting prepared.

The weather created an especially nightmarish scenario for Busch Series transporter drivers, who had to deal with a postponed Rockingham 200 that was held Monday morning at North Carolina Speedway.

"Normally, we would like to have left the shop in Mooresville (N.C.) at around Noon Monday," said Gary Clem, the transporter driver for Kasey Kahne's Great Clips Fords. "But, I didn't get back from Rockingham until late afternoon Monday. The guys unloaded and loaded the truck while I slept and I was able to get on the road at 8 o'clock Tuesday morning."

Clem has about 54 hours to make the trip, but he'd prefer a little more leeway.

"We can certainly make it, but I like a little more time built in," he said. "If we have a flat tire in the middle of nowhere or run into some bad weather, then things get a little tight for us."

With the experience already of his Winston Cup brethren, that seems to be a given.

"The most direct way is straight out Interstate 40," he continued. "But, I may have to drop down to Interstate 20. If that were the case, then I'd lose four or five hours. I certainly don't want to go down to 20, but if the weather's bad that's a better road. I've been watching The Weather Channel since about Thursday."

Busch Series haulers are due to enter the garage at Las Vegas on Thursday morning. Winston Cup trucks are not scheduled to enter until Friday morning.