Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 16, 1995 TAG: 9509180048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DOVER, DEL. LENGTH: Medium
This time Rick Mast doesn't have to share the spotlight.
Mast came up with his first pole of the season and the third of his Winston Cup career Friday at Dover Downs International Speedway, taking the top qualifying spot for Sunday's MBNA 500.
He turned a lap of 153.446 mph, breaking the event record of 152.840 set in September of 1994 by Geoff Bodine, but came up short of the track record of 153.669 set in June by Jeff Gordon.
Still, it was a big day for the 38-year-old journeyman racer from Rockbridge Baths, Va., whose three poles have come in 178 tries.
``When I won my first pole at Atlanta [in November of 1992], Richard Petty was retiring and everybody was talking about that. Then, I won the pole last year at Indy [at the inaugural Brickyard 400], and that was the first race there and it was such a big deal that my pole was sort of overlooked.
``Maybe I can have the limelight for a day this time,'' he said with a wide grin.
Mast, whose only top-10 finishes this season are a pair of eighths, said he hoped winning this pole might boost his Skoal Racing team's spirits.
``It's been a miserable year and I don't know why,'' he said. ``We finished up last year on such a high note and we were real confident over the winter.
``Then we went to Daytona [for the season-opening Daytona 500] and lost six or seven engines right off the bat. Then [car owner] Richard Jackson lost his dad. The season seemed to go downhill from there.
``It's taken us most of the season to regroup. Maybe this will really get us going.''
Gordon, who leads the series with eight poles this season, came close to making it nine, completing a lap around the one-mile, high-banked concrete oval just .041-seconds slower than Mast. That translates to 153.178.
``We've had a tough day,'' said Gordon, who holds a 279-point lead over Dale Earnhardt in the Winston Cup standings. ``We blew an engine off the bat this morning, and then we punctured a right rear tire. Qualifying second surprised me a little.''
Kyle Petty, who won the June race, was next at 152.834 as the top three spots were divided among three manufacturers, with Mast in a Ford, Gordon a Chevrolet and Petty a Pontiac.
Bobby Labonte was fourth at 152.814, followed by Ward Burton of Scottsburg, Va., (152.808), Ricky Rudd (152.698), defending race winner Rusty Wallace (152.626), Hut Stricklin (152.342) and John Andretti and Jeremy Mayfield, both at 151.963. Andretti gets the higher starting position by virtue of a better showing so far this season in the car-owner points.
This is the first race since NASCAR announced it would change its qualifying format, with the top 25 in the first round locking in starting positions, instead of the top 20.
That was a good break for Rich Bickle Jr., top rookie contender Ricky Craven, Bobby Hillin Jr., Joe Nemechek and Jeff Burton, who qualified 21st through 25th. Dave Marcis, who had exactly the same speed as Burton, wound up 26th, again because of car-owner points.
Qualifying continued to be extremely close and tense, with all 40 drivers who completed attempts less than one second apart.
Terry Fisher, making his first Winston Cup appearance of the year, crashed hard during his qualifying run and leaped uninjured from his battered car as it burst into flames.
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB