Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 13, 1993 TAG: 9311130091
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA. LENGTH: Medium
Five Winston Cup drivers, including points leader Dale Earnhardt, crashed during practice and qualifying. The tar that track officials used to seal cracks in the asphalt surface of this 1.522-mile oval continued to send car after car into the wall.
"I didn't run as hard as I could. I was conservative," Gant said. The result was his first pole of the year and a speed of 176.902 mph in his Chevrolet Lumina. On the stopwatch, Gant was almost three-tenths of a second quicker than Brett Bodine, who took the outside pole with a speed of 175.346 mph in a Ford Thunderbird.
Fords also took the next 10 starting spots. Rick Mast of Rockbridge Baths qualified third at 175.334 mph, followed by Ted Musgrave (174.853 mph) and Jimmy Spencer (174.641). Also in the top 10 were Bobby Hamilton (174.630), Ernie Irvan (174.608), Bill Elliott (174.436) Rick Bickle (174.369) and Lake Speed (174.175).
Rusty Wallace, who trails Earnhardt by an almost-insurmountable 126 points in the Winston Cup championship race, will start next to Earnhardt. Wallace qualified 20th; Earnhardt 19th in his backup car.
Among those who failed to make the top 20 were Darrell Waltrip (22nd), Dale Jarrett (23nd), Terry Labonte (24th), Mark Martin (27th), Kyle Petty (32nd), Neil Bonnett (36th) and Sterling Marlin (41st).
But the big story was the treacherous track conditions. Earnhardt's crash came early in practice in turn two.
"The track wasn't in condition to run on," he said. "I just got down in turn two and got loose. There's no rhyme or reason for the way the track is."
Ken Schrader crashed during qualifying (after hitting the wall earlier Friday with his Grand National car) and was outwardly laughing but still disgusted.
"It's ridiculous management when you have a track in March where you can run from the bottom to the top and then they go and [mess] with it. How they can take the good track we had in March and mess it up is beyond me," Schrader said. "The track is junk."
Track officials have said that cracks were appearing in the asphalt in the turns, allowing moisture to get under the surface, so they filled the cracks a few weeks ago.
There were at least four crashes in practice sessions last week, which was nothing compared to this week. The best that can be said is that no one has been seriously injured.
Four ARCA cars crashed Wednesday, followed by 10 on Thursday, as well as one Grand National car. On Friday, in addition to the Winston Cup crashes by Earnhardt, Schrader, Jeff Gordon, Dave Marcis and Marlin, three Grand National cars hit the wall. Many other Winston Cup drivers reported close calls.
And that was before the ARCA race, won by Jeff Purvis.
Drivers were hoping Friday's ARCA race and today's Slick 50 300 for Grand National cars would improve the surface.
But Bill Venturini, one of a dozen ARCA drivers involved in nine crashes or spins during Friday's Jiffy Lube 500K, emerged from his wreck with an ominous prediction: "It looks like the race track is getting worse and worse. I've never been on a race track this bad."
As if to add insult to injury, the wait to get through the track tunnel into the infield was as long as two hours Friday morning while everyone was forced to go through two or three check points. Drivers and officials were not exempted. In fact, it was worse for some of them.
Can you imagine anyone demanding $10 from NASCAR Vice President Les Richter or Winston Cup stars Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd to get into the infield?
That's what happened. Track workers forced Bobby Labonte to pay, too, as well as pace car driver Elmo Langley and others.
All of them had their NASCAR annual passes, but guards were demanding parking passes as well - passes many didn't have.
"The guard told me Thursday that if I didn't have a pass today, I'd have to walk into the infield," Mark Martin said. He spent the night in the infield to avoid the problem.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB