Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9411040011
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITE|
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
``Thank goodness I've finally got some poles. It took a long time,'' Musgrave said Friday after setting a track record at Martinsville Speedway and winning the top starting spot for Sunday's Goody's 500. ``I've just got to get myself a little more tuned in here on race setups. Sometimes we hit and sometimes we miss.''
Musgrave's lap of 94.129 mph in his Family Channel-sponsored Ford Thunderbird gave him his third pole position of 1994. He was the only driver to better the previous track record of 93.887 mph set by Geoff Bodine here in April 1993.
Bodine won the outside pole Friday with a lap of 93.845 mph in another Ford.
For the dominating Ford teams, it was the 22nd pole of the year - the 15th at record-breaking speed. The Chevrolet teams have four poles; Pontiacs have none.
In addition to his Martinsville pole, Musgrave won the top starting spot for both Richmond races this year. But good finishes have been hard to come by for the 38-year-old Wisconsin native. His best this year is sixth at Sears Point. He is currently 16th in Winston Cup points after reaching as high a ninth midway through the season.
``We've had two hurdles this year,'' Musgrave said. ``The first was just getting the team going with me as driver. The second was changing crew chiefs, with Robin [Pemberton] coming on [in July]. We've pretty much got that figured out now. I think from now on everything looks pretty good.''
Musgrave's pole-winning lap was the first of his two circuits around this .526-mile oval, the shortest track in the Winston Cup series.
``I knew the car was going to be okay on the first lap,'' he said. ``I gambled on the second and tried to get it better, but it didn't work. Here in Martinsville it's awful tough to get a good line'' into the corners.
``I got in a little too hard and let my emotions get away with me,'' he said. ``I knew I had a good one, and I thought, `If I can just get in there a little harder ...' But I got loose and that was it.''
Jeff Burton was third fastest in another Ford at 93.835 miles per hour. ``I thought we had a shot at this today,'' he said. ``We took a run at Ted and came up just a little bit short.''
John Andretti was fourth fastest in a Pontiac at 93.580 mph, followed by Mark Martin at 93.567 mph in a Ford. Also in the top 10 were Jeff Gordon in the fastest Chevy at 93.414 mph, Rusty Wallace in a Ford at 93.299 mph, Dale Jarrett in a Chevy at 93.272 mph, Sterling Marlin in a Chevy at 93.253 mph and Bill Elliott in a Ford at 93.198 mph.
Two of the top 10 are using Hoosier tires - Bodine and Burton. The rest are on Goodyears.
Other notables in the top 20 include Kenny Wallace in 12th, Ricky Rudd in 13th, Kyle Petty in 16th, Terry Labonte in 17th and Dale Earnhardt, who was first to qualify, in 20th.
``We ran about three tenths [of a second] slower in qualifying than we did in practice,'' Earnhardt said. ``I reckon the track got hotter and slowed up. If that's not it, I don't know what happened.''
At the other end of the lineup, at least a half-dozen regulars will be battling just to make the field in the second round of time trials today at 12:30 p.m.
Sunday's field will include the fastest 34 cars plus two provisional starting spots. And the drivers who are currently 34th fastest or lower, in order, are Todd Bodine, Dave Marcis, Greg Sacks, Bobby Hillin, Mike Wallace, Jeremy Mayfield, Loy Allen and Tim Fedewa.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB