ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603250067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: TRANSOUTH FINANCIAL 400 NOTES
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
For the second consecutive Winston Cup race, the pole winner got in trouble during the final practice Saturday afternoon.
Ward Burton's pole-winning Pontiac Grand Prix, which set a track record in qualifying Friday for today's TranSouth Financial 400, received significant right side body damage after Burton and Lake Speed tangled in turn two during the final hour-long practice at Darlington Raceway.
``I was going into turn one. I guess Lake Speed didn't see me,'' Burton said.
``The damage is pretty cosmetic,'' team manager Clyde Booth said. ``I doubt we'll have to go to a back-up car.''
Not so for Speed.
``I've got to go to a back-up car,'' he said. ``I'm not totally sure what happened out there. As I went into turn one, [my spotter] said, `You've got somebody trying to pass you on the inside.' So I tried to go wide enough without going into the gray stuff. By that time, somebody hit me in the left quarter and around we went.''
SECOND-ROUND QUALIFYING: Bobby Hillin led an uneventful second round of time trials Saturday, improving from 38th to 26th-fastest with a lap of 170.602 mph in his Ford Thunderbird. He would have been 23rd with that lap on Friday.
``We made a good comeback in the second round,'' he said. ``Our problem is we're not unloading good enough and it's taking us all day to get things figured out.''
Chuck Bown was the most notable victim of the session. He stood on his Friday speed, which was 37th-fastest. But Hillin went faster, as did Dave Marcis. As a result Bown slipped to 39th, and didn't make the race. Randy MacDonald and Robby Faggart also failed to make the race.
Provisional starting spots went to Mike Wallace, Joe Nemechek and Kyle Petty, who was almost two miles per hour slower on Saturday than he was Friday.
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: The last time Dale Earnhardt pitted on the backstretch was in 1993, not 1992 as previously reported.
Earnhardt started 19th at Bristol in August, 1993, which put him in the backstretch pits.
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB