THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 24, 1994 TAG: 9409240382
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Now that he has figured out the qualifying part of NASCAR Winston Cup competition, Ted Musgrave wants to put it all together for a race.
``Thank goodness I've finally got some poles. It took a long time,'' Musgrave said Friday after setting a track record at Martinsville Speedway and winning the top starting spot for Sunday's Goody's 500. ``I've just got to get myself a little more tuned in here on race setups. Sometimes we hit and sometimes we miss.''
Musgrave's lap of 94.129 mph in a Ford gave him his third pole position of 1994. He was also the only driver to break the track record of 93.887 mph set by Geoff Bodine in April 1993.
Bodine won the outside pole Friday with a lap of 93.845 mph in another Ford.
For the dominating Ford teams, it was their 22nd pole of the year and the 15th at a record-breaking speed. The Chevrolet teams have four poles; Pontiacs have none.
In addition to his Martinsville pole, Musgrave won the top starting spot for both Richmond races this year. But good finishes have been hard to come by for the 38-year-old Wisconsin native. His best this year is sixth at Sears Point. He is 16th in Winston Cup points after climbing as high as ninth midway through the season.
``We've had two hurdles this year,'' Musgrave said. ``The first was just getting the team going with me as driver. The second was changing crew chiefs, with Robin (Pemberton) coming on (in July). We've pretty much got that figured out now. I think from now on everything looks pretty good.''
Musgrave's pole-winning lap was the first of his two circuits around this
``I knew the car was going to be OK on the first lap,'' he said. ``I gambled on the second and tried to get better, but it didn't work. Here in Martinsville it's awful tough to get a good line'' into the corners.''
Jeff Burton was third-fastest in another Ford at 93.835 mph. ``I thought we had a shot at this today,'' he told Ford's Wayne Estes. ``We took a run at Ted and came up just a little bit short.''
John Andretti was fourth-fastest in a Pontiac at 93.580 mph, followed by Mark Martin at 93.567 mph in a Ford. Also in the top 10 were Jeff Gordon in the fastest Chevy at 93.414 mph, Rusty Wallace in a Ford at 93.299 mph, Dale Jarrett in a Chevy at 93.272 mph, Sterling Marlin in a Chevy at 93.253 mph and Bill Elliott in a Ford at 93.198 mph.
Other notables in the top 20 include Kenny Wallace in 12th, Ricky Rudd in 13th, Kyle Petty in 16th, Terry Labonte in 17th and Dale Earnhardt, who was first to qualify, in 20th. by CNB