Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 12, 1992 TAG: 9202120048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
MICHAEL WALTRIP TAKES POLE FOR GOODY'S 300
Michael Waltrip, who has had one of the fastest Grand National cars in practice at Daytona International Speedway, won the pole Tuesday for Saturday's Goody's 300 at a speed of 186.556 mph.Waltrip, who finished second to Dale Earnhardt in last year's race, was one of six Winston Cup drivers who qualified in the top 10 for the 300-mile race, which begins at 12:30 p.m.
"All I do is get in it, push the pedal down for a lap and go around the track," Waltrip said. "Any idiot could do that. I'm just happy I was able to help [the team] get the pole."
Grand National regular Joe Nemechek was second fastest at 186.413 mph, followed by Kenny Wallace (186.386 mph), Earnhardt (186.251 mph), Darrell Waltrip (186.008 mph), Ward Burton (185.947 mph), Daytona 500 pole winner Sterling Marlin (185.384 mph), Bill Elliott (185.372 mph), Ernie Irvan (185.181 mph) and Tracy Leslie (185.113 mph).
Most of the cars were slower in qualifying than practice. Waltrip, for example, lost 1.2 mph from his best Monday practice lap of 187.735 mph, which led the practice session.
Waltrip said he thought qualifying speeds were slower because "the cars were running one at a time and there's absolutely no draft." Even if there's only one other car on the track, "it's helping [speeds] because they're breaking the wind and sending it in the right direction."
Nemechek thought a backstretch headwind slowed speeds Tuesday. "The car seemed like it just didn't want to accelerate [on the back straight]," he said.
But other competitors cited NASCAR's new zero-tolerance inspection policy, which applies to the Grand National cars as well as the Winston Cup cars.
"It slowed everything down," said car owner Fred Turner of Greensboro, whose driver, Jack Sprague, qualified 12th. Sprague qualified second last year, and "we've got more power this year than we had last year," Turner said.
\ Tuesday's big loser was Tom Peck, whose qualifying lap would have won the 18th starting spot. But Peck locked up his brakes on his cool-down lap and crashed into the fourth-turn wall.
The car was too badly damaged to repair in time for the race, Peck said, and "we're going to try and go home [to North Carolina] and get another one."
The first 20 positions were set Tuesday, and Peck hopes to win one of the remaining 20 positions in second-round qualifying at 1 p.m. today.
\ A.J. Foyt, Rick Mast and Stanley Smith joined the growing list of drivers whose cars have been found illegal in NASCAR's tough new Winston Cup inspections.
As of Tuesday evening, seven teams had been fined or penalized for illegally trying to improve the aerodynamics or performance of their cars.
Foyt's team was fined $250 Tuesday after inspectors found a spring-loaded rear deck lid during pre-qualifying inspection Monday morning.
Mast's team was fined $1,000 for using spacers or washers in the spring jacks that were designed to crush during qualifying, making the car lower to the ground. The team was fined another $500 for using a windshield that had been cut down by 1.25 inches. Both infractions were discovered Friday.
"We sure got caught," said Mast's car owner, Richard Jackson. "They caught some of the people, but they didn't catch everybody. I think they caught about half of what was really going on. The problem is that the ones they don't catch still get away with it. It's not a different than a football player getting caught doing a little holding."
Smith's team was put on probation, but not fined, after inspectors found eight feet of extra fuel line in the car during the Friday inspection.
\ NASCAR announced fines for the cars of Harry Gant, Jimmy Means and Jimmy Spencer.
Gant's team, owned by Richard Jackson's brother, Leo, was fined $750 Tuesday. Gant's car was found to be lower than the legal height after qualifying Saturday. The team also had used crushable spacers in the spring jacks.
Means was fined $250 Tuesday for the spring-loaded rear deck lid discovered on his car Saturday. And Spencer's team was fined $500 for using a rear deck lid designed to bend at speed and drop the spoiler angle below the minimum 35 degrees.
Sunday, NASCAR fined Rusty Wallace's team $2,000 for using illegal screw jacks.
\ NASCAR Dash series driver Jeff Collier, 37, of Halifax, N.C. won the pole for Friday's Florida 200 with a speed of 166.012 mph in his four-cylinder Ford Probe.
Collier, who manages the North Carolina prison farm system during the week and races weekends, was almost 3 mph quicker than the second fastest car and almost 6 mph quicker than the third fastest car.
Maxie Bush won the second spot at 163.316 mph, George Crenshaw was third at 157.398 mph and three-time winner Mike Swaim of Archdale, N.C., was fourth at 157.321 mph.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING