THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010523
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Maybe the new multimillion-dollar Lear jet that Dale Earnhardt bought to commute to and from races had something to do with him winning the pole for Saturday's Pepsi 400 - Earnhardt's first pole at Daytona International Speedway.
``I race better in debt,'' Earnhardt said after knocking Loy Allen out of the top starting spot on the last lap of the last qualifying run of the day Thursday. ``A man races better when he owes money.''
Earnhardt wouldn't say how much he paid for the used twin-engine Lear 31, which carries eight passengers and two pilots, but it lists for about $3.5 million and goes a darn sight faster and higher than his black Chevrolet Lumina.
The jet cruises at 460 knots at an altitude of up to 51,000 feet. Earnhardt's Lumina cruised to the pole at a speed of 191.339 mph on the second of his two time-trial laps.
He had qualifying spot No. 50, the last one in the session, which he said probably helped him.
``The track probably cooled some, and that makes a difference,'' he said. ``I think it helped me. That little bit (of cooling) was probably good enough to beat (Allen).''
For Chevrolet, this was only its second pole of 1994.
And although it is difficult to believe, this was Earnhardt's first pole in 33 Winston Cup points races at Daytona. His previous best was the outside pole for the 1984 Firecracker 400, the 1990 Daytona 500 and this year's 500.
Allen beat him for the 500 pole in February. But on Thursday, Earnhardt thwarted Allen's bid to close the gap between the number of poles Allen has won (3) vs. the number of races in which he has failed to qualify (6).
``I couldn't have got beat by anybody any better, I guess,'' Allen told Ford's Wayne Estes after his lap of 190.868 in a Ford Thunderbird came up short. ``He returned the favor for us knocking him off the pole here in February.''
``I tell you, we were really close in February down here, but we got beat by a little trickery there,'' Earnhardt said. ``So to come back here and turn that back around and be the last car to go out and do it is turnabout fair play, I think.''
The ``trickery'' that Earnhardt referred to was the fact that Allen used Hoosier tires to win the pole, but then used Goodyears in the race. All the Hoosier drivers switched to Goodyear after NASCAR approved the move, when serious questions were raised about the safety and reliability of the Hoosiers. Nonetheless, it still irritated the Goodyear drivers.
``It seemed pretty tricky, didn't it, to qualify with them and not race with them?'' Earnhardt said.
``We felt good about the car off the truck (Thursday). We were practicing with a little more spoiler, and we felt like knocking the spoiler down (for qualifying) would help a couple of tenths (of a second). We only ran about six laps in practice.
``On the first lap (190.646 mph), I was a little low (on the track). I hit a bump or two. When I came around, I saw I was second and said, `Man, if I just do the next one perfect, I'll do OK.' So I stayed about 5 feet off the bottom and didn't hit those bumps as hard, and I think the car was faster through the corners.''
Behind Earnhardt and Allen, Jimmy Spencer qualified third at 190.577 mph in a Ford, followed by Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin at 189.665 mph in a Chevy and Ernie Irvan at 189.478 mph in a Ford.
Also in the top 10 were Ken Schrader in a Chevy and Geoff Bodine in a Ford on Hoosier tires at the identical speed of 188.830 mph; Greg Sacks in a Ford on Hoosiers at 188.758 mph; Terry Labonte in a Chevy at 188.719 mph; and Jimmy Hensley in a Ford at 188.391 mph.
At the other end of the lineup - at 40th-fastest or lower and facing a tough day of second-round qualifying at 1 p.m. today - are Bobby Hillin, Kyle Petty, Jeremy Mayfield, Joe Ruttman, Lake Speed, Bill Elliott, Rick Mast and Billy Standridge. Also in that group is Ward Burton, who did not make a qualifying attempt Thursday. by CNB