ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702100128
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
MIKE SKINNER AND STEVE GRISSOM are at the head of the class for the Feb.16 running of the Daytona 500.
Surprise, surprise.
The winners of the top two starting spots for the Daytona 500 on Feb.16 are a Winston Cup rookie and a struggling fourth-year driver on the circuit.
Rookie Mike Skinner stole teammate Dale Earnhardt's usual Daytona thunder, completed what may become known as the ``trash-bag lap'' and won the pole position at 189.813 mph Saturday in a Chevrolet Monte Carlo (another surprise).
The outside starting position on the front row went to Steve Grissom, who did not run the rest of the 1996 season after being fired from the Cartoon Network Chevrolet after 13 races. Grissom reached 189.318 mph in the Kodiak Chevrolet owned by Larry Hedrick.
``My feelings are unexplainable, I guess,'' said Skinner, the 1995 NASCAR truck series champion. ``This moment here is right at the top. When you think it can't get any better, something happens.''
Fords were shut out of the front row after dominating January testing and Friday practice, when they posted the top seven speeds. But the Thunderbirds did have the next seven fastest speeds Saturday.
Defending champion Dale Jarrett was third fastest, at 189.286 mph, followed by Rusty Wallace (189.179 mph), Bobby Hillin (189.111), John Andretti (188.834), Ernie Irvan (188.826), Loy Allen (188.474) and Greg Sacks (188.281). Earnhardt, last year's pole winner, was 10th fastest, turning a lap in a Chevy at 188.151 mph.
``Coming from the same place as the [No.]31 car [driven by Skinner], you'd think we'd run about the same,'' Earnhardt said after Busch Clash practice, the final on-track activity of the day. ``There are too many variables, and we miscued on the rain and that contributed.''
The scheduled 2 p.m. start of the qualifying session was delayed 45 minutes, then interrupted three times by light sprinkles. Earnhardt was warming up when one of the showers hit. He had to stop, try to cool the engine during the delay, then warm up again. That may have hurt him.
Skinner wasn't having an easy time of it, either.
``We took off in first gear and I made the first rookie mistake,'' he said. ``I tried to shift into second and I hit fourth. It bogged the motor down and choked it, and I thought it was really going to hurt the engine.
``When I thought nothing else could happen, we went down in the third turn under green and there was a garbage bag or something sitting there right in the line. It looked like a ball cap or something. I didn't know if somebody had shredded a tire or what, so I went around it. When I did, the car got loose.
``But I heard the motor pick up, and the car shot really straight off [turn] 4, and I said, `Man, this could be a really good lap.'''
Skinner's lap knocked Grissom off the pole. And near the bottom of the 52-car lineup waited Wallace and Jarrett, two of the strongest threats for the pole. Both broke 189 mph, but could not match Skinner's trash-bag lap.
Grissom, meanwhile, was a bigger surprise on the front row than Skinner. He was fast in January and on Friday, but his speeds were nothing to write home about it.
He was 12th fastest overall in January testing, 17th fastest in Friday morning's practice and 12th fastest in the afternoon.
``It's pretty amazing [considering] the way the end of 1996 wound up,'' Grissom said. ``I'm definitely not the first one it's ever happened to, but that doesn't make it any easier.
``We unloaded yesterday [with a speed] exactly where we loaded up on our second test. It was just a matter of massaging the car a little bit and tuning the motor.''
Among the drivers who did not fare so well Saturday were Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte (22nd, 23rd and 24th, respectively), Sterling Marlin (28th), Kyle Petty (32nd), Bobby Hamilton (36th), Jeff Burton (40th), Ted Musgrave (44th) and Joe Nemechek, who was unable to complete a lap because of mechanical troubles.
There will be three more qualifying sessions, beginning Monday. But the rest of the field behind the front row will be set after Thursday's Twin 125 qualifying races.
And on Feb.16, when the race starts, the rookie pole winner knows what may happen.
``They'll drop-kick me like a hard football when that green flag drops, but maybe we'll drop-kick them back,'' Skinner said.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. Mike Skinner will have a leg up on the rest ofby CNBthe field when he starts the Daytona 500 from the pole position.
color. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING