THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 1, 1995 TAG: 9504010393
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BRISTOL, TENN. LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
On a day when it was difficult simply getting through NASCAR inspection at Bristol International Raceway, Mark Martin scored a small victory for the beleaguered Ford teams Friday by winning the pole for Sunday's Food City 500.
While Martin was busy describing his lap of 124.605 mph around the teams were stewing because they never made it on the track.
NASCAR spokesman Kevin Triplett said inspectors found that each of those teams had more than two degrees of camber in the rear ends of their cars. A maximum of 1.8 degrees is allowed.
About 10 cars had the same problem, including those of Sterling Marlin, Jeff Gordon, John Andretti and Ted Musgrave. But all of the teams except those of Labonte, Mast and LaJoie were able to fix it in time to qualify.
Martin, who was the last driver to make the two-lap qualifying run, edged Jeff Gordon, who held the top spot during much of the session with a lap of 124.444 mph.
``I just had to reach in deep,'' Martin said. ``We've been coming up short, so I just hung it out a little bit. I'm not sure this is a good time to beat the Chevys, but we'll take what we can get. We pulled it off.''
Kyle Petty qualified third in a Pontiac Grand Prix at 124.363 mph, followed by Derrike Cope in a Ford at 124.259 mph.
David Green, filling in for injured Bobby Labonte, had a stellar run for a relief driver with limited Winston Cup experience, qualifying fifth at 124.259 mph. Later, he won the pole for today's Goody's 250 Grand National race with a lap of 122.474 in Labonte's Chevrolet.
Ted Musgrave's Ford was sixth fastest at 123.961 mph, followed by Ricky Craven in a Chevy at 123.833 mph, John Andretti and Rusty Wallace in Fords at 123.746 mph and Jeff Burton in a Ford at 123.698.
Terry Labonte, Mast and LaJoie have to wait for the second round of time trials scheduled for 12:30 p.m. today.
Because so many cars had the camber problem, Mast thought the NASCAR scales might be slightly out of adjustment.
``You try and fudge as much as you can, and if you go across a set of scales that might be inclined differently, it makes everybody show more camber,'' he said.
LaJoie's car owner, Bill Davis, said he didn't understand the problem suddenly cropping up Friday.
``It was the same rear end housing that was in the car and was just fine at Richmond,'' he said. ``We'll have to go in the second round and hope nothing goes wrong.'' by CNB