Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 7, 1993 TAG: 9308070112
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
Martin's lap at 119.118 mph in his Ford Thunderbird shattered the track record at Watkins Glen International by 2.5 mph and blew away his closest competition by almost 1.2 mph.
Beating the track record was no big deal, as a dozen drivers surpassed Dale Earnhardt's 1992 standard of 116.662 mph.
But Martin, on the stopwatch, was more than seven-tenths of a second faster around this 2.45-mile road course than Ken Schrader, who took the outside pole with a speed of 117.946 mph in a Chevrolet Lumina.
That large an advantage is rare in the Winston Cup series. This year 12 of the 19 poles have been won by less than a tenth of a second. The biggest previous margin for 1993 was in qualifying for the Winston 500 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where Dale Earnhardt won by forty-six-hundredths of a second.
This was Martin's third pole this year. But he hasn't had a lot of luck on race day. Stung by disappointments and bad luck in 1993, and still looking for his first victory, Martin was not boasting.
"It wasn't that special," he said of his qualifying run. "Things worked in our favor today. It all balances out. Sooner or later, we're going to win a whole bunch of these [races]."
Terry Labonte was third fastest in a Chevy at 117.892 mph, followed by Lake Speed, driving the late Davey Allison's Ford, at 117.755 mph. Dale Earnhardt was fifth at 117.478 mph in his Chevy.
Also in the top 10 were Rusty Wallace in the fastest Pontiac Grand Prix (117.461 mph), Kyle Petty in another Pontiac (117.186), Bill Elliott in a Ford (117.127), Ricky Rudd in a Chevy (117.018) and Wally Dallenbach Jr. in a Ford (116.975).
When Martin pulled up to the garage after his record-shattering lap, he didn't realize there was anything special about it. The attention was on Speed, who had just made his run and was being interviewed by a cluster of reporters just a few feet from where Martin stopped.
"I guess everything is pretty special when you look at the lap time, but I didn't know it at the time," he said. "I got to thinking, by everybody's response, that it wasn't the pole.
"If it wasn't the pole, that was fine with me because that was as fast as I can go. So when they told me what our lap time was, I couldn't believe it. I was shocked."
Martin said he hit some of the corners of the 11-turn road course well and some just average. But the key was that he didn't miss any of them badly and he didn't get off the course.
Speed, meanwhile, was thrilled with his first official performance in Allison's old car, but he still was battling nerves.
"I've had a lot of self-inflicted pressure on myself," he said. "I just needed to get this day out of the way. Now I feel like we can go on and . . . loosen up.
"I expected the best darn car I've ever driven and that's what I got," he said. "I crawled in there and it feels like a champion's car. I just need to get it where I can run it to its potential. I just need to relax."
Speed, who will complete the season in the Ford, said he was not initially considered a natural to take over the car on a road course, but, "I've got more years and experience on road courses than I do on ovals. I raced karts for 19 years and I've only been doing this for 13 or so."
A second round of time trials begins at 11 a.m. today and among those who may want to run again are Darrell Waltrip (25th fastest), Brett Bodine (27th), Sterling Marlin (30th) and Rick Mast (31st).
Todd Bodine, making his debut in the Rahmoc Ford (replacing Dick Trickle), spun off the course but went ahead and completed the lap. He was the slowest of the 41 drivers who attempted to qualify Friday.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB