THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409030631
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DARLINGTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Cool, overcast weather made tough old Darlington Raceway not so tough Friday, as Geoff Bodine led a parade of 14 drivers who broke the track record in qualifying for Sunday's Southern 500.
Bodine's lap of 166.998 mph in his Ford Thunderbird eclipsed the record of 165.553 mph set by Bill Elliott here in the spring.
It was Bodine's fourth pole of 1994 in a qualifying session delayed by about 90 minutes by a wet track. It rained most of the morning.
Only 18 months ago, track officials were heralding the arrival of the first sub-30 second lap at this oldest of NASCAR big tracks, was built in 1950.
But the tire war and the weather conditions allowed Bodine to stop the clock at 29.447 seconds on his run around the 1.366-mile oval.
``This is a tough place and we beat a lot of good cars,'' Bodine said. ``I drove into (turn) one really deep. I figured the car would stick, and it did, but I didn't really know if I was going to make it out the other side.''
Ken Schrader was second fastest in a Chevy at 166.828 mph. Ward Burton was next in a Chevy at 166.789 mph, followed by Joe Nemechek in a Chevy at 166.540 and Brett Bodine in a Ford at 166.506.
The rest of the top 10: Mark Martin in a Ford at 166.484 mph, Jeff Gordon in a Chevy at 166.433, Bobby Labonte in the fastest Pontiac Grand Prix at 166.433, Elliott in a Ford at 166.405 and Rick Mast in a Ford at 166.017.
Kenny Wallace, Greg Sacks, Morgan Shepherd and Jeff Burton also broke the track record. Winston Cup points leader Dale Earnhardt was only 27th fastest.
Ricky Rudd was 18th fastest at 164.622.
Of the 14 record breakers, six were on Hoosier tires: Bodine, the Burton brothers, Nemechek, Mast and Sacks.
Only 44 cars made qualifying runs Friday, so the second round of time trials, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. today, should be uneventful for a change. Lake Speed was 40th fastest, followed by Rick Carelli, Loy Allen, Butch Miller and Bob Schacht.
GN POLE: Randy Lajoie won his first pole position for a Grand National race, and broke Darlington's Busch track record as well.
Lajoie captured the top starting spot for today's Gatorade 200 with a speed of 161.022 mph in his Chevrolet, smashing the mark of 159.652 mph established by Mark Martin two years ago.
Martin also broke his record, but had to settle for the outside pole after a lap of 160.943 mph in a Ford. All of the 10 fastest drivers exceeded Martin's 1992 speed.
Phil Parsons won the third starting spot in an Oldsmobile, followed by Mike McLaughlin, Chesapeake driver Elton Sawyer, Larry Pearson, Tracy Leslie, Chad Little, Ricky Craven and Dennis Setzer.
The race starts at 1 p.m. and will be telecast at 4 p.m. on tape-delay by ESPN.
WORKING ON A RIDE: Jimmy Hensley, released Monday as the driver of the No. 55 Ford Thunderbird, said he plans to be here today to work on trying to land another ride. His replacement, Butch Miller, ran 43rd in the first round of time trials Friday.
STATUS QUO FOR ANDRETTI: John Andretti is back in Richard Petty's No. 43 Pontiac Grand Prix for the Southern 500. He said his deal with Petty continues on a race-to-race basis. by CNB