ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 5, 1997 TAG: 9702050077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
JANUARY SPEEDS may indicate who the top qualifiers will be at Daytona.
The time is almost upon us, and as the NASCAR Winston Cup teams head to Daytona International Speedway for Saturday's pole qualifying for the Feb. 16 Daytona 500, perhaps no driver goes with more anticipation than John Andretti.
After a dozen days of practice and testing in January, Andretti finished on top of the speed chart, with a lap of 189.458 mph around the 2.5-mile superspeedway on Jan.15.
``We wanted to get a jump start on things, and I think we have,'' said Andretti, who drives Cale Yarborough's No. 98 RCA Ford Thunderbird. ``I can't say I'm completely shocked. The RCA team has been really fast all last year at these tracks. I just didn't expect to get back to where they were last year with these new rules.''
Running fast in January is all well and good, but what about pole day Saturday? How will Andretti fare then?
Chances are, he'll be among the 10 fastest. In fact, the fastest five in practice this year - Andretti, Rusty Wallace, Greg Sacks, Robby Gordon and Ricky Rudd - should all be among the top 10 Saturday. Of the top five drivers in practice for 1994, '95 and '96, only one each year failed to make the top 10 fastest on pole day.
The biggest bomb in the past three years was Joe Nemechek, who was third fastest in practice in 1995, only to plummet to 43rd fastest on pole day. But only once since 1994 has one of the fastest drivers in January won the pole in February. In 1995, Dale Jarrett was second fastest in practice and won the pole.
This year, Jarrett was seventh fastest in practice.
``In our case, we never even made a qualifying-type effort at Daytona in January,'' Jarrett said. ``We have an idea, but we worked on stuff that will help us with the race. So we, along with everybody else, don't really know how fast we can run. But I think we definitely have a legitimate shot at the pole.''
``When somebody runs a fast time in January, you don't know whether they were trying something and whether it was totally on the up-and-up. So it might not have really been indicative of their speed and of what they can do after they go through [NASCAR Winston Cup Director] Gary Nelson's little [inspection] room there and go out the other side and get ready to qualify.''
Said Andretti, ``I don't know how much is left in the car. When it comes right down to it, and we load all of our guns into it, I think we'll be at or maybe a little better than preseason testing. But I hope whatever it takes, the 98 is the one that does it. I don't care if I'm the quickest by a thousandth of a second or a second. I just want to be the quickest.''
The odds suggest that whoever wins the pole Saturday will do it at a slightly faster speed than the best speed in January testing.
Last year, Dale Earnhardt won the pole at 189.510 mph, which was about .5 mph faster than the fast lap in January of 188.972 mph by Jeremy Mayfield. In 1995, Jarrett picked up about .7 mph, reaching 193.494 mph after Michael Waltrip set the standard in practice at 192.802 mph. But in 1994, after Ernie Irvan reached 191.042 mph in practice, Loy Allen won the pole at only 190.158 mph.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines KEYWORDS: AUTO RACINGby CNB