ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 19, 1997 TAG: 9704210127
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Kenny Wallace upstages his older brother to win the top spot for the Goody's 500 race.
Rusty Wallace, the reigning master of Martinsville Speedway, was talking to his little brother, Kenny, when the enthusiastic younger Wallace made a bold statement.
``I'm going to get the pole,'' Kenny said.
``No, you're not,'' Rusty replied. ``I've got better shocks.''
This time, big brother was wrong. The younger Wallace snatched the top starting spot Friday for Sunday's Goody's 500, turning a lap of 93.961 mph in his Ford Thunderbird to beat another unlikely contender.
Joe Nemechek, coming off the tragic death of his brother last month and facing major team changes this week, held the pole through most of the qualifying session with a lap of 93.724 mph until Wallace knocked him out of the top spot with only a few cars left to run. Nemechek, driving a Chevrolet Monte Carlo, was bumped to the outside pole.
``I beat Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace,'' Wallace said. ``If you can't have a little satisfaction out of that, why are you racing?''
Said Nemechek, ``I knew my lap would be hard to beat. I'm a little disappointed, but my hat's off to Kenny Wallace. That was a great lap. At least we know we've got a good car for the race, and starting on the front row at Martinsville ain't too shabby.''
Geoff Bodine was third fastest in a Ford at 93.553 mph, followed by Gordon in a Chevy at 93.341 and Ricky Rudd in a Ford at 93.226. Also in the top 10 were Hut Stricklin in a Ford at 93.198 mph, Terry Labonte in a Chevy at 93.189, Bobby Hamilton in the fastest Pontiac Grand Prix at 93.148, Bill Elliott in a Ford at 93.139 and Kyle Petty in a Pontiac at 93.074 mph.
Rusty Wallace will attempt to win his fifth straight Goody's 500 from the 15th starting position.
Kenny Wallace was the only driver in the field who went faster during qualifying than he did in practice. Most drivers lost two or three tenths of a second.
Wallace circled the .526-mile oval in 20.153 seconds to win the pole.
``I was just concerned that I wouldn't get enough heat in my tires,'' he said.
Wallace said the key to his fast lap was the discovery of a high groove in the Martinsville turns.
``The way I discovered the groove was that I saw [Ricky] Craven run it last year,'' Wallace said. ``The problem with getting a quick lap at Martinsville is that you have to slow up to go around the curve. This morning in practice, the car was pushing a little bit. I ran in [the turn] really hard and the car slid up, and when it slid up, it was still turning, so I picked up the throttle and my car came off the high line and it kept the motor running. I was able to keep the rpms up.''
``I didn't mean to run that high, but it was a quick lap, so I just said, `I'll just run high again in qualifying.' And it worked.''
At Martinsville, qualifying well means qualifying among the top 21 cars, since all of them get pit stalls on the frontstretch and it's nearly impossible to win the race from a backstretch pit.
Among those who will be pitting on the backstretch Sunday are Winston Cup points leader Dale Jarrett (23rd fastest), Dale Earnhardt (25th), Ernie Irvan (28th), Craven (31st), Mark Martin (35th) and rookie Robby Gordon (39th fastest).
Martin scrubbed the outside wall coming off the fourth turn on his last lap.
``I was going for it on that second lap there,'' he said. ``The first lap wasn't good enough, so I was going for it. We just scraped the wall a little bit.''
Sterling Marlin also will have to pit on the backstretch after failing to make a qualifying run because of a practice crash.
Marlin lost control coming off turn 4 and his Chevy just barely tapped the inside wall on the front straight. But the impact pushed the sway bar back a couple of inches and did enough damage to force the team to unload its backup car. And the crew couldn't get the backup prepared in time for qualifying.
Marlin will have another opportunity at 1 p.m. today when starting positions 26 through 38 are set during the second round of time trials. Dave Marcis is currently 38th fastest, followed by Robby Gordon, Bobby Hillin, Gary Bradberry, Mike Wallace, Lance Hooper (substituting for the injured Greg Sacks), David Green, Brett Bodine, Billy Standridge and Marlin.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. DON PETERSEN THE ROANOKE TIMES Kenny Wallace isby CNBcongratulated by his crew chief after winning the pole position for
Sunday's running of the Goody's 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
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2. DON PETERSEN THE ROANOKE TIMES Sterling Marlin (left) and his
crew inspect damage to the the front end of his car after Marlin hit
the wall during qualifying Friday at Martinsville Speedway for
Sunday's Winston Cup race. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING