THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407100246
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LOUDON, N.H. LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
A single day, a thick layer of clouds and a temperature drop of about 20 degrees made all the difference Saturday at New Hampshire International Speedway.
After crumbling and breaking up under Friday's heat, the 1.058-mile track posed no significant problems Saturday and allowed Bill Elliott and three other drivers to break Ernie Irvan's one-day-old track record.
Elliott took the 21st starting position for today's Slick 50 300 in a busy second-day qualifying session Saturday. His record speed of 128.005 mph in a Junior Johnson-owned Ford Thunderbird easily beat Irvan's pole-winning speed of 127.197 mph.
Rick Mast, Brett Bodine and John Andretti, who qualified 22nd, 23rd and 24th, also beat Irvan's record.
``It feels good to come back and run like we ran today, because what was odd is that I never ran any slower than I did when I qualified yesterday,'' Elliott said. ``All these guys (on the crew) have worked real hard, and I really went out of here yesterday feeling really bad. ``The cooler weather was the key to the whole deal. The track is a whole lot better this morning. If it stays cooler, with all the work they've done in the evenings, I think things will be OK.''
Track workers swept the pavement of loose gravel after Friday's activities and applied a layer of sealer in the corners. They swept the track again before the second round of qualifying.
Because the cooler temperatures and the clouds made the track faster, nearly everyone who failed to make the top 20 Friday chose to requalify Saturday.
Only Kyle Petty, who was 21st-fastest Friday, decided to stand on his time. And when the session ended, Petty had plummeted from 21st to 45th and needed a provisional starting spot to make the 42-car field. The other provisional starting spot went to Tim Steele, who is driving Bobby Allison's No. 12 Ford Thunderbird.
Petty, whose team is in serious disarray in the wake of the firing of crew chief Robin Pemberton, explained his decision to stand on his Friday time: ``We were 21st, after all, and didn't have any more new tires. So many things can go wrong. You can end up wrecking. So I told the team to stand on the time.''
The decision didn't affect Petty's team as much as it did his father's. Had Kyle elected to requalify, he probably would have made the field on his speed. And that would have meant that the provisional starting spot he ended up using would have gone to Wally Dallenbach, the driver of Richard Petty's No. 43 Pontiac Grand Prix. Dallenbach was 41st after the second round of time trials.
This was the third race in a row, and the sixth race of 1994, that Dallenbach has missed. But the handwriting was on the wall after Dallenbach smashed the front end of his primary car during practice Friday and had to go to his backup car. The backup, however, was a car that the team planned to make into a show car because it performed so badly in previous outings.
``What can I say that I haven't already said this year?'' Dallenbach said. ``This year has been a disaster. All we can do is keep our chins up and keep going and maybe it will turn around.''
Besides Steele, Petty and Dallenbach, the others who failed to qualify were Loy Allen Jr., Robert Pressley, Joe Bessey and Jamie Aube.
Allen's failure to qualify wasn't because of a lack of engine power. Elliott, Jimmy Spencer and Hut Stricklin made the field using engines leased from Allen's team, TriStar Motorsports.
HENSLEY'S LONG COMMUTE: Although he travels enough on his own as the driver of the No. 55 Ford Thunderbird, Jimmy Hensley has been on the road much of this year on behalf of another athlete in the family.
Once or twice a week since January, Hensley, his wife, Becky, and their daughter, Melanie, have made the 65-mile trip from their home in Horsepasture, Va., to Roanoke and back for a sporting endeavor that has nothing to do with stock-car racing.
Melanie is a member of Virginia state champion Roanoke Stars AAU basketball team for 12-year-old girls.
All that travel paid off when the team won the state championship recently. And this weekend it has been participating in the national tournament in Kenner, La.
``I just hope they can win a couple of games there, but you never know,'' said Hensley, who starts 20th in today's race.
OTHER WINNERS: In the two support races Saturday, New Jersey driver Martin Truex won the 150-lap race for Busch North Grand National cars, while Jeff Fuller won the 40-lap shootout for Modified cars.
Truex beat Andy Santerre by 0.44 seconds in a race slowed repeatedly by yellow flags. There were 11 in all.
In the Modified race, Fuller beat his brother Rick by about a car length with several other drivers on their tails at the end.
Pepsi 400 winner Jim Spencer had a tough afternoon. He was spun out by another car late in the Busch North race, prompting the final yellow flag, and finished 20th. And he crashed hard in the Modified race and finished 30th.
Spencer starts 13th in today's Winston Cup race. by CNB