Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 26, 1994 TAG: 9403260134
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Friday was one of those rare days in Winston Cup racing when a driver could break the track record and still not make the starting field.
No less than six drivers shattered Sterling Marlin's 2-year-old Darlington Raceway record and still didn't make the top 20 for Sunday's TranSouth 400.
At the top of the heap after the wildest qualifying session of 1994 was Bill Elliott, who had been decidedly ordinary until Friday, when he circled the 1.366-mile track at 165.553 mph.
Marlin's previous record of 163.067 mph, set March 26, 1992, would have made him 27th fastest Friday, just behind Dave Marcis.
"It was really one of the best days I've seen here at Darlington as far as qualifying," Elliott said. "It was a good, cool day and the track was perfect as far as I'm concerned."
Elliott was talking about conditions, of course, but the entertainment was top quality, too. Again and again, several thousand fans in the frontstretch grandstands were on their feet cheering.
Ten drivers held the pole until Elliott finally claimed it for good.
And while more than half the 49 entrants were breaking the track record, the 30-second barrier was falling, too. A dozen drivers posted laps in the 29-second range, with Elliott at 29.704 seconds.
Ernie Irvan was the first to do it at 29.944 seconds, or 164.227 mph. But when qualifying was over, he was only 11th fastest.
Irvan held the pole with his lap. But Rick Mast followed Irvan and went faster. Dale Earnhardt followed Mast, and beat him. Two cars later, Geoff Bodine beat Earnhardt. And three cars after that, Chuck Bown beat Bodine.
Bown actually had a few minutes to enjoy his status. But 13 qualifying attempts later, Mark Martin took over the top spot.
Martin is such a good qualifier, it looked as if the game was up. But Elliott wheeled his No. 11 Ford Thunderbird onto the track two cars after Martin and gave his struggling Junior Johnson-owned team a lift.
"Maybe this weekend we can kind of turn things around and get us going in a good direction," said Elliott. He failed to win last year and has only one top-10 finish so far this year. "I don't think anything has been wrong with this team," he said. "I think we've just gone through a lot of misfortune."
Several minutes after Elliott, Marlin came out and clocked the second fastest lap of the day, as if to demonstrate that his record wasn't going to fall without him having some part of the action.
Marlin was at 165.292 mph in his Chevrolet Lumina, followed by the Fords of Martin (165.253), Bown (165.031) and Brett Bodine (164.965). Ken Schrader was sixth fastest in a Chevy at 164.959 mph, followed by Geoff Bodine (164.672) and Rusty Wallace (164.501) in Fords, Earnhardt's Chevy (164.479) and Mast's Ford (164.446).
It appeared that the war today at the back of the field - the struggle to make the race in second round qualifying - will be less traumatic than the past two races. Wally Dallenbach, who missed the last two events in Richard Petty's Pontiac, appeared secure as the 35th fastest qualifier.
Lake Speed, at 40th fastest, is the last driver in the regular 40-car field. Those outside of the top 40, in order, are Todd Bodine, Brad Teague, Billy Standridge, Loy Allen, Rick Carelli, Bob Schacht, H.B. Bailey, Andy Belmont and Norm Benning.
The second round of qualifying is today at 12:15 p.m.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB