Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409070076
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
Cool, overcast weather made tough old Darlington Raceway not so tough Friday, as Geoff Bodine led a parade of 14 drivers who broke the track record in qualifying for Sunday's Southern 500.
Bodine's lap of 166.998 mph in his Ford Thunderbird eclipsed the record of 165.553 mph set by Bill Elliott in the spring.
It was Bodine's fourth pole of 1994 in a qualifying session delayed by about 90 minutes by a wet track. It rained most of the morning.
If it wasn't tough to reach record speeds Friday, it was still tough to get around the old 1.366-mile oval, Bodine said after his lap.
``I don't know what it looked like, but it was a pretty scary lap,'' Bodine said. ``Inside the car,it looked pretty hairy.''
Only 18 months ago, track officials were heralding the arrival of the first sub-30 second lap at this oldest of NASCAR big tracks, which was built in 1950. But the tire war and the weather conditions allowed Bodine to stop the clock at 29.447 seconds on his run.
``This is a tough place and we beat a lot of good cars,'' Bodine said. ``It was close, scary close. I drove into [turn] one really deep. I figured the car would stick, and it did, but I didn't really know if I was going to make it out the other side.''
In turns three and four, Bodine said, ``the car slid up the track, but we were able to get through there without hitting the wall. I got close, but we got through there.''
Ken Schrader was second fastest in a Chevy at 166.828 mph.
``I drove it as hard as I could,'' Schrader said. ``I drove it into [turn] one as hard as I ever had. I really didn't care if it came back in one piece or not.
``We haven't dinged up a lot of cars this year, and we've got some more cars, but we haven't got a pole. Maybe I tried a little too hard, but I know I had a lot of throttle down.''
Ward Burton was third fastest in a Chevy at 166.789 mph, followed by Joe Nemechek in a Chevy (166.540) and Brett Bodine in a Ford (166.506). Also in the top 10 were Mark Martin in a Ford (166.484), Jeff Gordon in a Chevy (166.433), Bobby Labonte in the fastest Pontiac Grand Prix (166.433), Elliott in a Ford (166.405) and Virginian Rick Mast in a Ford (166.017).
Kenny Wallace, Greg Sacks, Morgan Shepherd and Jeff Burton were the other drivers who broke the track record.
Of the 14 record breakers, six were on Hoosier tires: Bodine, the Burton brothers, Nemechek, Mast and Sacks.
``The rain probably helped us,'' Bodine said. ``It really cooled off. It wasn't hot to start with, but the rain cooled it down more and it just got faster and faster.'' Bodine said he only had three laps of practice Friday morning before the rain arrived.
Winston Cup points leader Dale Earnhardt was only 27th fastest. ``The car was loose,'' he said. ``It was totally out of control. We never had a chance to run on new tires and make a real qualifying practice run. We put a little too much in the rear springs probably.''
Only 44 cars made qualifying runs Friday, so today's second round of time trials scheduled for 11:30 a.m. should be uneventful for a change. Lake Speed was 40th fastest, followed by Rick Carelli, Loy Allen, Butch Miller (replacing Jimmy Hensley) and Bob Schacht.
by CNB