Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 27, 1994 TAG: 9402270048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKINGHAM, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
After Saturday's second round of time trials, Jarrett is 0-for-2 in 1994 Winston Cup qualifying. He will be using his second, and last, provisional starting spot of the early season to start today's Good- wrench 500 in the 41st position. He had to use his first provisional spot to start the Daytona 500 on Feb. 20.
Loy Allen Jr., the Daytona 500 pole-winner, went from first to worst in two races. He also had to use a provisional spot to get into today's race in the 42nd and final spot.
Danny Sullivan had a disappointing start to his Winston Cup career. He failed to make the race, and instead of trying to make the smaller field for the Richmond race on March 6, Sullivan's team announced Saturday he will try to make his Winston Cup debut at Atlanta on March 13.
A dozen drivers participated in second-round qualifying and Michael Waltrip fared the best, improving from 36th on Friday to 31st. John Andretti went from 39th to 35th, and Lake Speed avoided a provisional spot by improving from 43rd to 37th. Dave Marcis went from 42nd to 40th.
Allen, however, dropped from 40th to 42nd, and Jarrett fell from 41st to 45th.
Drivers who got an early ticket home were Jeremy Mayfield (41st fastest), Ward Burton (43rd), T.W. Taylor (44th), Sullivan (46th), Jerry Hill (47th) and Rick Carelli (48th).
Jarrett, whose qualifying problems began in the second half of the 1993 season, must face the next eight races without the luxury of a provisional starting spot. If he can't qualify on his speed, he goes home.
Every driver gets two provisionals for every 10 races he makes. That means the next opportunity Jarrett will have to use a provisional is the Dover race on June 5, assuming he qualifies for all the races in between.
\ YOUR CHEATIN' TIRES: If one was to believe the grumbling in the garage Friday evening and Saturday morning, Geoff Bodine somehow found a set of "cheater" Hoosiers to use on his record-setting, pole-winning qualifying run Friday for today's Goodwrench 500.
Of course, when a driver's speed improves considerably from practice to qualifying, eyebrows are raised. NASCAR lore includes stories of drivers qualifying on a set of tires with a softer compound or other enhancement.
"Who knows? They could have been sandbagging," said one driver, speaking anonymously. "But they weren't even close" to their practice speeds. "They picked up about three-fourths of a second."
The other top Hoosier driver, Darrell Waltrip, also picked up a lot of speed from practice to qualifying. Waltrip will start ninth when the field takes the green flag today at 12:30 p.m.
Bodine was not surprised to hear some skepticism.
"Those crybabies," he said with a laugh. "Now this is getting low. But I knew this was going to happen.
"I never made a whole lap [at top speed] in practice," Bodine said. "I could never get a clean lap. And Darrell never went out on new tires. Besides, the NASCAR guys were the ones who got the tires out of the [Hoosier] truck."
NASCAR has instituted a new procedure to make sure the tire companies cannot slip a "cheater" set of tires to a team or give other special considerations to a particular driver.
At the track, when teams pick up their rubber from the tire companies, NASCAR inspectors are there to randomly hand them out.
\ FLIPPING HIS LID: There was some real cheating here Saturday.
NASCAR officials confiscated the rear-deck lid of Dick Trickle's car after finding the metal underpinnings had been drilled with hundreds of holes, in an obvious attempt to shed some weight. NASCAR officials forced Trickle's team to install another lid, but did not levy a fine.
\ PAIN IN THE BACK: Former Winston Cup champion Ned Jarrett will undergo surgery Monday to remove bone spurs from his upper back.
"The last few months it has really been giving me fits," said Jarrett, a longtime racing broadcaster.
Jarrett said he thinks his back pain may be a legacy of his driving career in the 1950s and 1960s.
Jarrett expects to spend two days in a Hickory, N.C., hospital and will miss the Richmond race and possibly Atlanta, too.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB