Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991 TAG: 9103160131
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: ATLANTA LENGTH: Medium
Kulwicki proved that Friday with the fastest qualifying run of the day, winning the pole position for Sunday's NASCAR Motorcraft 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
He sped around the 1.522-mile oval in 31.415 seconds at a speed of 174.418 mph, edging Brett Bodine by about eight-hundredths of a second. Bodine won the second starting spot on the outside of the front row with a lap of 31.494 seconds, or 173.976 mph.
Rusty Wallace qualified third, Sterling Marlin was fourth and Ken Schrader fifth.
Kulwicki said he did not want to jinx his run by talking about it while others were still qualifying, but once the session was over, he said, "I thought we had a chance, but I've been in that position before, and it's never over till it's over.
"It was slower than we ran in practice, but the track got looser. We slowed down a tenth [of a second] or so, but a lot of other cars slowed down three or four tenths."
Kulwicki's achievement was a rare feat.
The last time an independent driver won a pole in an unsponsored car was in the fall of 1978, when veteran campaigner J.D. McDuffie made the fastest qualifying lap at Dover Downs International Speedway.
"I used to wear a `Mighty Mouse' emblem on my uniform years ago," Kulwicki said. "I think I might resurrect it."
Meanwhile, pre-race favorite Dale Earnhardt, who has won three of the past five NASCAR Winston Cup races at Atlanta, had engine problems during qualifying. He will have to qualify during the second session at 10:30 a.m. today, when positions 21 through 40 will be filled.
"We found a cylinder head leaking right before qualifying," said car owner Richard Childress. "We could have stuck another engine in it, but we tried to seal the leak up to get a lap out of it. We took a gamble, and it didn't pay off this time."
Other top drivers who failed to qualify in the top 20 included Terry Labonte, Geoff Bodine, Richard Petty, Rick Mast, Dick Trickle and Joe Ruttman.
Kulwicki, who finished eighth in the Winston Cup points championship last year, is the only 1990 race winner without a sponsor this year. His 1990 sponsor, the Zerex anti-freeze company, pulled out at the end of the season.
"I hope something comes along real soon," Kulwicki said. "I didn't think I'd be in this position this year, but a lot of factors contributed to this.
"By the time we found out we needed a sponsor for this year, most of the new deals were gone already. Then the economy went a little bit soft. Then the war. We're taking all of that into consideration and trying to persevere here and do well. I think it's just a matter of time before someone realizes that we're a good advertising opportunity and picks us up."
In the meantime, Kulwicki is looking for ways to save money. He saved a few dollars, for example, by driving here from North Carolina instead of flying.
"We just try not to waste money, period," Kulwicki said. "But we're not sleeping out in the pickup truck or anything like that."
Despite the lack of sponsor money, Kulwicki has fared well so far this season. He is fourth in Winston Cup points after finishing eighth at Daytona, fifth at Richmond and 17th at Rockingham. Those three finishes have won him $95,275 in prize money. And he won another $4,000 Friday for taking the pole.
"It's a whole lot better than tearing up three cars or blowing engines," he said. "So it's not as bad as it could be."
Kulwicki has owned his own team since he came to the Winston Cup series seven years ago. He won his first race at Phoenix in 1988, a year in which he also won the pole for both Atlanta races. Kulwicki also won the AC Delco 500 last fall at Rockingham.
Despite offers from other owners, most notably Junior Johnson, to drive their cars, Kulwicki has persisted in his personal Winston Cup effort.
Now that he has to campaign without sponsorship, Kulwicki's approach is to refrain from dwelling on it.
"You have to have a game plan and just stick to it, no matter what happens," he said. "It would be real easy to let this situation get you rattled. When you start planning for your demise, it starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
But he has had to spend valuable time chasing down false sponsor leads.
"We've been besieged with lots of calls from all over the country about sponsors," he said. "But 90 percent of them don't know about the business.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB