Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 29, 1992 TAG: 9202290162
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
PETTY STILL MR. GOODWRENCH
Kyle Petty continued his domination of North Carolina Motor Speedway on Friday, breaking his own track record to win the pole for the Goodwrench 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race Sunday with a lap he compared to kicking a 59-yard fieldgoal.Petty's qualifying lap of 149.926 mph in his Pontiac Grand Prix SE gives him a chance to win his third consecutive Goodwrench 500 from the pole.
The record lap didn't feel particularly fast, Petty said, but it was two miles per hour quicker than the 147-mph laps he had been running in practice.
"Kickers can kick 50-yard field goals all day long," he said, "but try moving it back to 60 yards. It's a lot harder to get that last little bit to put you over the top."
In his case, Petty said he didn't quite get all of it. "I kicked a 59-yarder," he said.
A 60-yarder, he said, would have been a lap at 150 mph, which never has been accomplished on the 1.066-mile oval, even though Petty and his engine builder, John Wilson, thought it was possible Friday.
Still, Petty's lap broke the track record of 149.461 mph, which he set in winning the pole last fall for the AC Delco 500.
Bill Elliott had been fastest in practice, but his qualifying lap of 149.272 mph left him in second starting position in his Ford. Mark Martin was third in another Ford at 148.449 mph, followed by Brett Bodine, also driving a Ford, at 147.581 mph, and Rusty Wallace in a Pontiac at 147.439 mph.
Completing the top 10 were Ernie Irvan (146.983 mph), Alan Kulwicki (146.694 mph), Dale Earnhardt (146.577 mph), Ken Schrader (146.571 mph) and Davey Allison (146.366 mph).
"We felt like we were close to what Elliott and Martin had run" in practice, Petty said. "We really didn't feel like we were way out ahead of anybody by any stretch of the imagination. I just got a good lap in."
But Petty always seems to rise to the occasion at "The Rock."
He won the Goodwrench 500 from the pole in 1990 and did it again in 1991.
The two victories earned him Unocal 76 Challenge bonuses totaling almost $300,000. If he can win from the pole for the third time in a row, he again will win the bonus, which stands at $190,000.
One might suppose Petty's success at Rockingham - three of his four career victories have been here - is a result of some secret chassis-engine combination that has eluded the other teams.
But when he took off on his qualifying lap Friday, he was driving a different car, using a different chassis setup and working under the direction of a different crew chief.
Gary Nelson was Petty's crew chief last year. This year, it's Robin Pemberton, who left Mark Martin's team to join Petty after Nelson resigned to become NASCAR's technical director.
"I haven't found any hidden secrets," said Pemberton. "It's the driver and the engine as best I can tell. We didn't have the same setup [as last year] and we didn't have the same car."
Petty agreed that his driving skill seems to be well-suited to the track.
"It's basically a `feel' to the car," he said. "The feel I look for is when you drive the car off the corners, just when you think the car is ready to spin out, you jump back on the gas and the car has enough motor [power] to pull it through. That's all I can tell you. It's a weird feel."
\ Terry Labonte, Morgan Shepherd, Ricky Rudd, Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin and Richard Petty were among 15 drivers who failed to qualify in the top 20 during Friday's first round of time trials. They can try again during a second round of qualifying today at 11:30 a.m.
Richard Petty, whose lap of 143.391 mph was more than six miles per hour slower than his son's lap, said his car was loose during qualifying. The effort left him with a slower lap than he had run in practice Friday morning.
Petty said of his son's run: "I knew Kyle would run good here again, but I didn't know it would be that good. Right now he's still the one to beat. That's for sure."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING