THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 23, 1994 TAG: 9407230374
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA. LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Dale Earnhardt, the driver who always seems to be in front when the checkered flag falls at Talladega Superspeedway, also will be in the front at the beginning of Sunday's DieHard 500.
Earnhardt won the pole Friday - his second of the year - with a lap of 193.470 mph in his Chevrolet Lumina. Pepsi 400 winner Jimmy Spencer took the outside pole with a speed of 193.006 mph in his Ford Thunderbird.
It was the first time a DieHard 500 pole winner had topped 193 miles per hour since Mark Martin won the top starting spot for the 1989 race at a speed of 194.8 mph.
``We just ran a fast lap, really,'' Earnhardt said. ``This is the same car we sat on the pole with down at Daytona'' for the Pepsi 400 earlier this month. ``It's the same engine and everything.
``We went a little conservative in practice,'' he said. ``We were a little conservative on the spoiler and a little conservative on taping the front end up. If you heat an engine up too much in practice, it takes a little out of it. I wanted to save everything . . . for qualifying. We waited until we qualified to go for it.''
Earnhardt, as he did after winning the Daytona pole, dedicated the pole to Neil Bonnett, who was killed in a practice crash at Daytona in February.
``He helped us a lot in the test last winter,'' Earnhardt said. ``All the fine-tuning and tweaking he did in the car and I did in the car paid off. We found everything we possibly could to make it go fast.''
Spencer said he was ``a little upset'' he didn't win the pole.
``You know Earnhardt, he's the best,'' Spencer said. ``The man didn't run a good lap all day today (in practice), but I knew all along he had something. He did it at Daytona and he did it again here today.''
Loy Allen, who has had plenty of power here and at Daytona, won the third starting spot with a speed of 192.765 mph in his Ford. Ken Schrader was fourth fastest at 192.370 mph in a Chevy, followed by Ernie Irvan at 192.328 mph in a Ford.
Also in the top 10 were Mark Martin at 191.815 mph in a Ford, Todd Bodine at 191.524 mph in a Ford, Sterling Marlin at 191.470 mph in a Chevy, Michael Waltrip at 191.371 mph in the fastest Pontiac Grand Prix and Wally Dallenbach at 191.248 mph in a Pontiac.
With 51 cars vying for 40 regular starting spots, the second round of qualifying, at 10:45 a.m., once again will be critical for a number of drivers, including several regulars.
The drivers who were 36th fastest or lower, in the danger zone for making the race, are (in order): Joe Nemechek, Dick Trickle, Ritchie Petty, Jeff Burton, Rich Bickle, John Andretti, Dave Marcis, Jimmy Hensley, Brad Teague, Joe Ruttman, Ben Hess, Derrike Cope, Billy Standridge, Ward Burton, Bobby Hamilton and Delma Cowart.
In other pole-day news, NASCAR officials were busy handing out fines Friday after their inspectors found a number of problems on several cars, particularly around the air filter.
After Kyle Petty's qualifying run, which was 21st fastest, inspectors ``found tape on the housing of the air filter housing extending back toward the cowl to increase the air flow (into the engine), which will increase horsepower,'' NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said.
The team was fined $2,000. But even though his team cheated, NASCAR allowed Petty to keep his Friday qualifying time. This is a significant departure from past procedure. When NASCAR found an illegal carburetor on Ken Schrader's car after qualifying for the Pepsi 400 last year at Daytona, they not only disallowed his time, but suspended him for four races. (The suspension was later overturned).
NASCAR also fined Jeff Gordon's team a total of $3,000. The team received a $1,000 fine for arriving at the track Friday with a spoiler that was too thin. The spoiler is supposed to be 0.125 inches thick; Gordon's was 0.090 thick, Triplett said. It was found during pre-practice inspection.
Gordon's team also received a $2,000 fine for making cuts in the air filter in an attempt to allow more air flow to the engine. Gordon qualified 15th.
And on Rick Bickle's car, ``the base of the air filter housing was irregular, and it was the same air filter housing the team had been asked not to use twice previously,'' Triplett said. The housing was confiscated and the team was fined $500. Bickle was 40th fastest. by CNB